I think just about everyone has heard of this movie by now, it’s a biopic starring some of the biggest names synonymous with classic mafia movies. This was recommended to me by a close friend, but I was planning on watching it anyway. When I saw how long this movie is, 3 and a half hours, I was a little hesitant. Then I remembered who directed it and all the actors in it that I love and decided it was most likely worth watching every second.
The movie starts off with a very aged Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran sitting in a nursing home speaking to us, and that’s how the movie’s events are presented to us. I like that they went with a narrative approach, especially since all of this is based on true events. Frank was a hitman for the Bufalino crime family in the 50s and became involved as a teamster with Jimmy Hoffa later on. The movie explores the relationships between the crime syndicate, the Kennedy’s, the CIA, and other major events from that era. The bulk of the plot is centered around the relationship between Frank and Jimmy and Frank’s attempts to keep the peace between them and the Bufalino family. It follows the typical outline of most mafia movies, a rise to power, what it takes to maintain that power, and then the inevitable fall.
While this movie wasn’t quite what I was expecting, it has some great dialogue and keeps your interest, even if you already know how all these events unfold. There’s an early scene where Frank is first being introduced to Russel Bufalino in a restaurant and you can hear a rendition of the theme song from The Godfather, “Speak Softly, Love”. While it’s not extremely subtle, I loved it and it got me excited for the rest of the movie. Since the main character isn’t someone who makes decisions in the Bufalino family, we see everything from his perspective, some killings and aftermath of events, but none of the orchestrating that makes usual main characters of mafia movies seem bigger than life. We just see glimpses and hear about things secondhand, which makes since considering who the movie follows.
Overall, I liked the movie a lot. The classic mafia movie buff in me wished there were more epic buildup scenes to assassinations with crescendoing Italian music playing in the background, but that’s just me. You can feel Frank’s struggle with guilt over killing a close friend of his, someone he considered a mentor and had a lot of respect for. All of the acting is superb, but that’s expected with this cast list. I also really enjoyed the ending, we see an old and fragile Frank sitting in a nursing home room alone, all but forgotten. Even though he lived so large and was feared by man, at the end of the day, people’s bodies decay and you become just another old person waiting to die.
I give it an 8/10. (Word count: 500 words)
Baphomet's Theatre 