The son of a man depicted in The Irishman calls the movie fake. Based on the 2004 true crime exposé I Heard You Paint Houses, Martin Scorsese’s big screen adaptation explores the relationship between real-life American mobsters and politicians. The Irishman released in November 2019.
The Irishman was inspired by the confessions of Frank Sheeran, an alleged hitman who took responsibility for murdering Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa and notorious gangster Joey Gallo. Scorsese’s 209-minute film pieces together the events that presumably led to Hoffa’s infamous 1975 disappearance, and how Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) formed business relationships with Philadelphia mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) and Hoffa (Al Pacino). In real life, the murders of Hoffa and Gallo are officially unsolved, which means that The Irishman isn’t quite a factual account of historical events, but rather a dramatic interpretation based on Sheeran’s recollections and claims.
Per The New York Times, the real-life stepson of The Irishman’s Chuckie O’Brien (Jesse Plemons) has labeled Scorsese’s film as “high fiction” and “fake.” In the essay “How ‘The Irishman’ Maligns My Stepfather,” Jack Goldsmith defends his 86-year-old stepfather who, in The Irishman, inadvertently becomes an accomplice in Hoffa’s murder. In Scorsese’s version of events, O’Brien is portrayed as Hoffa's loyal yet aloof foster son, in contrast to Sheeran who’s depicted as a trusted and well-informed friend. According to Goldsmith, the real O’Brien expected to be narratively connected to Hoffa’s murder, but didn’t anticipate that Scorsese would "appropriate his close relationship with Hoffa… and give it to Mr. Sheeran for all the world to see and believe." O’Brien reportedly described The Irishman as “one of the greatest fake movies I ever saw.” Goldsmith is the author of In Hoffa’s Shadow: A Stepfather, a Disappearance in Detroit, and My Search for the Truth, and states that 44 years of inaccurate reporting has been “devastating” for O’Brien.
The Irishman controversy extends to female characters as well. After the film’s theatrical premiere and Netflix release, some viewers pointed out the lack of dialogue for Peggy Sheeran, portrayed by Lucy Gallina and Anna Paquin. But just as Quentin Tarantino attributed Margot Robbie’s minimal dialogue in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to a character motif, Scorsese and Paquin have similarly implied that Peggy’s near-silence throughout the film is indeed the point. Still, it’s one of many controversies associated with The Irishman.
Despite the strong response from O’Brien and Goldsmith, the fact remains that Scorsese’s The Irishman is a fictional Netflix film based on real events. Just as Scorsese movies like Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street are stylized reinterpretations of infamous crime stories, The Irishman similarly shouldn’t be taken at face value given the "unreliable narrator" premise. But O’Brien does indeed deserve to tell his side of the story, especially since he doesn’t receive a flattering portrayal in The Irishman.
Source: The New York Times