Just a cold betrayal carried out in broad daylight. One of the most mythologized, theorized, and obsessed over unsolved murders of the 20th century is staged in about 30 seconds. After committing the crime, Sheeran looks towards the kitchen, pulls Hoffa's body away from the door, plants a gun on him, straightens his shirt, and hurries out the door. It's a violent act that's filmed with a startling lack of flash: Hoffa walks up the steps to a house, opens the door, scans the empty premises with a couple quick glances, turns to leave, and falls dead to the floor. Then he gets two bullets behind the ear courtesy of his long-time friend Frank Sheeran, the gruff mob enforcer played by a digitally de-aged Robert De Niro. Blinded by pride, Hoffa believes no one would dare touch him. As played by Al Pacino, roaring in full "hoo-ah" mode for much of the film's 209-minute runtime, the one-time Teamsters boss repeatedly tempts fate as the threats against his life grow more urgent and the odds of his survival dwindle. In addition to portraying Jimmy Hoffa as a lover of ice cream and a stickler for punctuality, Martin Scorsese's historical epic The Irishman paints the controversial labor leader as a man undone by hubris. This post contains spoilers for The Irishman and discusses specific plot points in detail.
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