Even before fans saw a single image or frame of footage from “The Irishman,” everyone was excited to see what filmmaker Martin Scorsese had planned. The promise of a new crime drama starring previous collaborators such as Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino was already enough to make film fans put “The Irishman” at the top of their 2019 must-see lists. However, according to someone involved in the film, audiences may not get exactly what they anticipate with the upcoming film.
Speaking to Deadline, producer Jane Rosenthal explained that folks expecting another “Casino” or “Goodfellas” are going to be a bit disappointed by “The Irishman,” as the film has completely different thematic intentions.
“I’m excited for the world to get to see it,” Rosenthal said. “What will surprise you is, as a Scorsese movie, it is a slower movie. It doesn’t have the kind of intensity, the visual intensity, as a ‘Casino,’ as a ‘Goodfellas.’ It is guys looking at themselves through an older perspective.”
She added, “What you do look at with something like ‘The Irishman’ is the toxic masculinity and what happens when someone chooses one family over their own nuclear family, and then tries to make repairs at the end of their lives. What happens to particularly men who make that decision.”
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With actors like De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci attached to the film, it’s obvious that fans are going to want to see a Scorsese film that is more in line with the classics of his career, such as the two that Rosenthal named above. However, as she explained, what we might be getting instead is a more introspective film, which may or may not be of interest to those fans hoping for just a typical crime drama.
We’ll have to wait and see how people react when the first reviews of “The Irishman” comes after its debut at the New York Film Festival. Of course, if you’re not able to see the film at that time, “The Irishman” will have a short run in theaters beginning on November 1 before arriving on Netflix on November 27.