There's a lot going on in The Irishman. Martin Scorsese's latest gangland epic
is a journey through six decades of organized crime in America.
While you may not pick up on everything on a first viewing, the world of The Irishman is full
of detail, making every visit intoxicating. All of those small references, callbacks,
and Easter eggs add up, giving the story depth and texture while bringing Frank Sheeran's wild,
unbelievable story to life. Here are just some of the small details hidden in the
world of The Irishman that help make the film so authentic and compelling.
The Irishman is a sprawling epic that spans multiple decades, but it all revolves around
a single moment: the death of Jimmy Hoffa at the hand of his best friend, Frank Sheeran.
And yet, Scorsese spoils the big climax in The Irishman's very first scene. Did you miss it? Go
back and watch the opening of the movie again. After the long tracking shot through Sheeran's
retirement home, it hones in on the aging hitman sitting in a wheelchair reflecting on his life.
"I was a working guy. A business agent for Teamster Local One-O-Seven out of South Philly.
One of a thousand working stiffs,
until I wasn't no more, and then I started painting houses myself."
Then, suddenly, there's a cut to a hand holding a gun. A shot rings out. A man
falls to the ground, dead. Look familiar? If you've already seen The Irishman, it should.
That's Sheeran shooting Jimmy Hoffa. You never see Al Pacino's face in the sequence,
but the clothing, the hair, and the location all match those seen during Hoffa's full execution,
which The Irishman shows in full about three hours later.
Martin Scorsese likes to work with the same stars over and over,
and sure enough, in The Irishman, you can see the likes of Robert De Niro,
Joe Pesci, and Harvey Kietel. But unless you were paying attention to the scenery,
you probably didn't notice the contribution from one of Scorsese's most frequent collaborators: The
United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, which has housed many of America's most notorious gangsters.
Lewisburg is where Jimmy Hoffa served his sentence for jury tampering, and where,
as depicted in the movie, he lost his temper — and his ice cream — during an argument with Tony Pro.
But he's far from the first Scorsese protagonist to spend time in the Pennsylvania prison.
In Goodfellas, Lewisburg is where Henry Hill spent his luxurious prison stay.
"When you think of prison, you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and
rows of guys behind bars. But it wasn't like that for wise guys. It really wasn't that bad."
Meanwhile, Whitey Bulger, who was the basis for Jack Nicholson's character in The Departed,
stayed at Lewisburg for two years in the '60s.
Bootlegger Enoch L. Johnson was sentenced to Lewisburg in 1941. He'd later go on to inspire
Steve Buscemi's Nucky Thompson on Boardwalk Empire, which Scorsese directed and produced.
If The Irishman proves anything, it's that Frank Sheeran loves to tell outrageous stories.
In fact, I Heard You Paint Houses, the book that The Irishman is based on, is so full of
tall tales that, even with The Irishman's extended runtime, there wasn't room to include all of them,
meaning that many of the more colorful moments of Sheeran's life ended up on the cutting room floor.
Still, Sheeran's wildest story — other than killing Jimmy Hoffa, of course — does get a
brief appearance in the film. Before he became an assassin, Sheeran claims that he made $100 by
boxing a kangaroo at a traveling carnival. Sadly, that scene isn't in The Irishman, but you can see
a photo of a man boxing a kangaroo hanging on the wall of Sheeran's office as a nod to the tale.
With Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci as leads, Martin Scorsese behind the camera, and a real-life crime
story as its base, it's almost impossible not to think of Goodfellas while watching The Irishman.
Given all that, it's not too surprising that there's a lot of overlap between the two movies.
For example, "Crazy" Joe Gallo gets namedropped in Goodfellas.
"It was a glorious time. The wise guys were all over the place. It
was before Appalachin and before Crazy Joe decided to take on a boss and start a war."
And Gallo then appears in full in The Irishman. But the biggest crossover between the two movies?
That would be the Clinton Diner, the Queens eatery that appears in both movies.
In Goodfellas, the Clinton is where De Niro's Jimmy Conway learns that Tommy DeVito is dead,
and where he later tries to lure Henry Hill to Florida, which convinces Hill that his life is in
danger. In The Irishman, it's where Sheeran meets with Whispers DiTullio about the job that puts
him on Angelo Bruno's radar, drawing him deeper into the criminal underworld. Just don't plan on
visiting the diner yourself. The location, which changed its name to The Goodfellas Diner after
its appearance in the movie, caught fire in 2018, right after production on The Irishman wrapped.
Al Pacino's Jimmy Hoffa has good reason to be paranoid. The government, embodied by crusading
Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, is out to put him in prison. Tony Pro is after his throne.
His relationship with the mob is shaky at best. He can't even trust his best friend.
As such, you can hardly blame him for sleeping with the door open. It's a habit that Frank
notices on the night of his first meeting with Hoffa, when they're sharing a suite at
Chicago's historic Edgewater hotel. As Sheeran describes, Hoffa doesn't want Frank registering
at the hotel under his own name. So, he sleeps on a rollaway bed in the suite's living area,
while Hoffa puts on his pajamas and slips into the bedroom, leaving his door ajar.
It's a small moment, but it pays off in a big way at the end of the movie. After Sheeran has
finished telling his story, he visits with a priest, looking for forgiveness from his sins.
"Uh, Father?"
"Yup?"
"Do me a favor."
"Don't shut the door all the way; I don't like that. Just… leave it open a little bit."
And that's how we last see Frank Sheeran: resting behind a door that's slightly ajar,
just like the friend he betrayed.
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