(Originally published in Beiqing Art Review)
East Coast Black Gold Past
Almost while Quentin Tarantino recalled a piece of "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" in a joking and even fabricated way, Martin Scorsese used a dying old man to tell a story to reproduce a passage about the changes in the underworld and the more lamentable aging. "Black Gold Past".
Although the long list of deaths in "The Irishman" are all real names engraved on real tombstones, they are victims of the crime of painting the walls with blood, but who can be sure of Frank Sheila who "confessed" to the original author , Will it be the boasting dying dementia elderly? Will it be Quentin who is another fictional historical theater deep in his heart. In any case, the stories he told have created the gang memoir "I heard you cleaned the house" and the 3 and a half hour Netflix movie "The Irishman". Inadvertently, it led to the gathering of the most outstanding old actors such as Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Persie, and Harvey Keitel.
Politicians, labor unions, casinos, and mafia are closely linked by movie stories. Since regular banks did not extend loans to the gambling industry, the gangs had to borrow money from the pensions of the Drivers' General Union, and the construction of Las Vegas began in the 1950s. In an attempt to retaliate against Castro, who wiped out horse racing and casinos across the island, the gang also voted for John F. Kennedy and won the presidential election. At the same time, the union chairman Jimmy Hoffa, who was in his early days, became the second Chicagoan since Al Capone to be targeted by the national FBI, and was pressed for investigation by Robert Kennedy, the attorney general. So that after the president was assassinated, Jimmy rebelled against the sentiments of the masses and made the building he was in refused to fly at half-mast. The disappearance of Jimmy without a trace also became the big news of that era.
There is a golden sentence in the movie, "A little worry is very worried. More than a little worry, it is hopeless." Gradually, we discovered that every character and every real news figure is more than a little worried, worried about the future, worried about the industry. , Worrying about the lives of myself and my family.
However, the world is always changing, and not always with the wishes of gangs, trade unions, and politicians. The Casino Legend Hotel Dune, built by Jimmy loan and operated by the Chicago gang, was bought by gambling king Steve Wayne, washed white, and upgraded to the current Bellagio Hotel. Castro was not overthrown by Kennedy, and his emerging regime stabilized in Cuba. At the end of the movie's story, Serbia's Milosevic regime was bombed by Clinton. As for the gangsters in the story, they are also getting old, walking into the tomb one by one, and the rest are half-stuck.
Memory maze of confusion of tense
Frank, who tells the story in reality, came naturally to the film under his original name as the protagonist of the nickname "The Irishman". At the beginning of the 21st century, sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home, he trembled and led the audience into memories. "When I was young, I thought painters were painting houses. I used to be a worker, a representative of the International Brotherhood of Truckers in South Philadelphia, and later painted the house myself." Martin Scorsese was straightforward through the lens of shooting and splashing blood on the walls. Explained the idiom "washing the house".
Since then, the movie has been interspersed with a length of three and a half hours in 1950, 1975, and the beginning of the 21st century, and flashed back to the history and destiny of the main and supporting actors in more short lengths. And black and white news material. However, compared with the complex underworld lingo and the calculation of the whole film, thanks to the superb makeup and CGI technology, the juxtaposition of so many tense narratives will not stop the audience in the maze of time. "Poor Streets", "Good Guys", "Lady from Casino", "New York Gangs", Martin has long used gangster movies and his partner combination with Robert De Niro to forge himself into something that convinces and expects the audience The story king.
A 3-day road trip from Philadelphia to Detroit in 1975 was the main storyline of the whole film. Frank, the old truck driver, took his wife and Russell Buffalino to attend the wedding of the union lawyer Bill's daughter. Through the voice-over, we learn that Bill is Russell’s younger brother. Passing through the Texoco supermarket where Frank and Russell met many years ago, we entered the 1950 protagonist's "top story"-Philadelphia mafia boss Russell led the veteran of World War II Frank into the family business and became a member of the truckers' union The most ruthless and calm "painter". Robert De Niro and Joe Pessi played against each other in the car and in the shop where the accounts were collected by the way, turning this gangster memoir into a road movie commemorating the bloody history of the union.
