In all the material is decent, but I guess I was expecting more for such a big title, with maybe more new material from Criterion, and I’m especially surprised there wasn’t anything about the questionable details behind Sheeran’s account of what happened to Hoffa, or anything else he confessed to. Closing

The Irishman - Criterion Collection - High Def Digest The Irishman - Criterion Collection - High Def Digest

During World War II, Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran learned how to kill people with efficiency. Upon his return home, he tried to settle down and fought for the labor unions as a high official. He even became friends with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' president Jimmy Hoffa.No one depicts the violent, vicious, and labyrinthian world of organized crime with more precision and gusto than Martin Scorsese. Operatic in scope and brimming with beauty despite the grisly subject matter, his gritty portraits of gangsters and their various milieus remain undisputed masterworks that continually dazzle the senses no matter how many times we've seen them. Though only four of Scorsese's 60-odd films deal specifically with the Italian mafia, the legendary director forever will be known as the genre's most passionate and lyrical chronicler. Featurette: "The Evolution of Digital De-Aging as Seen in The Irishman"(HD, 13 minutes) - This promotional Netflix piece examines the revolutionary and controversial de-aging process that's such a major part of The Irishman. Visual effects supervisor Pablo Helman and a host of technical craftsmen from Industrial Light & Magic outline the development, execution, and philosophy of this fascinating technique. Split-screen shots show the striking transformations of the actors and myriad computer images provide glimpses of the meticulous methodology used to create this latest form of movie magic. Criterion has thankfully made this a two-disc set, giving the film the entirety of the first disc. All supplemental material can be found on the second disc. The second disc, like the first one, is dual-layer, so this led me to assume there would actually be a lot of content to be found, but it barely runs over a couple of hours in the end. The footage of Hoffa comes from 17-minutes’ worth of material from an episode of NBC’s David Brinkley’s Journal that focused on Hoffa. The footage of Hoffa was clearly replicated for a few sequences in the film (his office is recreated exactly as it is in this footage) and we get to see him give part of a speech and woo his way through the crowds. The episode gets into his popularity amongst workers as well as his legal issues, and also talks a little bit about his relationship with Tony “Pro.” Brinkley even interviews Hoffa about his time in front of the Senate Committee and asks him about what he does with his wealth. This is an especially solid inclusion for the release.

The Irishman [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [2 Discs] The Irishman [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [2 Discs]

New video essay written and narrated by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman's synthesis of Scorsese's singular formal style Video Essay: "Gangsters' Requiem"(HD, 21 minutes) - Film critic Farran Smith Nehme connects The Irishman to Scorsese's personal experience and his other legendary gangster pictures while examining the director's style, the relationships between the characters, and the movie's underlying themes. Smith dissects several scenes and examines many of the subtle touches that make The Irishman such a textured, nuanced film. Make no mistake, The Irishman is a true work of art, but its languorous pacing and talky script produce some draggy stretches and its excessive length ultimately dulls the story's power. (The last 30 minutes could have been significantly condensed without harming the narrative or disrupting the mood.) Much like running a marathon, watching the film is an endurance test, but if you can make it to the finish line, The Irishmanbreeds not only immense satisfaction, but also a deep appreciation for the artistry on display and boundless admiration for the man who so brilliantly conceived and executed this ambitious and frequently fascinating movie.Expanding on that latter topic is The Evolution of Digital De-Aging, a short 13-minute featurette created by Netflix. Though not all that long I will say it does a decent job getting into how the technology works (starting with these special cameras that also get mentioned a lot in the previous two supplements) and then how they had to properly capture a variety of expressions from the actors to make sure they could replicate their performances as exact as they could. Though I could look past a lot of them there are issues around the effects in the end product, yet despite that I still found it a fascinating look into not only the technology but the art that went behind it. Newly edited roundtable conversation among Scorsese and actors Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, originally recorded in 2019 The ultimate tragedy of The Irishman is that Sheeran is incapable of singing his song of self with the kind of unblinking honesty that might lead him through regret and toward redemption. Near the end of the film, Sheeran asks that his door be left slightly ajar, a mirror of something that occurs in an earlier scene between him and Hoffa. The way Scorsese photographs Sheeran through the opening reveals a man drained of all his perceived power, and distressingly content with the unholy mess he’s left behind. Image/Sound Continuing their deal with Netflix, The Criterion Collection presents Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman on Blu-ray, delivering the film in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on the first dual-layer disc of this two-disc set. The 1080p/24hz digital encode comes from a 4K master sourced from a mix of the original 35mm negative and digital files.