In The Irishman, the phrase “I heard you paint houses” is used, but its meaning may not be as direct as some would expect it to be. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the Netflix film chronicles the life and times of Frank Sheeran, a former Teamsters official who admitted to various crimes shortly before his 2003 death at age 83. Sheeran’s confessions are detailed in Charles Brandt’s 2004 book I Heard You Paint Houses, which is repeated in the movie as a phrase.
In The Irishman, Robert De Niro stars as Sheeran. The storyline follows his immersion into a criminal world after meeting Philadelphia crime boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci). Once Sheeran earns some trust, he’s assigned to assist Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), the famous Teamsters’ leader who had strong ties to organized crime and gained the attention of U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. The Irishman explores the events that led to Hoffa’s 1975 disappearance, all from the perspective of the film’s unreliable narrator, Sheeran.
The phrase “I heard you paint houses” is code language for “I heard you’re a contract killer.” In Brandt’s book (and Scorsese's film), these are the first words spoken from Hoffa to Sheeran during an introductory telephone call. In response, Sheeran states that “I also do my own carpentry,” which means that he gets rid of the bodies. This concept is the primary source of conflict in The Irishman, as Sheeran originally befriends Hoffa but ultimately admits to painting the walls of a Detroit home with the color red.
For clarity, Scorsese immediately addresses his source material in The Irishman. The film begins with an elderly Sheeran providing voiceover narration, and building towards the revelation about the exact moment when he “started painting houses” by himself. To visually acknowledge the source material, Scorsese breaks up "I Heard You Paint Houses" into separate full screen graphics, a technique that may confuse viewers who aren't familiar with the backstory. In real life, Sheeran served during the United States' Italian campaign during World War II, and later claimed that he was part of execution squads, most notably at the Dachau Concentration Camp - revenge for what U.S. troops discovered upon their arrival: the systematic killing of Jews. The Irishman uses flashback sequences to imply that Sheeran did indeed murder German soldiers before transitioning to a life of crime in the United States.
Over the years, Sheeran’s revelations have been heavily scrutinized by investigate journalists, most notably the claims that he personally murdered not only Hoffa, but also the the high-profile New York City gangster Joey Gallo. As with Scorsese’s first 2019 Netflix film Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, The Irishman is part truth, part fiction; a fantastical blend of historical figures and unverified accounts about what actually happened when Hoffa’s conflict with the mob escalated.