Great Direction!

Also agreed. Extremely underrated movie. Terrific and beautiful cinematography.

"I actually found this movie pretty lacking. It wasn't tied in together very well and I think it assumed a lot more on the part of the audience's familiarity with the subject than perhaps what they actually bring to it. Granted, it's 2007 now and the film is 15 years old, but I kept asking myself "how is someone who doesn't know anything about this subject supposed to watch this movie?" Hoffa's family is almost totally excluded from the film, which I took to be cowardly more than deferential and sensitive. DeVito's made up central character is a major distraction from any sort of historical value this film may have - in fact, the film mostly ends up being about a relationship between Jimmy Hoffa and this person who never existed! Well, from an artistic standpoint that's just fine and dandy, but since it wasn't really presented that way, it's just a glaring weakness.

In fact, invented or composite characters inserted into otherwise factual-based historical dramas always end up oversimplifying and often trivializing and sensationalizing the history (though I wouldn't go so far as to say DeVito's character did that here - but look at the Last King of Scotland for a better example). "

Well stated dcterra. Several years of Hoffa's life/career were kinda glossed over.. I too would have liked to have seen it more historical. Devito's character was too emphasized. Why would there be a need to have a scene of a composite character with his girlfriend?

As far as direction, I thought the acting was good, the look of the eras were captured pretty well and there was some good locations and scenes. But for my tastes there were too many "Johnny LaRue" endings to scenes -- those of rising crane shots accompanied by swelling music signifying great drama is taking place! take notice! Then there's the two awful sound stage scenes which can't be ignored no matter how hard you try.

I also thought the direction was spectuacular, but have only seen the last 45 minutes or so. The last few scenes were especially well executed. (please--no pun intended!!)

The direction was terrible. It was far too deliberate. Devito's obsession with match cuts looks silly. They can be used to a point, but he ended more than half of the scenes in a two and a half hour movie with a match cut. Most of them were forced and weren't making any sort of artistic statement (he leans forward at the end of a scene and starts the next scene doing the same). Think about it like this: say for sake of argument there's such thing as a director's "bag of tricks", devices that including match cuts, slow motion, crane shots, etc, basically things that take a little extra effort but immediately draw attention to the artful hand of the director. These things are used 1. To communicate something specific or 2. When not communicating anything in particular, they're still sometimes used INFREQUENTLY just because they add artistic value (as one might say "because they look cool"). He uses them obsessively, each for no reason unto themselves, and, like a magician who keeps doing variations on the same trick for two hours, they eventually become boring and then, even worse, silly.
His performance was awful, telegraphed, in all but one scene (telling the story of the burn victim the second time, in the bar) which is, I infer, him trying to direct a shot he's in. Why he wrote it off as passable after seeing the dailies is beyond me.
Nicholson suffered under him in a few places, the scene where he throws the phone through the window. Also, it seems he doesn't really know what he's doing with Mamet's script, as he sometimes seems like he's directing like Mamet (holding the script above all else and sticking to it verbatim at the expense of natural sounding dialogue, delivery and pacing) and then other times it's like he's breaking from the script but doesn't really know what he's trying to make it into.
All in all, it's like Devito had an "things to do to be seen as a great director" checklist, and went through the different items meticulously (have a quirky, distinctive visual "style" - check, end heavy scenes with rising crane shots and dramatic orchestra music - check, employ a script by a highly regarded screenwriter - check, make sure the "Oscar snippet" performances in a few key scenes are excellent - check) but the passion isn't there. It's too deliberate. Can't feel the heart.

I wasn't expecting much from Danny DeVito for his direction, but he surprised me, he did well from a directorial aspect and Nicholson was great as usual, and one of his better performances.