Dissecting a Scene: Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night - Part 4

And so, Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night Appreciation Week concludes with Part 4. Read Parts 1, 2 and 3 here, here and here.

As the fourth and final conversation between Frank and Jimmy begins, Schoonmaker cuts not to a wide shot first showing both men but a shot of Jimmy, implying who the moment is all about even as Pacino has Jimmy meet the moment with this kind of glazed over expression, like, seriously, another talk, what’s the big deal?

Then the wide shot as DeNiro has Frank lean in, like he’s really trying to emphasize what he’s saying, telling Jimmy there’s concern about him and how he’s acting, that “there’s widespread concern.” 

First, Pacino reacts by acting like he’s not really even listening, glancing over at who knows what.

Then when Frank says the others mean what they’re saying, Pacino has Jimmy look back but out of annoyance, saying more than imploring that he means what he’s saying too.

At which point, though, Jimmy looks at his friend, really looks at him.

And he realizes Frank is truly concerned. And so. Finally. Frank levels with his man in that impeccable mafia poetry that is at once indistinct and implicit, juxtaposed against the whole convoluted, sprawling lifestyle, which is what this scene (this movie) is all about. “Tony told the old man to tell me to tell you.”

“It’s what it is.”

“What it is?”

“It’s what it is.”

And now, the three stages of Pacino’s reaction. First, taking in what he’s been told.

Then, having it really, truly register.

Finally, not believing it.

Frank tries to get Jimmy to settle down-

-but Jimmy tells Frank, “If something happens to me, they’re done.”

At which DeNiro has Frank draw back, like really, we’re really going down that road?

Jimmy’s going down that road, telling Frank he’s got tapes, he’s got files on all of them.

“This is what they’re concerned about,” Frank says.

“They do something to me,” Jimmy says, calmly, coolly. “I do something to them. That’s all I know. I don’t know anything else,” he says, turning it back around on his friend, this message and their whole lives. “Do you?”

“So what I am gonna tell ’em,” Frank wants to know, “that you’re not gonna listen?”

You can’t quite see it here but, in trying to semi-charm his way out of the situation, telling Frank “you know how I am”, “maybe you can talk to him”, even though he’s literally just threatened him, and “I just blow sometimes”, he makes this little blowing up motion with his hands, a gesture that feels as comical as his plea.

“You should tell him,” Frank insists.

“No,” Jimmy says as he looks away, underscoring how little he means any of this. “I’m not gonna tell him.”

Now he looks back cuz now he’s gonna say what he means. “Listen to me, at the end, there’s only one thing that’s real. This is my union.”

Then he grabs Frank’s arm and shakes it up and down as he repeats “This is my union.”

And as a mournful trumpet is hear in the background, after that, after all of that, after 23 minutes of screen time, after four blog posts and, what, 274 screen shots, says, “Very simple when you say it that way.”

He walks away.

And Scorsese gives the Last Look not to Jimmy but Peggy...

...looking back at her father. As if telling him “tough.”

It’s what it is.

Dissecting a Scene: Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night - Part 3

Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night Appreciation Week rolls on with Part 3. Read Parts 1 & 2 here and here.

The third stanza of Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night begins with Jerry Vale (Steven Van Zandt) performing “Spanish Eyes.”  [Ed Note: Van Zandt is lip-syncing because, my God, while Little Stevie is my E-Streeter, like the way Beatles fans have their Beatle, Little Stevie, bless his eternal heart, can’t sing.]

As he croons, Jimmy shares a dance with Peggy. And this shot feels huge. If in the preceding moment, during her family photography, Paquin has Peggy shining on a big grin, here her giant smile feels genuine, cluing you into how she feels about each man, and signaling Jimmy’s authentic charm.

Then a cut to Russell and Salerno watching in that kind of way that is less from the heart and even lecherous than politely menacing, like you’re taking one last look, that sensation heightened by Fitz whispering something in Russell’s ear.

And the reaction to their looks is, crucially, not given to Jimmy, his back turned, as if he doesn’t even care, but to Peggy, enhancing her Greek Choral role while Paquin infuses the moment with something closer to defiance than distress.

Then the men, including Ftiz, get up from the table, off to do business, yes, but almost a kind of reaction to Peggy, like she’s pushed them away from the table by standing her ground.

Then a close-up of a ring, a gold ring custom-made by Russell.

One, he explains, only three people in the world have - him, Angelo (Harvey Keitel), and now Frank.

And rather than cutting back to Frank, Schoonmaker goes back to these insert shots of the two men’s hands as Frank takes it the ring, like in this moment the ring is bigger than the man.

.Frank slips the ring on.

Now we see Frank. He admires the ring, as you do, expressing gratitude.

And the two men compare their rings.

And then Russell leans over and kisses Frank on the cheek, conferring his blessing.

The camera cuts wide, watching the two men watch Jerry Vale, suggesting, if but for a fleeting second, a moment of repose.

That does not last. Because the camera cuts closer to down below where Jimmy is chatting up Angelo, reminding us that despite the momentousness of that ring exchange, who this scene is really about.

Indeed, Russell slyly segues into telling Frank that he’s gotta talk to Jimmy, to tell him the word has come down from the top that things have gotten out of hand, the placement of this talk after the ring exchange making it feel as if the exchanging of the ring was as much about Russell buttering up Frank as honoring him.

“These are the high rollers,” explains Russell.

“He’s a high roller too,” counters Frank.

And Pesci reacts with this! This indelible scrunched up bit of bemusement.

“Not like this,” he says.

And then he leans in for the whispered exclamation point. “If they can whack a President,” he whispers, “they can whack a President of a Union.”

At that, DeNiro does this. Like, shit.

Schoonmaker goes wide, underscoring the sudden massiveness of Frank’s situation, yes, but also...

...because it’s Peggy’s point-of-view, still watching, still judging.

And then he looks off into the distance at nothing much, stuttering and stammering, talking out loud to himself more than talking to Russell. “I talk to this guy, I talk this guy, he don’t listen but now he’s gotta listen.”

And now, Russell says nothing. What needed to be said has been said. It’s up to Frank to say to Jimmy what else has gotta be said.

And a cut back to Vale, concluding “Al- Di- La”, the final notes belted to the rafters rendering the forthcoming final tête-à-tête of the sequence as something like a requiem for Jimmy Hoffa.