Important Life Lessons From the Movie “The Irishman.”

“I heard you paint houses.” It would have been very difficult to understand Hoffa’s metaphor while he was speaking with Frank if one had not seen the latter shoot a man dead in such a calculated manner, a couple of scenes before.
“Yeah, I kill people.” I wish Frank had replied like this at that point. Maybe it would have been easier for him to find the remorse he sought while praying with the priest for repentance at the twilight of his life – we’ll talk about this later.

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Ray Romano

Martin Scorsese’s directional brilliance, just as he’s always done with his productions on crime violence was further emphasised by Al-Pacino’s huffing and puffing, Pesci’s gentle-manliness, and the old fashioned cars, the guy who got to that meeting late with a short and a vintage shirt…what’s his name again? And of course! Three and half hours of scheming, coercion, killings and machinations, and the comedic depiction of those underwater guns that could arm a battalion of armies, kept me glued to the screen till the end credits started to roll out. Great stuff!

Aside the persuasive strong language, blood and violence, the crime-political theme of the Irishman is also loaded with many real life lessons. If you haven’t seen the movie or you got carried away with the scintillating drama on screen to notice there are life hacks in there, stay right here. You are in luck. Add my perspective to the thoughts you already have and you’ll be wiser than I am – for now.

1. Everyone Needs a Mentor

Mentor and Mentee

What better mentor is there than a criminal lord who helps to repair your damaged car on your first meeting? Jokes apart. A mechanic mentor: he fixes things, repairs things; he can get stained, dirty and greasy for you, allow you to express yourself, but can also slap you like some roadside mechanic bosses do their apprentices in Lagos if you get wayward. If he teaches you how to kill, make you kill and maybe kill for you, he is an excellent mentor – that is if you can only see this the way I see it.
Sadly, I hardly know any mentee who has a mechanic mentor, and in concrete terms it will suffice to say that Frank became more focused, got better and attained greater heights because of his mentor, who fixed, protected, guided and also taught him to a large extent, the ways of the underworld.
Those in the “upper-world” without mentors could be living in a kind of underworld with less violence, but may be limiting themselves to ideas, be limited in the opportunity to grow, add value and make meaningful impacts with their dreams or goals or in the fields they are already in. Mentors can point one in the right direction and thus reduce or make one completely avoid months or years of frustration and wastefulness.
Whether you are the Pope, the president or a village messenger, you need a mentor. We all need someone to whom we can answer or otherwise look up to.

2. Respect your elders

Joe Crazy, humbled

Elders are not necessarily those who are older than you are. This is where most individuals get it mixed up. People who have been in the system longer than you, those who know the ins and outs of the institution, no matter their size, gender or how amateurish they may seem to you; all these ones constitute your elders and you must gladly submit to their experience and authority until you have been placed in a position to lead the line.
What an old man sees while sitting down cannot be seen by a boy who is on a tree. It’s an adage to mull on. You don’t just waltz into the game and demand to hug all the glory even if you have more skills than your predecessors. No. Don’t do that. While some may back down and let you have your time to shine, a few others might shut you up or completely knock you out like Joe Crazy was in the movie.
A society without respect for its leaders is ready to disintegrate. How about a criminal organisation without a lord? Mayhem! Apocalypse!

3. The Italian Business Model Works
From what I have observed in the lives of Italian bosses through the movies I have seen, most of them seem to know how to work with people, and the kind of responsibility they show while handling power is impeccable.

The Italian Boss

They are tough, but some are quite generous and have kinder sides which can melt a rock. They reward diligently when results are achieved and can also be very brutal whenever it comes to punishing failure. They keep their circle very small, involving lots of trusted families and friends so they can have more control over their businesses. Also, tiny little details we seem to overlook in the field of business are highly esteemed by these Italian bosses.
Russel Bufalino, Castro, Pablo Escoba…all these bad guys, during their time, knew how to relate with their people and get results.

