THE Irishman has a male-dominated cast with few lines for women.
It stars Hollywood heavyweights such as Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, but here we take a look at whether the few women that actually do star in the film have speaking parts…
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Do women speak in The Irishman?
They do, but VERY little – something which has been picked up on by film critics.
A good example of this is the character Peggy Sheeran.
Played by Anna Paquin as an adult woman and Lucy Gallina as a child, Peggy is the daughter of Robert De Niro’s hitman, Frank Sheeran – who the film centres around.
The character only appears in the film a few times which comes to about ten minutes screen time in total.
And does she speak? Well yes she does – six words to be precise.
Peggy spends most of the film glaring at her father in total silence to demonstrate her hatred for him and his mobster life.
Other women in the film, including Frank’s wife Mary played by Aleksa Palladino, also have very little dialogue.
Instead they are mainly used in the film as a moral compass in Frank’s dark memories of his life as a gangster.
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What has The Irishman’s director Martin Scorsese said about women in the film?
Martin has been extremely reluctant to engage with the issue of why women are so silent in The Irishman.
The director has been criticised in the past for having a lack of understanding when it comes to women.
In fact, during a press conference for the movie held during the Rome Film Festival, the director shut down an Italian journalist who asked about his male-dominated oeuvre.
“That’s not even a valid point,” he said. “That’s a question that I’ve had for so many years. Am I supposed to? If the story doesn’t call for it…It’s a waste of everybody’s time.”
LATEST NEWS ON THE IRISHMAN
When is The Irishman out in cinemas and on Netflix?
The film came out in cinemas on November 8, 2019.
And now it’s available on Netflix too.
The Irishman is based on the memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, written by Charles Brandt from five year’s worth of interviews with the real-life hitman Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran.
It will take place from World War II through to the JFK assassination and beyond.