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The Irishman
Movie

The Irishman

2019 • Biography, Crime, Drama

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran is a man with a lot on his mind. The former labor union high official and hitman, learned to kill serving in Italy during the Second World War. He now looks back on his life and the hits that defined his mob career, maintaining connections with the Bufalino crime family. In particular, the part he claims to have played in the disappearance of his life-long friend, Jimmy Hoffa, the former president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who mysteriously vanished in late July 1975 at the age of 62.

Overall Series Review

The Irishman is a sprawling, decades-spanning crime epic that chronicles the moral decay and ultimate isolation of Frank Sheeran, a hitman for the Bufalino crime family and associate of Jimmy Hoffa. The narrative focuses intently on the internal structure of the Irish and Italian-American criminal underworld, exploring themes of loyalty, betrayal, and the crushing consequences of a life devoid of principle. The film operates as a cautionary character study, with the ultimate loneliness and failure of the male protagonists serving as the core message. It is a historical drama rooted in a specific time, place, and ethnic-criminal subculture, with a central spiritual element that frames the main character's journey as one of sin, guilt, and a desperate, late-life attempt at confession. The story is driven by the internal politics of organized crime and the personal relationships between powerful men, not by modern identity or gender ideology.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The casting is historically authentic to the Irish and Italian-American subculture of organized crime, focusing on the dynamic between white ethnic groups and the traditional power structure of the mid-20th century. Character merit, in this context, is defined by loyalty and competence in crime, not an intersectional hierarchy. The narrative does not lecture on 'whiteness' or privilege, but on the moral failure of the characters.

Oikophobia2/10

The film functions as a moral and spiritual critique of the criminal choices made by the characters, which ruins their lives and families. It focuses on the corruption within the mob and the union system they control. This is a targeted critique of moral evil and a subculture's self-destruction, not a broad condemnation of Western civilization, home culture, or ancestors as fundamentally corrupt/racist.

Feminism2/10

The movie is heavily male-dominated, depicting women primarily as wives and daughters who suffer the collateral damage of the men's criminal lives. The most significant female character, Frank's daughter Peggy, serves as a silent moral compass whose lifelong disapproval highlights the main character's moral vacuum, but she is not a 'Girl Boss' or 'Mary Sue' figure. There is no anti-natalist or anti-family messaging; rather, the destruction of Frank's family life is the tragic consequence of his sins.

LGBTQ+1/10

The narrative makes no mention of or overt reference to alternative sexualities, gender ideology, or deconstructing the nuclear family. The focus remains strictly on the traditional, heterosexual relationships and family structures of the characters as they exist within the crime world.

Anti-Theism2/10

The movie is explicitly concerned with themes of Catholic guilt, sin, confession, and the failure of the main character to achieve genuine remorse before death. The presence of priests and the focus on last rites and God's judgment at the end anchors the film in a framework of Transcendent Morality, even as the characters fail to live up to it.