1. I have a few thoughts on The Irishman, the editing of The Godfather II, the Italian communist party, the CIA, method acting, and vocal range.
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3. A spectrum of vocality: You have the Hoffa (a loud, expressive public figure, hammed up by Pacino); the mobsters like Bufalino & Sheeran (who speak in hushed tones and elliptical, coded language); and the female family of the gangsters (who are silenced.
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4. If we see a spectrum from the loud to the quiet to the silent, then what we see is that the quiet mobsters silence both ends of the spectrum: they silence Hoffa by killing him, they silence their wives/daughters by patriarchy. It's telling 2 gangsters are named Whispers.
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5. The spectrum of vocality is tied to acting styles. Paquin acts with her eyes; Pesi/De Niro/Keitel are old style method actors -- immersed, mumbling; Pacino a method actor in James Dean mode: theatrical. It's a movie about a gang of understated actors killing a ham.
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6. Also silent (indeed off-screen) but very important to the movie is Fidel Castro. Like the Godfather movies, The Irishman highlights the counter-revolutionary nature of the mafia, which links criminality with the corruption of empire.
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7. There's a deleted scene in Godfather II (which Coppola later restored in an extended version) showing Michael Corleone in Sicily watching a famous May Day parade in 1947.https://twitter.com/DavidAstinWalsh/status/1201614352719196167 …
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8. The communist parade Corleone witnesses is famous in Italy because it was smashed by the mafia in a massacre. This resonates with the later scenes of the Cuban revolution in Godfather II & with The Irishman's showing the CIA working with the mob.
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9. More thoughts about the The Irishman and American history here: https://www.thenation.com/article/irishman-hoffa-godfather-martin-scorcese/ …
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End of conversation
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The silence — was the most stunning part of the movie. The wives off smoking, the kids, the mob guys not exactly saying (like Trump) what they want, and the heartbreaking scenes when DeNiro knows what he had to do.
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And the silence of Peggy through the entire film was foreboding and frightening.
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I can be as woke as anyone but idea that respect for a female actor's role should be measured in number-of-lines-spoken is artificial. Same witless criteria used against Tarantino for the Tate character. Strongest scene in the movie, but b/c she was wordless, it was discounted.
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