4. Middlemen will always be the men in the middle
Personally, I do not like individuals who trade information back and forth. They have the tendency to flip things in the favour of the individual or group of persons that most suit their personality/sense of being/purpose and agenda. Even peace brokers can hurt one of the aggrieved parties they intend to unite.
Beware of that friend who gives his two cents for free.

Fear the middleman

Are we mostly not loyal to ourselves as humans?
In business, you find middlemen chiseling out a large portion of the profit.
In love, they come in the form of friends, advisers and counselors. They create or better yet, find a loophole in a blissful and bolstering romance and act all concerned. They counsel and tutor, stay and ‘eat’ on the side, patiently watch and wait for their time bomb to explode and then snatch or grab like a hawk does a chick once the mother hen blinks.
In the church you’ll find some there, the fake ones people worship instead of The One above. If they only know how well that guy reduces the efficacy of their prayers with his selfish desires, outwardly apologetic to their suffering and misery, but smiling inwardly at their state of ignorance and delusion, steadily sucking them to penury.
God of man.
Middle (belly) man.
Hoffa should have seen it coming. Punctuality was one of Frank’s watchword, but this time he was late. Yeah…he was respectful, but he was also cunning and brutal. He was a snake – a beautiful one at that. His friend never saw his own end. It was a terrible mistake to make on Hoffa’s part.
Love isn’t the only thing that makes one act silly sometimes…really.

Smell a fish in someone’s car when you are about to get in or smell it when he opens his mouth to speak to you. Your choice.

5. Familiarize with Family
Whatever you do, never be far away from family. In body mind and spirit, let family be involved in your life on a day to day basis and mind how you conduct your business in the presence of your kids. I could almost weep for the aged Frank when he was trying to speak with his daughter at the bank, only to be met with a closed sign post intentionally placed by her in front of her cubicle. He was in crutches too. Pathetic!

Family first

When you fail to put into consideration, the lives and affairs of your immediate family into your life’s schedule, just prepare to die unloved, sick and lonely. Nobody’s going to ride with you like family does. Nobody.

6. Everybody Wants a Form of Insurance for the Afterlife – atheists too.
When saddled with the grief of numerous misdeeds or faced with the lonely foreboding that comes with old age, men are apt to find some form of leverage with what comes next after the grave.

What comes next?

Many atheists are guilty in this respect as they call the name of Jesus or that of other deities they had initially claimed not to believe in, when they become ill or dying or when faced with circumstances beyond their control.
One of the uniqueness of the Irishman in portraying the human psychology as regards the afterlife, comes to the fore towards the end when Russ, a murderer, gets wheeled into the church at his own request, and Frank, who isn’t a real practicing Christian bar the baptism of his children, also prays with a Priest who later asks him if he feels some sort of remorse for what he has done. Frank answers in a shaky voice, “I don’t know…maybe because I’m here now talking to you. That in itself is an attempt to…”
He doesn’t even finish this statement because it kind of sounded strange to him.

And how can we be sorry even when we don’t feel sorry? What line of thinking is that? From a priest? Unbelievable!

The question here is this: can you ride on with what you believe concerning your fate in the afterlife, even in the face of death? It shouldn’t be that hard to find an answer to if you are connected with the right supernatural source.
And stop yapping about the big bang theory and evolution bullshit. They all need a supernatural force to exist.
Darn it! Did I just show the apologetic in me?

In Sir Isaac Newton’s words, “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being…This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of His dominion he is wont to be called Lord God “pantokrator” or Universal Ruler.”

He also said that Gravity explains the motions of the planets but CANNOT explain who set the planets in motion. Take a minute to think about that. Remember that he was a great scientist too.

The Irishman also drives a very important point home, something I will love to say this way: while power lies where it lies, in the hands of both the foolish and the wise, age and death will catch up on us all, the powerful and the powerless.
Whether one lies or sits in power, one will be forced to stand and answer for one’s deeds, in this universe or another one, someday.

The Irishman. The rich man with the visionary eye. The mentor. The Italian businessman.
Martin Scorsese, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Pesci, Ray Romano…
Great great work of art.

Seun Afolabi.