I was impressed by "Kill the Irishman" the first time I saw it, and couldn't work out why it wasn't a bigger success. On this repeated viewing, it was like my blinders had been taken off and I could see the film for what it is: an under-written, over-cast mediocrity.
It just feels like a mob movie by numbers. What really grated, however, was the deification of the main character, an Irish mobster who actually was responsible for spreading corruption throughout his city. He went to war with the Mafia, and of course they are depicted as the bad guys, but how would you feel if you lived in the city where this was going on? Criminals fighting criminals. They're all the same, and their method of disposing of each other was most commonly explosions which would wipe out any innocent bystanders who happened to be in the vicinity of this squabble between sociopaths. The working man wouldn't much care who won: they'll get screwed over by the victors either way.
The movie also glosses over Greene's rise to power in some silly scenes where he beats up a hitman, and slaps around the guy who sent the hitman after him... and bam, he's boss of the union. Why did the hitman give up after being physically beaten? And are we expected to believe the union boss had no other connections to rely on?
The movie was criticised as being too much like "Goodfellas", but Scorsese would never put out something this cookie cutter.
It just feels like a mob movie by numbers. What really grated, however, was the deification of the main character, an Irish mobster who actually was responsible for spreading corruption throughout his city. He went to war with the Mafia, and of course they are depicted as the bad guys, but how would you feel if you lived in the city where this was going on? Criminals fighting criminals. They're all the same, and their method of disposing of each other was most commonly explosions which would wipe out any innocent bystanders who happened to be in the vicinity of this squabble between sociopaths. The working man wouldn't much care who won: they'll get screwed over by the victors either way.
The movie also glosses over Greene's rise to power in some silly scenes where he beats up a hitman, and slaps around the guy who sent the hitman after him... and bam, he's boss of the union. Why did the hitman give up after being physically beaten? And are we expected to believe the union boss had no other connections to rely on?
The movie was criticised as being too much like "Goodfellas", but Scorsese would never put out something this cookie cutter.