The Irishman is the ninth feature collaboration between De Niro and Scorsese and their first since 1995's Casino; the fourth film to star both De Niro and Pacino (following The Godfather Part II, Heat, and Righteous Kill); the seventh to star both De Niro and Pesci (following Raging Bull, Once Upon a Time in America, Goodfellas, A Bronx Tale, Casino, and The Good Shepherd); the first to star both Pacino and Pesci; and the first time Pacino has been directed by Scorsese. Scorsese said of finally working with Pacino, "I'd been wanting to work with Al for years. Francis Coppola introduced me to him in 1970. Then he's in The Godfather one and two, and he's in the stratosphere. For me, Al was always something unreachable. We even tried to make a film in the 1980s but couldn't get the financing for it. I said, 'What's he like to work with?' Bob [De Niro] said, 'Oh, he's great. You'll see.'" Scorsese added that there is a meta aspect to seeing Pacino and De Niro interact in The Irishman, saying, "What you see in the film is their relationship as actors, as friends, over the past 40, 45 years. There's something magical that happens there." [54] Filming [ edit ] All the same, Crombie didn't blame the critics, noting that grumpy critic for The Age Colin Bennett had given Caddie a negative review and it ran for eight months, and that media coverage in Sydney for The Irishman was excellent, with a lot of goodwill and mentions in all forms of media: Investors in the project were the federal government body,the AFC; the state goverment body, the SAFC (despite being shot in Queensland); a smaller amount from distributor GUO, and investments from NBN/TVW, CBN8/CWN6 and Radio 4IP Pederson, Erik (October 5, 2017). " 'The Irishman': Welker White Cast As Jimmy Hoffa's Wife In Martin Scorsese-Robert De Niro Pic". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on October 7, 2017 . Retrieved October 6, 2017. Bart, Peter (January 3, 2019). "Peter Bart: Gangster Movies Return In Big Way In 2019, Awakening Genre From Its Hollywood Dirt Nap". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019 . Retrieved January 4, 2019.

Whipp, Glenn (August 27, 2019). "Netflix embraces theatrical releases in quest for best picture Oscar. Will it be enough?". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 27, 2019 . Retrieved August 28, 2019. New video essay written and narrated by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman’s synthesis of Scorsese’s singular formal style Director Donald Crombie defined the target demographic this way in an interview for Cinema Papers in Oct/Nov 1978: Brueggemann, Tom (November 24, 2019). " 'Dark Waters' Leads Tepid Arthouse Openers at Crowded Box Office". IndieWire. Archived from the original on November 25, 2019 . Retrieved November 25, 2019. But week two produced a disaster on Sunday around 5.30 pm (the DVD commentary dates the goat and bike race party to two days before the shoot started):So it was only after the event of the film's release that director Crombie could come to the conclusion that the film was "probably five to ten minutes too long". Gangster’s Requiem, a new video essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman’s synthesis of Scorsese’s singular formal style Gray, Tim (January 23, 2020). " Irishman Producer on Mega-Production Schedule: 'It Was Pretty Insane' ". Variety. Archived from the original on January 24, 2020 . Retrieved January 25, 2020.

a b Del Toro, Guillermo (December 19, 2019). "Guillermo del Toro Pens Sweeping Tribute to Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman,' 'The Work of a Master' ". Variety. Archived from the original on December 19, 2019 . Retrieved December 19, 2019. In reality, Sheeran told his life story to author and former investigator Charles Brandt for the 2004 memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, which is the basis for the film’s screenplay by Steven Zaillian. (The book’s title is mob code for blood splattering the walls during a contract killing.) In The Irishman, which spans the mid-1940s to the early aughts, Sheeran is effectively chatting with the audience about his rise from a low-level hood to the right-hand man to labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), who he also claims to have killed in 1975. Yet the degree to which Sheeran is an unreliable narrator, perhaps even to himself, is always debatable in the film, and not just because the Hoffa case has never been officially closed. Scorsese’s choice, in many of these early scenes, to expensively and time-consumingly de-age his principal cast members with digital technology has the strange effect of making Sheeran’s recollections seem that much more like an idealized fantasy that cannot hold. The technical showboating—softening and erasing wrinkles, making flaccid skin seem taut—is subtle enough to not be mortifying, yet apparent enough that the CGI stitching tends to show, especially in brighter scenes. It also plays rather potently meta, since The Irishman gathers a murderer’s row of American acting elites—not only De Niro and Pacino, but Joe Pesci (as Sheeran’s mentor Russell Bufalino) and Harvey Keitel (as Philadelphia-based don Angelo Bruno)—three of whom Scorsese has worked with multiple times over his very long career. Sheeran is soon introduced to Jimmy Hoffa, head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who has financial ties with the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family. He is struggling to deal with fellow rising Teamster Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano, in addition to mounting pressure from the federal government. Hoffa becomes close with Sheeran and his family, especially his daughter Peggy; in turn Sheeran becomes his chief bodyguard. The Irishman also garnered acclaim from a number of filmmakers, many of whom listed the film as one of their favorites of 2019, including Ana Lily Amirpour, Olivier Assayas, Bong Joon-ho, Guillermo del Toro, Luca Guadagnino, Ciro Guerra, Bill Hader, Don Hertzfeldt, Alejandro Landes, Alex Ross Perry, Paul Schrader, Adam Wingard, and Quentin Tarantino, who ranked it as his favorite of the year. [141] [142] Legacy [ edit ]Keslassy, Elsa (September 20, 2019). "Martin Scorsese, Frances McDormand, Donald Sutherland Join Lineup of France's Lumiere Festival". Variety. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019 . Retrieved September 20, 2019. Shaw, Lucas (July 15, 2020). "These Are Netflix's 10 Most Popular Original Movies". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on July 15, 2020 . Retrieved July 15, 2020. The Irishman premiered at the 57th New York Film Festival, and had a limited theatrical release on November 1, 2019, followed by a streaming release on November 27, 2019, by Netflix. The film received widespread critical acclaim, with praise for Scorsese's direction, the production and costume design, editing, screenplay, cinematography, the use of de-aging effects, and the performances of De Niro, Pacino and Pesci. It was named the Best Film of 2019 by the National Board of Review and one of the top ten films of the year by American Film Institute. The film was nominated for ten categories at the 92nd Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and received numerous other accolades. The film was shot in 1.85:1 using Panavision cameras, with lots of camera movement and actor choreography, rather than rapid editing, which might help explain reviewer complaints about a leisurely pace. Crombie says he deliberately shot the landscapes wide in the John Ford style to create a sense of characters in space. Bell, Breanna (July 31, 2019). "Martin Scorsese's 'The Irishman' Trailer Teams Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci". Variety. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019 . Retrieved July 31, 2019.