Shuvrajit Das Biswas
The maestro, Martin Scorsese, is back! His much-anticipated film, ‘The Irishman’, finally has a trailer. The gangster epic is yet another chance for the director to showcase the American culture through the lens of crime, and it comes at an opportune moment when we are learning the lesson that anyone who hopes to change the system finds themselves cast aside.
‘The Irishman’ is based on Charles Brandt’s novel “I Heard You Paint Houses” and marks the first time Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are working together in a Scorsese directed gangster movie. We get a look at Frank Sheeran (De Niro), a World War II veteran, who later becomes a hitman for the mob, and is said to have played a role in the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino), the union boss with ties to the mob, thus altering the course of American history. It follows Sheeran across decades. Joe Pesci appears in the role of Russell Bufalino, the Pennsylvania mob boss, who according to Sheeran, ordered the hit on Hoffa. We are given a glance of Sheeran’s ruthlessness, Hoffa’s desire to stand out and make it on his own, and a telephonic conversation between the two, which plays at the background of a montage of images that Scorsese uses to make a commentary on how America was at that time. The film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime, including its inner workings, rivalries, and connections to mainstream politics.
The supporting actors in the movie are Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, and Ray Romano, and Scorsese’s first trailer of ‘The Irishman’ gives us a look at all the major players. What immediately stands out in the trailer is how it focuses on the juicy story and the relationships among the characters to drive home the point of the movie. At the very end, it gives us a glimpse at a de-aged De Niro. Now, this is a masterful play on Scorsese’s part, because he draws our attention away from the de-aging technology that has caused quite some waves in the case of ‘The Irishman’. Instead, Scorsese seems to be telling us that this movie stands on the merit of the story, and the acting legends on board.
‘The Irishman’ is set to open at the New York Film Festival and will get a theatrical release in the fall by Netflix before it moves to the streaming service. Naturally, Netflix is hoping that Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ will become a major player in the awards season, much like Alfonso Cuaron’s ‘Roma‘ was the last time.
You can watch the trailer of ‘The Irishman’ for yourself, below, and if you happen to love the past collaborations between De Niro and Scorsese for crime films like ‘Mean Streets‘, ‘Taxi Driver‘, ‘Casino‘ and ‘Goodfellas‘, then there is no reason that this trailer should not make you happy.
