By JASON GUYER
What makes a film a masterpiece?
Questions like this deserve to be asked, especially when a film is preordained to be a masterpiece. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” is this type of film.
“The Irishman” has been hailed as another masterpiece from Scorsese by many even before it was ever released to the public and seen by the masses and that makes the assessment premature.
There are different ways to assess or define a film as a masterpiece. Roger Ebert thinks films that teach lessons and create empathy within the audience are considered masterpieces. To be more specific, Roger Ebert is quoted as saying: “Of all the arts, movies are the most powerful aid to empathy, and good ones make us into better people.”
Others like Jesse Wolfe, a film professor at SCAD, say a masterpieces is “a moment in time and emotion that sticks in the hearts and minds of the culture.”
“The Irishman” meets both of these standards.
Scorsese’s “The Irishman” mainly takes place in the 1950s but follows the course of a mobsters life by the end of the film. The film tags along with truck driver Frank Sheeran as he gets involved with Russell Bufalino and Bufalino’s Pennsylvania crime family. Sheeran quickly climbs the ranks and becomes the family’s top hit man.
When Sheeran goes to work for Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful Teamster tied to organized crime, the events lead to the inevitable disappearance of Hoffa. Hoffa’s disappearance is one of the most famous disappearances in history and while it is not fully known what happened.
“The Irishman” is based on the 2004 book “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt. “I Heard You Paint Houses” by former homicide prosecutor, investigator and defense attorney Charles Brandt is a work of narrative nonfiction, although some events in it have been publicly disputed.
The most notable dispute is with the book and now the film’s version of events regarding the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. The Jimmy Hoffa disappearance, however it happened, makes for both a good book and film.
“The Irishman” is no doubt a good to even great film. The film’s greatness is directly related to the films great casting of lead actors.
In the role of Frank Sheeran is the always great Robert De Niro. De Niro and Scorsese have worked before and on Mob related films before. The masterpiece that is “Goodfellas” pairs the two in the same mob-style world; but De Niro and Scorsese have paired up together for nearly every great film Scorsese has done. For instance, they pair in “King of Comedy,” “Raging Bull,” “Taxi Driver” and “Cape Fear.” It is almost needless to say but De Niro and Scorsese know each other and work well with each other.
In “The Irishman” De Niro has shades of “Goodfellas” but everything in and about “Goodfellas” is better than “The Irishman.”
This goes for De Niro too.
De Niro in “The Irishman” just seems like a suppressed De Niro. The youthful fire he had in films like “Goodfellas” or “Raging Bull” has been lessened by age. He is now 76 years old and this shows in “The Irishman.” De Niro is not the only one affected by age, as all the actors in “The Irishman” are older.
Joe Pesci, who plays Russell Bufalino, is also 76 and Al Pacino, who plays Jimmy Hoffa, is 79.
They each bring unique things to their respective characters but they each seem a subdued version of themselves.
The biggest form this can be seen in is the de-aging process. The visual effects for “The Irishman” were done by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). ILM knocks the de-aging process out of the park in a lot of ways. The problem with de-aging and heavy CGI is that it can still look computer generated. The film “Gemini Man” that came out a few months ago had a de-aged Will Smith and he looked computer generated. Now to be fair, “Gemini Man” had the best CGI and De-aged character at the time. But in “The Irishman” Scorsese almost perfects it.
“The Irishman” does so because of the kind of director Scorsese is and he wanted his actors to still be able to act. He wanted computers involved with actors as little as possible. This took out the industry standard options. No Green screen. No motion capture dots on the actors faces. Nothing in, on, or around the actors. ILM developed a camera rig that gave Scorsese a director’s style rig with a camera and two Alexa Mini cameras outfitted to shoot infrared images. The Alexa Min’s captured all the volumetric information normally picked up by those dots.
ILM also developed a software called Flux to combine all that infrared information with the images from the main camera. An artificial intelligence system was also developed by ILM. One that would take any frame they made and search the full image library of all the actors to give them reference images. These reference images would be of what the actor should look allowing the team to check their work.
All this lead to the greatest use of de-aging in cinema history.
It also causes two things to happen to the film.
The de-aging causes older actors to play younger actors and as is stated above gives somewhat subdued performances as their younger selves. Subdued in energy not in acting because you get 20 year olds who seem to have the gait and posture of a 70 year old. This is subtle but noticeable and while most maybe all viewers should be able to get past it, it is there in “The Irishman.”
The other thing the de-aging process causes is that it is the reason “The Irishman” is a masterpiece. The de-aging process allows “The Irishman” to span an entire life with one actor playing the same role.
This is a cinematic accomplishment.
The biggest downside of the accomplishment is that an in depth story like the one told in “The Irishman” comes with a long run-time. The bright side is that this film is on Netflix so you can watch it in pieces if necessary. This benefits the audience I think and the audience is important to whether a film is a masterpiece or not. The biggest piece in some regards.
“The Irishman” hits both marks of Roger Ebert and Jesse Wolfe as a masterpiece but the audience should be included. The opinion of 1,000 critics calling “The Irishman” a masterpiece before the masses got to see it can only mean so much.
The missing piece to masterpieces is often the audience. “The Irishman” is a masterpiece on all the technical marks. Scorsese’s directing is flawless. De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci’s acting is as good as any of their other performances if not better with their ages. It is wonderful seeing Joe Pesci act again and we should enjoy it because for Pesci it is most likely his last performance.
The de-aging and visual effects are cutting edge and the best technical part of “The Irishman.” The art of “The Irishman” and the technical achievement was never going to be why it would fail or not be seen as a masterpiece. The reason why “The Irishman” may not be a masterpiece is and always was going to be the audience and how they feel about it. The difference between normal art and masterpieces of art is the audience.
Vincent van Gogh is considered a master because his work is great but also because it is widely known and loved.
The duct-taped banana in the news these past weeks may have sold for a large sum of money and may be called art but I can assure that so called “art” is universally mocked not loved by the audience at large.
Ultimately, this is what will define “The Irishman.” “The Irishman” is already a technical masterpiece and was always going to be with the caliber of people creating it. Personally, the de-aging and all the possibilities and technical ability that comes with it makes it a masterpiece for me.
However, the audience at large as not had its full say. I urge all to take the time to watch “The Irishman” on Netflix. Netflix is pushing for an Oscar for “The Irishman” so I would like to know where “The Irishman” stands.
Did Scorsese create a true masterpiece with “The Irishman” and is “The Irishman” Vincent van Gogh or…?
Is the long-winded ode to mobsters called “The Irishman” just a duct-taped banana?
IRATE SCORE: 4/5
Jason Guyer is an avid moviegoer and works in the graphics department at the Eagle Times. For questions or comments he can be emailed at [email protected].
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