HOFFA
A film review by Frank Maloney
Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney
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 .
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