History Film / TheIrishman

* TheGhost: John Kennedy looms over the narrative but never makes a physical appearance (except in stock footage in the tv).

->''"Big business and the government are working together, trying to pull us apart. Something’s got to be done."''

* CallBack:
** The scene where Sheeran looks at his collection of guns laid carefully on a bed echoes a similar scene in ''Film/TaxiDriver''.
** The entire subplot of the Teamsters funding the building of casinos and being secretly run by the mob is the main plot of ''Film/{{Casino}}''.
** [[spoiler:Just before Frank shoots him dead, Hoffa enters the house expecting a meeting, but finds nobody home and realizes the meeting was never going to take place. The scene closely mirrors Tommy's murder in ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'']].

* MoodWhiplash: As with any of [[Film/{{Goodfellas}} Scorsese's]] [[Film/{{Casino}} gangster]] [[Film/TheDeparted movies]], there's the usual, whiplash-inducing juxtaposition of petty, humorous arguments with violence. But there's also a sharp tonal divide between the movie's conventional (by Scorsese standards) first 2 1/2 hours and its quiet, slow-paced and increasingly nihilistic final hour as [[spoiler:Frank realizes he's been ordered to kill Hoffa, starkly carries out the murder, and spends the next three decades growing old and wallowing in regret, alone]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/theirishman_9.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:''"Whatever you need me to do, I'm available."'']]

* ActorAllusion: Joe Pesci portays Russell Bufallio. At some point in early 1961, Russell instructs Frank to pick up a shipment from "a fairy." The fairy turns out to be David Ferrie, who would later be associated with the assassination of President Kennedy. Guess who portrayed David Ferrie in [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/JFK Oliver Stone's 1991 depiction of the JFK Investigation]]?
* AffablyEvil: Frank has countless murders to his name, even carrying out hits on friends and colleagues if ordered, but he's remarkably polite to everybody in his life and takes genuine pride in becoming a union representative. Upon learning that [[spoiler:the mob wants Hoffa dead]], Frank tries (but fails) to call off the hit, and he truly wants his daughter Peggy to be part of his life.

->''"You can’t miss the big picture."''

* OddFriendship: Frank's daughter Peggy befriends and greatly admires the much older Jimmy Hoffa. [[spoiler:When she puts together why he "disappeared", it utterly destroys her already shaky relationship with her father.]]

** Oddly averted with Frank, who despite having the largest body count to his name of anyone in the movie remains cordial to everyone, even when he's about to kill them.

* DyingAlone: [[spoiler:By the end of his life, most of Frank's mob friends have died of old age, disease or violence, his wife passes away, and his daughters want nothing to do with him. He's so alone that he has to arrange for ''his own impending funeral''.]]

* MoodWhiplash: As with any of [[Film/{{Goodfellas}} Scorsese's]] [[Film/{{Casino}} gangster]] [[Film/TheDeparted movies]], there's the usual, whiplash-inducing juxtaposition of petty, humorous arguments with violence. But there's also a sharp tonal divide between the movie's conventional (by Scorsese standards) first 2 1/2 hours and its quiet, slow-paced and increasingly nihilistic final hour as [[spoiler: Frank realizes he's been ordered to kill Hoffa, starkly carries out the murder, and spends the next three decades growing old and wallowing in regret, alone]].

* ShaggyDogStory: The bleak nihilism of the narratives makes a lot of the story seem meaningless. [[spoiler: For example, the main conflict involves killing Jimmy Hoffa over his refusal to play ball with the mob. But even then, all the mobsters end up brought down either way, be it by violent murder, prison or simply old age doing them in, making the Hoffa murder seem ultimately pointless.]]

* DangerTakesABackseat: Someone on the passenger seat of a car is seen being strangled by someone else from the backseat in the trailer.

** Peggy is played as a child by Creator/DafneKeen, and as an adult by Creator/AnnaPaquin, both of who played one of ComicBook/{{Wolverine}}'s surrogate daughters at different points in the Film/XMenFilmSeries.

** The entire subplot of the Teamsters funding the building of casinos and being secretly run by the mob is the main plot of ''Film/{{Casino}}''

** The entire subplot of the Teamsters funding the building of casinos and being secretly run by the mob is the main plot of ''Film/Casino''
** [[spoiler: Just before Frank shoots him dead, Hoffa enters the house expecting a meeting, but finds nobody home and realizes the meeting was never going to take place. The scene closely mirrors Tommy's murder in ''Film/GoodFellas'']].

* PapaWolf: Frank beats the living s**t out of a grocer who hits his young daughter. Ultimately this is deconstructed as the film shows Sheeran's violently protective actions alienate all of his children with time.

** Richard Nixon is a regular golf buddy with the leader of the Teamsters and a stooge of the mafia.

* WhoShotJFK: JFK's assassination is a key plot point in the film, though the story absconds from speculating who was responsible for it...until Russ, while talking to Sheeran, implies the mob did it due Kennedy's "betrayal" of them.

* PapaWolf: Frank beats the living s**t out of a grocer who hits his young daughter.