NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #31/NN_1992_31.iso/spool/rec/arts/movies/36224

Text File | 1992-12-28 | 3.5 KB | 79 lines

Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies
Path: sparky!uunet!microsoft!hexnut!frankm
From: [e-mail] (Frank R.A.J. Maloney)
Subject: HOFFA
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 27 Dec 92 21:54:34 GMT
Organization: Microsoft Windows/DOS Users Ed Group
Lines: 68

HOFFA is a film directed by Danny DeVito, from a script by
David Mamet. It stars Jack Nicholson, DeVito, Armand
Assante. Rated R for violence.

HOFFA is quite simply an amazing achievement. It marks the
emergence of Danny DeVito as a director of the first rank.
It also marks the reemergence of Jack Nicholson as a major
actor, instead of merely a major ham. However, HOFFA is a
tricky film to take in insofar as DeVito and David Mamet, the
writer, take no moral positions vis-a-vis Jimmy Hoffa. They
provide us with a few texts to guide us, especially when
Hoffa tells a reporter "You have to weigh what is lost and what
is gained." Hoffa was the brilliant leader of the Teamsters
Union who also enmeshed his union with organized crime. I
should say that I am not neutral myself on this subject,
even if I am of two minds. My father was an associate of
Hoffa and Dave Beck, his predecessor as president of the
Teamsters. I actually met Hoffa when I was a child. My
father was subpoenaed to appear before the McClellan Senate
Labor Rackets Committee and earned the undying enmity of
Bobby Kennedy. I am not neutral, be warned.

The story is a series of flashbacks, memories as Hoffa and
his longtime (and composite) sidekick (DeVito) wait for a
rendezvous with his secret Mafia partner. We see how they
met in the days when a driver would be fired and blackballed
for being pro-union; we witness an exciting, bloody,
brilliantly directed, horrible battle between Teamsters and
management goons. We see the secret deal with the mob that
established the union's ascendency. We see Hoffa's long and
very personal feud with Bobby Kennedy. All of these scenes
and the others are filtered through the sidekick's eyes and
loyalties. The structure ensures that DeVito gets at least
as much screen time as Nicholson. But it also makes it
possible to make a film that need not pretend neutrality or
to make judgments. What we do see through DeVito's eyes is a
complex, tragically flawed, remote and enigmatic leader of
brilliance and a radical devotion to his cause.

As Hoffa, Jack Nicholson is brilliant, perfect, inspiring.
He becomes Hoffa. Nicholson recedes until he is lost
entirely. It is the performance of a lifetime. He fully
captures the drive and devils that propelled Hoffa. It is
a performance of nuance and self-effacement. And it is
exciting to watch.

DeVito does his usual job of being DeVito in his role as the
sidekick, venal, amoral, shy only the dirty laugh of most of
his parts. It's acceptable and it in no way competes with
Nicholson.

However, as director, DeVito is a brilliant
chance-taker and problem-solver, producing a far less
conventional biopic than "non-Hollywood" Spike Lee's MALCOM
X. We have no childhood prologue, no family life. All we
have is what the sidekick knows and sees of his idol. DeVito
employs successfully split screens, creative transitional
devices, and other unconventional story-telling techniques.

This, I should warn the squeamish, is a rough film:
violence, blood. The f-word is just about the first one you
hear. There is worse, too.

I recommend HOFFA to the rest of you in the strongest of
terms. This is a masterpiece.

--
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
    "Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda