Why You Should Watch Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman

The Irishman is available to stream on Netflix for free, allowing any Netflix subscriber across the world to see Martin Scorsese’s brilliant crime epic. However, with a running time of three hours and twenty-nine minutes, you might want to watch The Irishman in chunks. And, while that is an incredibly long running time, it is also entirely appropriate for the film it encompasses, and actually affects the emotional impact of the film’s final act. I’m here to implore you after seeing The Irishman: the ideal way to watch this film is in one continuous, uninterrupted sitting.

This is Frank Sheeran’s (Robert De Niro) story. It’s told in three threads that intertwine after roughly three hours. We first met Sheeran in 2003, when he was a frail old man confined to a wheelchair and spoke directly to us. He starts in the early 1950s, when he is perhaps 20 or 30 years old, and meets Pennsylvania crime boss Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) for the first time. Sheeran robs some beef for Bufalino, which is enough to show him that he can take care of some other business for him, some real dirty business if he so desires, which he does. Two-and-a-half decades later, Sheeran and Bufalino are old pals on a leisurely car trip to the Midwest in a black Lincoln with their spouses in the backseat, and it quickly becomes apparent that it’s late July 1975.

The narrative hums along in Scorsese’s film, which was scripted by Oscar-winning Schindler’s List and The Night Of writer Steven Zaillian. This is a three-and-a-half-hour film that does not feel that way. It’s engaging, fascinating, and even hilarious at times.  However, you might find yourself thinking, “Yeah, this is quite good.” for the first two-thirds. When the third act begins, the entire piece’s thematic weight is revealed, and the events you’ve already witnessed combine into overwhelming emotions of regret and sorrow, and you’re left with a powerful sensation of regret and sadness.

Indeed, Scorsese’s excellent crafting of The Irishman’s plot is predicated on the fact that you’ve just spent three hours in Frank Sheeran’s shoes. The film is so long because it tries to portray a man’s entire adult life, and it succeeds spectacularly.

The Irishman’s visual narrative is spectacular, but if you watch it in 30-, 45-, or 60-minute bits over several days, you won’t be able to completely appreciate the weight of the themes Scorsese is wrestling with. Sure, you’re watching the plot unfold, but great films are made up of much more than plot, and in the hands of a master filmmaker like Scorsese, every shot composition, editing choice, and the exact pacing and length of the film are all deliberate choices. They’re all parts of a whole, and the only way to truly, totally, completely appreciate The Irishman is to see it as it was intended: as a piece of cinema to be enjoyed in one sitting.