And recommending Frank to be the bodyguard of Jimmy Hoffa, chairman of the National Trucking Union, opened up another friendship that engulfed family emotions. Since this part is a game between De Niro and Al Pacino, the audience will more or less sublimate the friendship between the two to an immortal state, almost forgetting that the Irishman, Frank, killed someone on the Italian battlefield. Such a professional soldier, in the peaceful age, will surely be a gangster painter who has doubts for a while or will not recognize his relatives.
Photographer Rodrigo Prieto's panning shots like a clockwork followed Frank to create a tribute (or taunt) the classic scene of Mike Corleone's first murder in "The Godfather". The unbelievable lunatic Joe and his family went to New York’s Little Italy for dinner. The voice-over told Frank’s inner activities, “To do this, you usually have to go to the toilet first to make sure that no one sees you inside, so you can’t hold back and make yourself uncomfortable. . But I’ve been there before I go out, and even for such a small restaurant, it’s better to do it directly.”
Facing death, the painter who chooses his own coffin
Sitting in a wheelchair in his later years and hearing the news of his lawyer's death, Robert's first reaction was "Who did it?", it can be said that the painter's occupational disease has fallen.
"Cancer. Everyone around you is dead. It's time to tell the truth." The FBI agent across from the wheelchair just wanted to leave a file on the history of the union gang.
After using the bloody shooting as a whitewashing of the walls, and using a large number of subtitles to understate the different unfavorable deaths of the real supporting characters, old Martin seemed to finally show his fear of death and humility to life. Unlike the atmosphere of killing people in most of the movie, which is like a game, the last third part strongly expresses everyone's fear of danger through excellent audiovisual language. Jimmy’s wife was dismissed by the newly appointed chairman of the trade union, and when she went out and drove halfway through the key twist, the jazz music that was originally easy to accompany came to an abrupt end. She thought of the messages that the enemy and us used to pass on each other with explosives. After getting out of the way, and then turning the key half a circle, jazz returns. At the end of the road journey, dealing with Jimmy's most critical scene, the gangster skills such as dead fish and front and rear seats, made the omniscient audience who already had the vision of God still sweating the fate and decision of the protagonist.
The old Frank went to the coffin shop to choose goods for himself, and the parallel editing of Jimmy's cremation process, seemed to be borrowing from De Niro to express old Martin's attitude towards death, "If you don't want cremation, then there will be nothing. "
Unlike in "The Godfather 1-2", Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro have to perform separate performances to reflect the youth and old age of Godfather Church Creon, with the help of "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" In the beginning of the CGI age reduction technology, De Niro in "The Irishman" can almost interpret the state of adults of all ages, and even in the story, when he met the gang boss Russell in the early 1950s, he was replaced as a "young man". But we all know that De Niro is 75 years old, and even a young man who has been downgraded by film technology can't make such a sharp fist in "Angry Bull".
Looking back further, the last time De Niro and Pacino made the audience remember the movie "Stealing Fire" 24 years ago, and the most classic "Godfather 2" of the two people's collaboration, it is even closer. Half a century ago. We can't help but sigh with emotion. Time takes away the story of time and changes two people. Middle-aged actors Stephen Graham and Bobby Cannaval, also reunited in "The Irishman" after the HBO series "Atlantic Empire". They changed from Al Capone and Jeep on TV to movies. Short and thin. However, at the moment when movies are not the only means of entertainment, no matter how good their performances are, they will never be able to take over the class of the predecessors.
Therefore, "The Irishman" is more like a farewell party created by Martin himself. At the end of the movie, Frank in the wheelchair under the lamp confessed softly, "Father, do me a favor, don't close the door, just leave a seam."
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