‘The Irishman’ First Trailer: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci Unite in Martin Scorsese’s Gangster Epic
“I heard you paint houses.”
The most innocent-sounding line in the first trailer for Martin Scorsese‘s new true crime gangster movie The Irishman is when Al Pacino‘s Jimmy Hoffa says to Robert De Niro‘s Frank Sheeran, “I heard you paint houses.”
In reality that line wasn’t innocent at all. That was the title of the book upon which the movie is based, and it’s mob code for “I hear you’re an assassin.”
Via digital de-aging, De Niro is playing the very real Sheeran across different stages of his life, including when he allegedly participated in Hoffa’s legendary disappearance on July 30, 1975.
Here are more details from the Netflix synopsis for the film:
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s THE IRISHMAN, an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th Century.
Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
What’s fascinating–at least in the trailer–are little hints that Sheeran was connected to more than just eliminating Jimmy Hoffa, whom he first met, as seen in the trailer, through mob boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci).
Sheeran did in fact imply he had inside knowledge about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, claiming it was a Mafia hit at the behest of Hoffa, who was being harassed by President Kennedy’s brother Robert, who was JFK’s Attorney General.
We’ll find out just how much Scorsese bought into that claim as well when The Irishman, (which also stars Anna Paquin), hits selected theaters and Netflix in fall 2019.
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