Independent Film History Institute

While ‘The Irishman’ resembles Miloš Forman’s 1984 masterpiece ‘Amadeus’ in every way from start to finish, Scorsese’s film is unique on its own and deviates a little from Amadeus, i am not going to go in detail of what makes both films similar, if you know you know, it’s what it is. Cinema is a chain of copycats, Even Amadeus takes a little from Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon.

Studying everything about the Italian mafia and in the U.S, Cosa nostra (not the same), came to realize how brilliant and powerful ‘The Irishman’ is, If you don’t know who Albert Anastasia was, then you missed my favorite part of the first hour in the film (Take a moment and google him, then now i made my point if you don’t really know who he is/was), that’s how different we are, that’s how much you Critics, fellow cinephiles and moviegoers are different from me, you are down there compared to my understanding of this film, critics probably had to research who was killed at that barber shop after watching the film (or they totally missed it or cared less to know), that’s the difference between critics and film historians; Film historians just not watch a film frame by frame, we know what everything means and beyond, film critics (in that particular scene) just love the fact that they “whacked” somebody and that they talk a lil between the lines about the killing but that’s it, critics’ minds work that way; They care about the looks, the fails, the good and the bad but care less to know everything else.

I am sure that critics and cinephiles (not the same thing) hail Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas as one of the greatest crime films of all time, they are not mistaken, but all of them ignore or don’t want to say that Scorsese himself did something as brilliant as ‘Goodfellas’ and that something is his own film ‘mean streets’; Same camera movement and style. While ‘The Godfather’ was more of a top of the hill-high-end representation of the Cosa nostra, ‘Mean streets’ portrayed the real battle on the streets, kinda like ‘Goodfellas’ decades later, ‘Mean streets’ was unique, it showed how the cosa nostra really worked, i think Coppola went all the way out with the secrecy behind the high ranked capos, sub bosses and Dons’ lives, ‘Mean streets’ could be taken as a side story of ‘The Godfather’; the stories of the soldiers under those high hierarchy that is being under someone else. you can watch Coppola’s film first and then ‘Mean streets’ or vice versa.

The crime genre is very extensive, the sub-genre called ‘Gangster’ or ‘Mobster’ embarks hundreds of films but just two films are the pinnacle of that specific sub-genre: The Godfather and Goodfellas. With the release in 2019 of the instant classic ‘The Irishman’, the pair of masterworks are not alone, in my opinion, ‘The Irishman’ completes the trilogy (Not excluding ‘The Godfather part 2’) is everything we didn’t know of the cosa nostra that was not shown in previous films, for example, what are those rings the Dons wear and that their capos/soldiers/under bosses kiss during their secret reunions? (Which is explained during a brilliant scene), Also the questions about how powerful the Cosa nostra AKA the mafia really is?, wich let’s be honest, IT IS NOT TOTALLY SHOWN AT ALL IN ‘The Godfather’, all we see are wars between the families and killing plots between them and the killing of minor powers in the united states (Studio mogul finds the head of a horse in his bed) on the other hand, in ‘The Irishman’ they talk about the Kennedy assassination (I am a cinema historian, i need to watch a film once to catch the reference, it happens during the ‘It is what it is’ scene between Pesci and Deniro, Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, bufalino was made Boss in 1959 wich just puts the commentary in that particular scene as referring to the assassination of JFK, that meeting scene between Pesci and Deniro is set during the early 1970’s, years later after the assassination).

‘The Irishman’ 10 years from now, will be as remembered as it was ‘Goodfellas’ during the end of the 20th century, no other film in the genre, not even ‘The Godfather’ shows the immense power of the Mafia as Scorsese’s 2019 masterpiece, it’s scary, it feels like real life, it feels like if you are in a position as an audience you shouldn’t be, ‘The Godfather’ kinda gives that same vibe, that feeling of belonging in the family, ‘The Irishman’ feels like you don’t really have an idea how Cosa Nostra works. i realized a long time ago that the Mafia was more powerful than the government, they controlled the elections and wanted to kill Castro (which are not conspiracy theories, the evidence is out there), i thought i knew about how the Mafia worked but i had no idea, that’s why i never tend just to stick with what I watch, i research the subject the film was based on, that way i know more than anybody.

‘The Irishman’ is the new standard, the next film that future filmmakers will look after.