By The first slew of reviews of Martin Scorsese's crime saga The Irishman are out, and it's all looking fairly rosy for the up-and-coming director. Stick at it, kid, and you might just make it.
But one big reveal from several reviews is that Scorsese has worked a little homage to what's arguably his masterwork – Goodfellas – into The Irishman's opening scene. It's a pretty subtle one too. Don't watch it expecting Joe Pesci to pop a red nose on and ask whether he's funny like a clown, like he's here to amuse you?
It's the sweeping sequence from Goodfellas known as 'the Copa shot', an unbroken take which follows Ray Liotta's Henry Hill as he leads Karen through kitchens of the Copacabana club to the strains of 'And Then He Kissed Me' by the Crystals. Actually, as we're here, let's have a look at it.
Not bloody bad. Apparently, the first shot of The Irishman "evokes that earlier scene and turns it inside out," according to the New York Times' AO Scott. Rather than the most jumping joint in town, though, we're led to the nursing home bedside of Robert De Niro's Frank Sheeran. He's nearing death, and he's got things he wants to get off his chest.
"Like Henry Hill, he's going to tell the tale of his unsavoury associates and criminal doings — a meandering reminiscence that will touch on some notorious historical episodes, many of them involving murder," Scott writes.
The two shots seem to show the two competing visions of the gangster life, in other words: the glamour and the prestige Henry enjoys; and the regret and damage Frank lives with. Neatly done, Marty.
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