Is Martin Scorsese Directing Joe Biden's Campaign?

Watching Joe Biden and John Kerry campaigning together in Iowa , I couldn't help but think: "I've seen this movie."

I fact, I have: The Irishman, Martin Scorsese's mob epic co-starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino that came out in theatres and on Netflix last month. 

The similarities?

For openers, Biden has Irish roots (the former vice president's great-grandfather, James Finnegan, emigrated from County Louth, as a child, in 1850). Which explains, in part, the candidate's fondness for the term "malarkey."

Also Irish: De Niro's lead character, the Philadelphia hit man Frank Sheeran, who claims that he whacked the vanished Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, played by Pacino.

(My Hoover Institution colleague Jack Goldsmith, who has a personal connection the circumstances surrounding Hoffa's disappearance, has done a nice job of analyzing the accuracy of the movie.)

The actor and politico likewise have age in common: Biden turned 77 last month; De Niro turned 76 in August.

Shall we continue?

Biden's big political break came in 1972 — his first Senate win in Delaware. De Niro's first major roles would come a year later in Bang The Drum Slowly and Scorsese's Mean Streets.

The year 1972 also saw the March premiere of The Godfather, Pacino's breakout role as Michael Corleone (De Niro's first major roles would come a year later in Bang The Drum Slowly and Scorsese's Mean Streets). Nearly a year prior to The Godfather's debut, John Kerry donned a mussed Army fatigue shirt and told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he couldn't support the military effort in Vietnam.

But there's more to the two Irishmen than age and career arcs. One big similarity between the art of Scorsese and the cinema verite of the Biden 2020 campaign: eye tests that maybe fail and the nagging feeling of performers past their prime.

The Irishman's running time is 210 minutes, which is an affront to the human bladder. It's also 30 minutes longer than Casino and a full hour more than Scorsese's two other mob gems, Goodfellas and The Departed.

How did Scorsese end up with three hours and 30 minutes of footage? Through a lot of redundancy (constant short dialogues between mobsters that seem unnecessary), plus a meandering final 45 minutes (after Hoffa meets his demise) that felt at least 30 minutes too long.

One supposes that no one financing the endeavor had the nerve to tell the legendary director to lose an hour of his film — or, better yet, suggest to Scorsese that he double the footage and convert the movie to a six-episode series.

Granted, I'm in the minority when it comes to criticism of The Irishman (I'm reminded of Seinfeld's Ellen Benes and her loathing of The English Patient). Last week, it was named the film of the year by the National Board of Review. Some reviewers have labeled it "a crime classic" and "a masterwork."

So I encourage you: watch the film and judge for yourself if the innovative VFX technology that Scorsese employed to "de-age" De Niro and Pacino is credible. I'd argue it's a stretch, especially when the "younger" De Niro lumbers down the street with a decidedly septuagenarian gait.

And that takes us to the visual of Biden and Kerry on the sump in Iowa — a combined 64 years in the Senate and three failed presidential campaigns — and, like The Irishman's stars, no strangers to their own attempts at "de-aging" and altered appearances.

If De Niro's Irishman performance seems a little uninspired — Frank Sheeran doesn't have the same menacing presence as the "dead stare" of De Niro's other Irish hood, Goodfellas' Jimmy Conway — how to explain the present version of Joe Biden, stumbling his way through this contest, versus the Biden of 2012, who capably jabbed away at Paul Ryan in their vice presidential debate?

The answer: seven years can make a big difference. Just as De Niro, dipping into the Scorsese Mafia well after a lengthy hiatus — Casino came out in 1995; Goodfellas in 1990 — perhaps has lost a few miles off of his fastball.

Still, this didn't stop the Biden campaign from trotting out a fellow Democratic graybeard — a big deal in Iowa 16 years ago! — to make the candidate's case. If Scorsese sees value in putting De Niro and Pacino (plus Joe Pesci, age 76, and Harvey Keitel, age 80) in the same production, perhaps Team Biden should consider its own old-timers' crew — fellow septuagenarians Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Joe Lieberman?

For all of my carping, it's Scorsese and De Niro — and Biden — who may have the last laugh next year. It's been suggested that The Irishman is an early Oscar frontrunner. Biden, for all the second-guessing and pessimistic conjecturing, still leads his Democratic rivals  in national polls, though his standing in early primary states is more problematic (he's doing well in Nevada and South Carolina, but struggling in Iowa and New Hampshire).

Imagine a 2020 in which The Irishman wins a "Best Picture" Oscar and Irishman Joe Biden wins the presidential election.

Brace yourself for a three-and-a-half hour inaugural address.    

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