THE OFFICIAL runtime of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman has been confirmed ahead of the film’s debut on Netflix – and you are going to want to sit comfortably for this.
Based on the real-life memoirs of Irish-American mob hitman Frank Sheeran, The Irishman stars Robert De Niro as Sheeran along with Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel.
The film, which will focus on Sheeran’s relationship with the mob and potential involvement in the disappearance of union leader Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) will be 210 minutes long – exactly three and a half hours.
It’s Scorsese’s longest film to date, exactly half an hour longer than The Wolf of Wall Street, and a whole hour and two minutes longer than Goodfellas.
The Irishman is also slightly shorter than Gone With The Wind (238 minutes) and slightly longer than another De Niro Once Upon A Time In America (229 minutes).
It’s also 10 minutes over the runtime of The Godfather: Part II, and 28 minutes longer than Avengers: Endgame. With that in mind, it’s probably a good thing that the film is debuting on Netflix, with subscribers able to pause the film and watch it over several sittings.
That won’t stop some bingers from enjoying the whole thing over one epic night, of course.
Based Sheeran’s real-life memoir, ‘I Heard You Paint Houses’ The official synopsis for The Irishman reads:
"The film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organised crime."
In Charles Brandt's book, I Heard You Paint Houses, Sheeran offered a detailed account of what happened to Hoffa, taking responsibility for the union boss’s murder and offering key details as to those involved.
The Irishman looks set to lift the lid on these claims and the assertions of Sheeran that a frustrated Hoffa, barred from working for the unions, was murdered by the mob after threatening to go public with their alleged involved in the assassination of John F Kennedy.
Sheeran claims to have supplied the rifles used in the JFK assassination, with Martin Scorsese’s film set to shine a light on these claims.
With Hoffa threatening to go public unless the mob wielded their power to have him reinstated to the Teamsters, the mafia allegedly decided to snuff him out and had his close friend Sheeran do it because Hoffa would not suspect him and it would test his loyalty.
The Irishman will debut on Netflix on November 27.
