InkBlog

Director: Danny DeVito
Entertainment grade: C–
History grade: C

Jimmy Hoffa was an organiser for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, an American trade union, serving as its president for 13 years.

After a controversial career, mixed up with organised crime, he disappeared in 1975.

Crime

The film begins with Hoffa (Jack Nicholson)'s rise to power, depicting union politics as a long round of violence, thievery, bombings and Mafia deals. According to Robert F Kennedy's prosecution case against Hoffa, this is more or less accurate. Kennedy began to pursue Hoffa through the courts in the late 1950s. Sadly, the film doesn't invest much in RFK, portraying him as little more than a posh, irritating suit. In real life, Hoffa and Kennedy's personal class war was dynamite material. When Kennedy published The Enemy Within, his sensational memoir of the case, he sent a signed copy to Hoffa, inscribed: "To Jimmy, I'm sending you this book so you won't have to use union funds to buy one. Bobby." Miaow!

Justice

A few clips from Hoffa's extensive televised trial can be seen on YouTube. Just as in the film, there's Bobby Kennedy hurling fierce accusations, and Hoffa in the defendant's chair, scowling and flapping like an angry owlet. Nicholson does a note-perfect impression of said owlet. Kevin Anderson, as RFK, takes the accent a smidge too far, heading past Kennedy's nasal, upper-crust Boston drawl into the territory of Droopy Dog. And there's a regrettable directorial decision to film the closing scenes of the trial with the witnesses in three-quarter profile against a black background, overlaid against each other, which means the proceedings start to resemble the Bohemian Rhapsody video. Hoffa resists the temptation to defend himself with the line "I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me," prompting the rest of the Teamsters to rise from the public gallery with "He's just a poor boy, from a poor family, spare him his life from this monstrosity!" Though that would have paraphrased the film's case for the defence.

People

Various Hoffa associates are composited and fictionalised into Bobby Ciaro (Danny DeVito), an all-purpose lackey. This is confusing both historically and dramatically. Historically, because it gives the false impression that Hoffa had one close sidekick who stayed with him for his entire career. Dramatically, because with the underdeveloped Ciaro as the lead character, the audience is distanced one step from Hoffa himself. He was a complex and enigmatic man, but the film seems shy of digging deep. Nicholson blusters and cusses his way through David Mamet's authentically sweary screenplay as best he can, but it still feels like we're viewing him through the wrong end of a telescope.

Gangsters

The film creates a fictional crime boss, Carol d'Allesandro (Armand Assante), and has him set up an ostensible peace meeting with Hoffa at the Roadhouse Diner. To be fair, if you were making a movie full of gutsy allegations about the role of the mafia in a high-profile disappearance and presumed murder, you might change a few names. In real life, the FBI suspected Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano and Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone of ordering the hit. They arranged to meet Hoffa at the Machus Red Fox, a suburban restaurant next to a shopping centre in Bloomfield, Detroit. Unlike in the film, he went alone.

Disappearance

The film shows Hoffa and the fictional Ciaro being murdered in the parking lot. In real life, the Red Fox was busy and even the toughest of mob hitmen probably wouldn't have risked shooting him in plain view of shoppers, diners and restaurant staff. One witness claimed to have seen a car drive away with Hoffa and three men in it. It seems probable that he was taken to another location to be killed. No body has ever been found.

Verdict

The film attempts a cautious middle route between celebrating Hoffa as a working-class hero and condemning him as a gangster. But despite a watchable performance from Nicholson, after more than two hours of screentime, Jimmy Hoffa remains an enigma.

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