Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman finally arrives to Netflix’s streaming service after oodles of hype stirred up by festival premieres, early reviews and a limited theatrical release. That’s a long way of saying that most of us can FINALLY watch a masterpiece of classical moviemaking, a gangster epic that instantly stands among the best of its genre, the year and maybe the decade. It’s what it is: the greats taking a twilight victory lap together, likely for the last time.
With more than 60 years under its narrative belt, The Irishman was a passion project. Years of gestating development saw the project change hands a number of times. Who wants to see a Scorsese all-star epic in this day and age?
Paramount were said to be taking the lead for some time, but as the ‘youthification’ ballooned the budget, they bowed out. Fortunately, the bottomless pockets arrived – Netflix picked it up, giving it a limited theatrical release before letting it loose on the streaming platform.
Back in the 1950s, Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) was ‘more famous than Elvis, bigger than The Beatles’. As the former Teamsters leader, he was the face of the working man, and his urgent calls of ‘solidarity’ ring eerily prescient in today’s political climate.
