Dark question that haunts De Niro epic
Last week I managed to watch the much discussed and very long new film the Irishman, starring Robert De Niro as a cruel and conscience-less assassin.
a lot has been said about how advanced techniques were used to make the actors look younger in the earlier scenes. For me, it worked the other way.
the film’s immense threeand-a-half-hour length and gruelling subject matter left me looking and feeling considerably older than I had when I went into the cinema. I now almost qualify for a free tV licence, though I can proudly boast that I managed to sit through the whole thing without once going to the gents.
this was a major achievement at the age I was when I went in, and even more of one at the age I was when I came out.
Despite all this, it is actually worth the time and effort. the recreation of the Usa in the 1950s and 1960s is brilliant, intricate and rather moving. But I caught myself wondering – as I watched one sordid event succeed the next – if the Usa is deep down so unshakeably corrupt, ethnically divided and violent that it is destined to fail as a state.
I have always loved america and had never previously felt this.
I was also struck by the way in which Frank sheeran, the real killer portrayed by De Niro, learned his ruthlessness in the second World War, during which he cheerfully confesses he frequently murdered surrendered prisoners. and yet people still seem to want yet more wars.