The 2019 film 'The Irishman' is based on a book by Charles Brandt,Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran 's lawyer. It is basically a death bed confession of the killing of his best friend and employer, Jimmy Hoffa.
The film starts out with Frank Sheeran (Robert DeNiro) in a nursing home recalling how he met mobster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) on the side of the road and offered to help him fix his truck. Not long after that, he started working for the Philadelphia crime family led by Angelo Bruno (Harvey Keitel) working as a hitman. Frank gets a respectful reputation at his job for painting houses, a euphemism for contract killing, as well as doing his own carpentry, or clean-up after the job is done.
Sheeran is soon introduced to Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) who has financial ties to Bufalino's crime family in Philadelphia. Hoffa is already president of The Teamsters and is having problems with the government and other Detroit Italian mobsters that are Teamsters like 'Tony Pro' Provenzano. So Frank goes to Detroit to become Jimmy Hoffa's bodyguard.
So Jimmy and Frank become good friends and their families become good friends as well.
There are other famous mob-linked happenings that Frank talks about that he was privy too, like personally pulling the trigger on 'Crazy Joe' Gallo in front of Umberto's Clam House in New York and personally running guns to Howard Hunt in Florida a few weeks before President Kennedy was shot.
Most of this film is shot while Sheeran and Bufalino are driving from Philadelphia to Detroit for Bill Bufalino daughter's wedding in late July of 1975, which took three days. During this time, Russell is having Frank call Jimmy Hoffa to try to convince him to talk to Tony Pro about not running for Teamster President. Jimmy didn't want to talk to Tony Pro because Tony Pro wanted money back from the Teamster pension fund that Tony felt was his. Jimmy said he wasn't getting the money. The argument goes back and forth until Jimmy points his finger at Tony and says 'You people. . . ' Tony takes great offense to that because Jimmy has no Italian heritage and Tony does. And he feels Jimmy was trying to belittle the Italian mob.
Russell and Frank finally convince Jimmy to talk to Tony Provenzano. Only Jimmy isn't really agreeing to a meeting with Tony. Frank now has to fly up to Detroit by himself and get in a car and pick up some other mob guys from Detroit and go and get Jimmy who's been waiting at Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Hills almost an hour. Pick Jimmy up and take him to a house nearby for the meeting. Frank follows Jimmy into the empty house and shoots him in the back of the head.
I enjoy the film as an important part of Detroit history. Everybody in Detroit has a running joke on where Jimmy Hoffa is buried. "Yeah, I got Jimmy Hoffa buried underneath the front porch . . ." And then the FBI shows up. Giants Stadium in New Jersey, 50 gallon drums, you name it, its been said.
A couple of reliable sources has said that Frank Sheeran's confession to killing Jimmy isn't true. Like Michael Franzese the former New York mobster and the gangster researcher from Detroit Al Profit. I happen to believe Frank Sheeran's story. Why? 'The Irishman' came out in 2019. The book I heard you paint houses came out in 2004. Nobody started talking about whether it was true or not until the movie came out. Where were their opinions in 2004?
