Dan E. Moldea fully expected to be impressed by “The Irishman,” director Martin Scorsese’s film about the circumstances that led to former Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance on July 30, 1975. And he was.
“Quite simply, it is a stunning work of filmmaking by Martin Scorsese,” the veteran crime reporter, best-selling author and registered private investigator said. “The Irishman” is so stunning, Moldea said, it “lives up to the spectacular reviews it has already received.”
Moldea believes that the film’s producer and star Robert De Niro was taken in by a single-source book that became the basis for the screenplay. The single source was the late Frank Sheeran, who claimed to have whacked Hoffa.
But while giving off-the-chart marks to the epic movie’s artistry, Moldea also is comparing Scorsese’s “The Irishman” to director Oliver Stone’s “JFK”: great cinema, lousy history. His verdict is, by all means enjoy it, just don’t trust it.
And, to put it mildly, Moldea’s opinion is not be taken lightly. The Akron native has spent 44 years investigating the Hoffa disappearance. His nine books include “The Hoffa Wars: Teamsters, Rebels, Politicians, and the Mob.”
