Some bad news: As reported earlier Tuesday, Martin Scorsese’s forthcoming The Irishman — whose $200 million budget was footed by, of course, Netflix — will not be receiving a wide theatrical release, as earlier promised. Instead it will get a limited release before being dumped on the streaming giant. Now some good news: It’ll be only 18 minutes shorter than Lawrence of Arabia.
The latest Scorsese — which reunites not only Robert De Niro and Al Pacino but Joe Pesci, too — will make its world premiere as the opening night selection at September’s New York Film Festival, and someone noticed the run time was finally added to its fest page. And — voila! — it runs a whopping 210 minutes.
The final running time is IN! Martin Scorsese’s THE IRISHMAN is a leisurely 210 MINUTES long 👀 https://t.co/lqEjw376Ih
— Jason (@jasonosia) August 27, 2019
For those keeping track, that’s the storied auteur’s longest-ever fiction film — a full half-hour longer than The Wolf of Wall Street, 32 minutes longer than Casino, 40 minutes longer than The Aviator, 42 minutes longer than Gangs of New York, and 47 minutes than both New York, New York and The Last Temptation of Christ. On the doc front, it’s 15 minutes shorter than 1995’s A Personal Journey Through American Movies and two minutes longer than both No Direction Home, about Bob Dylan, and George Harrison: Living in the Material World.
The Irishman tells the story of mob hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro), who reflects on his life working alongside the likes of Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino) and Russell Bufalino (Pesci), among others. The first full-length trailer was met with some jeers for the de-aging of its aging cast, But this is Scorsese. Show some respect.
The film will hit select theaters starting Nov. 1 and Netflix on Nov. 27.
