Hoffa (1992)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Danny DeVito directs and co-stars with Jack Nicholson in Hoffa. DeVito had high hopes for the film and felt that not only would it be a commercial success but a critical one with awards for cinematography, production design and acting.The film failed at the box office and did not garner the awards expected. The reason because the film is a honourable failure. There is a script by David Mamet and although there are some great production values its not consistent. There is a great scene where Hoffa is talking to some people in a corridor of a building with big windows. Through the windows you can see a courtyard with a market going on with people going about in period costume. In a costume drama, many other people because of the budgetary concerns would had done it just in a walled corridor.However you have scenes where its obviously done in a film set and some scenes are obviously staged such as the hunting scene.The biggest problem is the film does not address the audience outside of the USA who have little or no idea of who Hoffa was. I heard about him as a college student mainly to do with the fact that this a notorious Union leader who is now supporting some bridge under a highway!During the initial scenes when DeVito's character who is a composite of several real life persons first meets Hoffa, I had no idea when the meeting took place. In the 1930s or 40s or the 50s? When Hoffa takes over the Teamster union and wants some people fired, why exactly did he want this? Who were this people that he wanted fired? As we do not know this people do we care? What exactly did Hoffa do wrong for him to be imprisoned? Getting a shady Italian-American to make money for you via some loans is not illegal surely at that time unless it was actual money laundering. Wikipedia tells me that it was fraud, jury tampering and bribery. The film is called Hoffa yet we know so little about him after viewing the film.The film is told in flashbacks as Hoffa waits for a meeting in a parking lot of a diner. Again we are not told of the time period of this setting which should be the mid 1970s as that is when he disappeared although the ending in this film leave little doubt what happens to Hoffa.Its a well constructed film of a man that divides America but DeVito the director needed Mamet to put more detailed in the script so we have a better idea of who Hoffa was.

This is a really bad movie! It's such a shame that Danny De Vito doesn't stick to directing comedies because he is much more suited to that style. Jack Nicholson acted very well but not outstanding, however his acting i believe did redeem the film a little. The films story line was all over the place and very confusing if you did not know the history behind it. Many of the scenes were filmed on built cardboard sets which was very obvious throughout and looked shockingly bad. Danny De Vito's character was completely fictional and seemed to have been placed in the movie due to his own admiration for Jimmy Hoffa. A number of scenes in the film were laughable , very over dramatized and patriotic. I do appreciate how difficult biographical movies are to make but this one is awful and considering the amount of highly skilled actors involved a complete disappointment.

I'm halfway through a biography about Jimmy Hoffa but couldn't wait to finish it before the chance to watch this bio-pic arose. I will still finish the book as I wasn't completely taken with this ambitious and sometimes imaginative film.My problem with it was principally the construction. While I accept the premise of grafting on an ending to resolve the mystery of Hoffa's last movements, the audience manipulation involved, which sees violence erupt from an unexpected source and dissolve into a Peckinpah-ish slow motion "dance of death", and repeated returns to the, in truth, less than compulsive build-up to the climax, only serves to slow down the momentum of the film. In addition, the lack of any definite kind of date-marking of events also served to confuse as the narrative jumps forward in time giving little indication of the time-spans involved.Danny DeVito's direction has some imaginative, if occasionally derivative, flourishes but for all that Hoffa is undoubtedly an interesting character, I felt the film dragged along until the final quarter. I would also take issue with the portrayal of Hoffa himself as it seemed to me the writing and direction wanted to significantly whitewash his shady dealings, especially the violence and other dirty tricks he orchestrated and employed for his own ends. I get that he may have been a hero to his members, but it almost seems that the film doesn't think he should have gone to jail at all. In addition, his celebrated encounters with his nemesis Bobby Kennedy fizzle out almost as quickly as they're introduced and as for the depiction of a family life to add some depth to his character, well, there was very little of that too.As for the acting, I'm no fan of the over-actor supreme Jack Nicholson, but he certainly looks the part, although, as ever, you can see him going through the gears for a big scene, usually involving him screaming the "F" word ad nauseum. De Vito himself does okay as his best bud who refuses to sell him out and JT Walsh performs well as the one-time lackey now leader, who does.While a watchable effort, I felt this movie overdid the questionable respect its title character was due right down to the lush, omnipresent orchestral score which I felt all told amounted to far too soft a treatment of such a contentious individual.

Danny DeVito's elegant masterwork film "Hoffa" tells an important story about America. Mr. DeVito's film is a Midrash, a riff, an interpretation of the life of union organizer and leader James R. "Jimmy" Hoffa. The narration unfolds richly through David Mamet's screenplay, excellent performances by the players including most of all Jack Nicholson and Mr. DeVito. By the way, J. T. Walsh shines again here.Cinematography by Stephen Burum and editing by Lynzee Klingman and Ronald Roose exfoliate the intricate production design by Ida Random and other production details. The people working on this film are all top notch.As I indicated, the film is not historical but interpretative. The narration is deliberately ambiguous and tensive, open to varying responses just like Mr. Hoffa himself. Still, I understand criticism of the film for its historical and even narrative flaws, but this is a mythic work, which has its place and serves a good purpose. In a way, it is a counter myth to those about John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert.For production design, acting, cinematography, editing, production values, and acting, Mr. DeVito's work deserves a solid ten. That does not mean the history is complete or accurate.