NEW YORK (AP) — Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” premiered Friday at the New York Film Festival, finally raising the curtain on the director’s long-awaited 209-minute crime drama.
Although the film’s genre and cast, including Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci, have led some to expect it to be a gangster thriller in the style of “GoodFellas” or “Casino,” “The Irishman” is a more thoughtful, less showy meditation on morality, violence and American power. Through rejuvenating visual effects, the performances of De Niro, Pesci and Al Pacino span decades.
“The Irishman” was screened for press on Friday morning before its red carpet premiere that evening at the New York Film Festival’s opening gala. The film’s debut was an event like no other on the film calendar, and it was greeted with rare cheers at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Reviews were largely laudatory.
Variety called it “a cold-blooded, riveting triumph” and “a majestic, menacing, breathtaking summation.” The Hollywood Reporter called the film’s length a weakness, but still praised it as “a sprawling gangster saga that is by turns rock-hard, amusing and highly nostalgic.” The New York Times called it “a gift for cinephiles … but also a grim admission of limitations.”
The film is also one of Netflix’s biggest investments to date. The streaming company spent $159 million to make “The Irishman” after other studios turned it down. Scorsese said in a Q&A with cast and producers that Netflix was the only company willing to finance the film.
“We couldn’t get support for years,” Scorsese said. “It’s a costly experiment, but (Netflix Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos) and everyone at Netflix said, ‘We’re going to do it.'”
Scorsese called his film “an interesting hybrid” that is designed for both theater and home viewing. It will be released in theaters on November 1 and available for streaming on November 27.
“We’re all in a time of extraordinary change right now,” Scorsese said. “But ultimately I felt – and Bob (De Niro) did – that we had to make the film for ourselves.”
“The Irishman” is based on Charles Brandt’s book “I Heard You Paint Houses” and has been in development, with interruptions, for more than a decade. De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, a mafia hitman and high-ranking Teamsters official. Shortly before his death, he confessed to the murder of Jimmy Hoffa (played by Pacino). Pesci plays mafia boss Russell Bufalino.
“The Irishman” is a look back at Sheeran’s long life as a criminal. But while “GoodFellas” was glamorous, “The Irishman” is sober.
This is a big statement for the 76-year-old director. Scorsese and his producers provided some impressive figures on the scope of the film: 108 days of shooting, 117 locations, 309 scenes.
The ambitious size of The Irishman is part of what turned off other studios, along with the expensive rejuvenation process that made De Niro, Pesci and Pacino appear years younger in significant portions of the film. Nine cameras were used to film these scenes.
Scorsese first did a test shoot and compared his digitally altered De Niro to the De Niro from “GoodFellas.” Seeing himself rejuvenated, the 76-year-old actor joked that he could extend his career by another 30 years.
Scorsese described the intense effects process as more than just rejuvenating their faces.
“It’s not just about noses and computer images, it’s about posture, it’s about movement, it’s about clouding the eyes,” Scorsese said, noting that this meant giving De Niro instructions, such as reminding him to get up from a chair “as if he were 49.”
For many, the biggest excitement about The Irishman is that Scorsese and De Niro are back together for the first time since 1995’s Casino. Pesci has only acted in a handful of films in the two decades since Lethal Weapon 4. And while many assume they’ve made numerous films together, this is Scorsese’s first film with Pacino.
“Finally,” said the director.
___
Follow AP film writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
