The gangster movie reunion that has been decades in the making just got a little more exciting. The Irishman trailer has landed, and the film has been making headlines since it was announced. Why? It marks a return to the mafia milieu for director Martin Scorsese and also finds a few of his regular cohorts joining him for what appears to be one hell of a ride.
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel lead an ensemble that also features Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Jack Huston, Stephen Graham, Katherine Narducci, Paul Herman, Gary Basaraba, Marin Ireland and one of the most promising of young actors working today, Jesse Plemons (Game Night).
The story, which we learn a little more about in the above trailer, follows the titular character, hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (De Niro). Pacino portrays notorious union leader Jimmy Hoffa and what truly grabs my attention with this latest The Irishman trailer is how it paints a picture of organized crimes’ involvement in getting John F. Kennedy elected and certain raises some questions about their potential involvement in his assassination at the most, and their knowledge of it at the least.
Sure, some of my fellow film sites might go after the de-aging tech that ramped up the cost of The Irishman. But, let’s be real, Scorsese is all about authenticity and it was a much better idea to de-age his stars for a multi-decade chronicle of organized crime in America than to hire actors who everyone knows cannot hold a candle to the “older” versions these poor saps would have been tasked with portraying. Like, who could (or would) play the younger version of De Niro, Pacino, Pesci and Keitel. Please, give me a break.
Netflix put out the trailer and is airing the movie on the streaming service on November 27. It will have a run in theaters (limited) on November 1—thus helping its chances for Oscar glory. For what it’s worth, Scorsese’s Goodfellas has routinely been in discussions by those of us in the industry as one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history when it lost Best Picture to Dances with Wolves. It would be nice of the Academy made up for that mistake with The Irishman. Just sayin…