The Irishman

This Hollywood film by Martin Scorsese is about Jimmy Hoffa, the leader of the Teamsters Union in the USA. It is an interesting film about politics, trade unions and the mafia in the United States.

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The film alleges the election of John F Kennedy as president of the United States was rigged by the mafia to deliver Havana Casinos back to the mafia. This was after the revolution in Cuba which ousted the Dictator Batista and his criminal associates from the USA. When Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs invasion failed, the mafia had Hoffa killed.

Prior to Hoffa’s murder, Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, possibly a foil for the mafia. A gangster, Jack Ruby, then got rid of the evidence by killing Oswald. This is all speculation, of course.

But Scorsese’s film The Irishman is no stranger to speculation, either.

There certainly is a scene that depicts mafia involvement in the abortive Bay of Pigs. Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolutionary forces managed to repel this attempt at regime change by the US administration and the CIA. Another part shows hitman Frank Sheeran (played by Robert De Niro) driving a truck full of weapons to a group of military-looking-types and exiled Cubans as a favor for the mob. What are the weapons to be used for? The Bay of Pigs invasion.

The man Frank Sheeran is supposed to meet at the drop off point is E. Howard Hunt, a CIA operative who later worked for Nixon to break into the Democratic party’s headquarters.

Hunt was the mastermind behind WaterGate which led to Nixon resignation as US president (before he was impeached).

E Howard Hunt also broke into Daniel Ellsburg’s psychiatrist’s office to discredit the whistleblower who exposed war crimes by the US in Vietnam. Ellsburg released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War.

According to Scorsese’s film, John F. Kennedy’s father, Joe, was a bootlegger who paid money to the mafia to ‘stuff ‘ extra ballot papers into the vote and thereby to rort the election in his son’s favour. Does this sound like the Clinton’s?

The film says outright that a mafia hitman, Frank Sheeran, played by De Niro, executed Jimmy Hoffa because he refused to co-operate with the mafia over money being lent from the Teamsters pension fund.

According to Scorsese, Hoffa previously gave low interest loans to the mafia. The union leader was convicted of fraud and spent about 5 years in prison. However Hoffa was strict about the union’s super fund and would not pay super entitlements to organisers who went to jail for stealing.

There are doubts that Scorcese’s film is accurate.

The film depicts Hoffa’s stepson, Chuck, driving the car when Hoffa was executed. This seems fanciful. Was he just a long-time associate of Hoffa’s? And wouldn’t he have been older than the character looked in the film?

There is also speculation that Sheeran’s was not involved.

De Niro, who actually initiated the project, said: “We are not saying it is the actual story we are saying it is a story.” For $159 million, you would expect them to get the story straight.

One of the more interesting parts of the film is how World War II de-humanised soldiers. This is given as one reason for why Sheeran was callous enough to kill his friend, Hoffa.

It is not the first time Hollywood has made fiction of the life of Jimmy Hoffa. In 1992 Danny De Vito directed a film Hoffa written by David Mamet with Jack Nicholson as the Teamster boss. The film received mixed reviews.

Go to the toilet before you see this film, it is over three hours long.

Incidentally, in Brisbane, it was shown at the Elizabethan which is where the old Irish Club used to be in Elizabeth Street Brisbane. Locals should have a look at the ceiling if you can get a chance, the lead lighting and gargoyles are great.

Ian Curr
30 Nov 2019

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoffa_(film)

Sources
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2019/09/26/jimmy-hoffa-and-the-irishman-a-true-crime