Hoffa
| Year: | 1992 |
| Production Co: | Jersey Films |
| Studio: | 20th Century Fox |
| Director: | Danny DeVito |
| Writer: | David Mamet |
| Cast: | Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Armand Assante, J T Walsh, John C Reilly, Frank Whaley |
This film came with a sort of innate legitimacy, starring as it does Nicholson and De Vito and directed by De Vito, who's as sure-footed a producer and filmmaker as he is an actor.
It felt like a serious biopic, although I learned later the story took large liberties with the historical record, and while it had a lot of dramatic heft I felt like it was being too 'storybook' at times.
It tells the loosely adapted story of the life of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, who was linked to heavy handed tactics and said to be underwritten at times by the mafia.
Nicholson and DeVito are at the top of a stellar cast who all do a good job, and while it seems to leave massive holes out of not only Hoffa's life but the pivotal junctures of the American union movement, it's a pleasure seeing such craftsmen at work both in front of and behind the camera.