Director: Danny DeVito
Starring: Jack Nicholson, JT Walsh, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante
5/10
Having recently watched The Irishman, I decided to see this. It isn’t in the same league as Scorsese’s movie and it isn’t very good. Nicholson is more convincing as Hoffa than Pacino was. He looked and sounded more like the famed Teamster boss than Pacino did. That’s not to say it was a better performance, only a better imitation. I thought Pacino’s Midwestern accent was far thicker than Hoffa’s and was almost comical. Nonetheless, Pacino conveyed Hoffa’s arrogant and self-delusional side.
The film depicts Hoffa building his organization out of the tough blue-collar world of the 1930s but in a rather simple way. Hoffa hands out leaflets, helps a trucker fix a flat, and engages in a brawl and minutes later the truckers are carrying unions cards and paying dues and Hoffa’s on top. Scenes of large-scale demonstrations and fights aren’t convincing, despite the swelling music and sweeping camera shots that try to tell us how important everything is.
Nicholson is at his best when he’s angry and dealing with RFK. The talent of JT Walsh is wasted as he plays a dull-witted Frank Fitzsimmons.
The film tries to heroize Hoffa as someone who fought for the working man. (A friend’s father negotiated with the Teamsters in the 60s and came to see Hoffa in those terms.) But the script isn’t good enough to pull that off, even though it was written by Davis Mamet. Intermittent, short scenes of Hoffa and his family are added in to give the character depth and appeal, but they fall short. Hoffa’s criminality isn’t fairly presented and his conviction comes across more as treachery and vendetta than as the unfolding of justice.
© 2019 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs.