How Peggy Reveals the Brilliance of "The Irishman" Script

Scene from The Irishman (2019)

The greatness of director Martin Scorsese's towering gangster epic The Irishman can be summarized with one performance: Peggy Sheeran. It may not seem like it given that she has considerably less screen time than most characters in Frank Sheeran's (Robert De Niro) life, but the way that writer Steven Zaillian uses her describes something key in the film's overall tragedy. Yes, one can use the crackling dialogue rich with acidic humor and bursts of violence that distract from Frank ever learning a lesson, but that isn't anything new for a Scorsese movie. No, there has to be something there that serves as the piece of Frank that got away, unable to ever be obtained even as he murders for the sake of building a reputation among the local mob. The performances are rich with personality, but one has to wonder what they mean in the long run. Why doesn't Frank's story end when the last of them have said goodbye? It's because their respect was easy to get. His family was a different matter.

The story of Frank Sheeran is based on a Steven Zaillian screenplay from the book "I Heard You Paint Houses" by Charles Brandt. In interviews, Scorsese and De Niro have talked for years about how the 2004 book was full of great details that made them want to make a movie. It would be their first project together since Casino, and it was sure to capture the same prestigious approach to gangster cinema that they had perfected with GoodFellas. On the podcast Behind the Irishman, it was argued that the reason the film wasn't made earlier was because of many typical reasons. Part of it was financial issues, but most will choose to focus on a marketing ploy that has unfortunately been referenced as a gimmick: de-aging technology. Scorsese believed that he needed actors who were alive during this time to capture the emotional resonance of these moments. Basically, no man could play De Niro, Al Pacino, or Joe Pesci. They were inimitable and the history of de-aging technology becoming the saving grace was born out of that necessity.

However, Zaillian's screenplay deserves a bit more credit than it ends up getting. Yes, this is De Niro, Pacino, and Pesci's best performances in years. It proves that they're masters of their craft. There's room to argue that it's also a culmination of Scorsese's career exploring the world of organized crime. This would all be so simple, but without Zaillian, it wouldn't be anything. The writer has had a storied career of exploring crime in long, drawn-out manners that get to the heart of why these characters choose greed over good. Prominent examples include the Denzel Washington epic American Gangster, HBO miniseries The Night Of, the American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and his other collaboration with Scorsese: Gangs of New York. In each example his work is character-driven, saving the familiar chaotic blasts of violence and outbursts for key moments. They serve more as punctuation to a character's evolution than the main sentence. It's more obsessed with the process of getting there than taking in the sights.

For The Irishman, it feels like he's taking that approach to another level. With Scorsese's filmography borrowing heavily from Catholicism imagery, it's safe to say that many techniques were incorporated by him exclusively. Still, Zaillian's choice to create the screenplay around an aged Frank, sitting in a nursing home as the camera arrives for a conversation, there is this sense that it is an act of confession. He will later reveal to a priest that he is confessing because he wants to feel some guilt, but finds it impossible. His whole story is about looking at the small moments and trying to understand why he did it, and why there's no real resonance for him. He finds himself drawn especially to two areas of his life: his time with Russell Buffalino (Pesci) and Jimmy Hoffa (Pacino). He sees Russell as his boss and Jimmy as his friend, both of whom he's forced to pledge loyalty to. After all, Jimmy is the most famous union leader in America and refers to his members as "brothers." Meanwhile, Russell gives Frank a ring; a sign of loyalty as if chained to him. If one was to look at the broader strokes, the only time that The Irishman is referenced in the film is when discussing the concept of loyalty.

Frank is The Irishman. There's no way around it. He first meets Russell at a roadside gas station, having issues with his truck, for which he delivers meats. Frank tells Russell that he can drive them, but he can't repair them. Already he is helpless to have his own agency. The next time he meets Russell, he shares a story about his time serving in the war. He watches two enemy soldiers digging their graves. He wonders why they keep digging as if it will build sympathy. When he finally shoots them, he talks about serving almost five times as long as the average service. He just kept going, as if he's loyal to whoever will give him orders. Russell feels like the ideal boss in that scenario, as he hires one man to do the job, believing that "I don't want two roads leading back to me." Frank has a penchant for following orders, even when it's something as brutal as gunning down men on the street. The whole time he doesn't really change expression, though there is this sense in his posturing that he wants to be taken seriously. By the time that Hoffa comes around, things already feel a bit messy.

There are some important things to note regarding Frank's family at the start of the film. The present-day Frank slowly reveals details about his family that alone doesn't seem suspicious, but when presented in flashback begin to seem confusing. The most noteworthy detail is that he has four daughters. There are even times when the film shows their various baptisms with Frank looking on in joy. However, there's one question that begins to become clear. If there are four daughters, why is Peggy the only one that constantly is brought up? True, he mentions that some don't even talk to him, but even in flashback, there's an emphasis on Peggy that creates this unspoken feeling that he cared for her deeply, believing that she had something greater in their relationship. Maybe she was just the one who didn't getaway. After all, Frank loses his first wife and Peggy still shows up at various points.

The first sign that things may not be going well for mother and daughter Sheeran comes in a scene early on. Peggy (Lucy Gallina) has seen her father beat up a store clerk for hitting her. The scene itself is brutal, with Frank dragging him through a glass doorframe before being curb-stomped. Now in a less ominous location, a bowling alley, Frank is seen talking to Russell as Peggy enjoys the game with her mother. They are seen as a spectator sport with Frank telling Russell that Peggy is "shy." It's his excuse for why she doesn't talk to him. However, there's even a sense that Peggy is more willing to talk to Russell over him, and it already shows a strained relationship that will only get worse as he looks at her authoritatively from over a newspaper, splattered with a story about a crime that he committed. Peggy is intimidated, never presenting a scene where she doesn't have some sense of loyalty to Frank. Even in school, she is being watched over by Frank as she gives a glowing report on Hoffa. There is no sense that she is independent of his actions, and that he is remembering her at wanting to please him.

This is something crucial to understand about The Irishman. The story is from Frank's perspective and thus is likely to be more skewered. The things he emphasizes clearly hold some deeper value to him, and even then he wants to paint himself as righteous. He did the right thing for HIS family. Given that his first wife is gone and his second becomes complicit in his post-crime lifestyle, there is plenty to wonder why he keeps coming back to Peggy. The other people make some sense. Russell is a lifelong friend, whom he spends most of his life chained to even as they enjoy a prison stint as elderly men. Jimmy is a man that is not only a culturally significant figure but one who could be seen as a friend. However, there's something to Jimmy that goes unspoken that explains everything about why he thinks about Peggy the most. Basically, Peggy sees Jimmy more as a father figure than him.

The silence is a dead giveaway for this. The intimidation only causes her to resent Frank more. She won't actually speak to him again until as an adult (now played by Anna Paquin) when wondering why Frank didn't call Jimmy's wife Jo (Welker White). It all ties into a subplot that develops throughout the film, but feels especially striking at the moment because for a character this prominent, she only really has two lines of dialogue and none of them have to do with Frank. It has to do with Jimmy's family, making one wonder what it is about them that she's so fond of or Frank seems to latch onto. It's because in some respects Peggy lost a figure that she admires and understands the pain that Jo will be going through. There may even be some underlying guilt she's trying to inflict on Frank for hurting her. Even when understanding Peggy's pain, it comes through her sister Dolores (Marin Ireland) explaining her own fear of Frank. Dolores doesn't really factor into the plot other than being related to Frank, and yet it explains how clueless Frank is to read his own daughter's resentment that an even more tertiary character knows things that he doesn't.

An early exchange between Frank and Jimmy involves their families going out for ice cream. Whereas Frank has been depicted as distant up until this point, Jimmy feels like the dad who would love to hear about your day. He celebrates the idea of getting ice cream, and most importantly his children seem to like him. When he takes a shining to Peggy, it's the first sign of the joy that she expresses in the film outside of her mother. For the first time, she seems to have a father figure that nourishes her interests. Some other terms regarding Jimmy also help to paint this image, such as the idea of running unions. In the literal sense, he is running an organization meant to unite workers. As a metaphorical term, a union is a partnership between friends or family, with Frank taking the former. Even then, does Frank have friends or is he just a dog who goes where he's told? For any sinister reputation that Jimmy has in his career, Zaillian paints him as good in Frank's life, making Frank's eventual assassination of him all the more devastating.

The sight of Peggy with Jimmy is a concept that returns constantly. During a key dinner party scene, Frank watches Peggy and Jimmy take to the dance floor. Once again, Peggy is reflecting happiness that she is missing whenever in close proximity to Frank. At this point, Frank is more observing his daughter as he waits for the next order. The only thing he knows how to do is follow orders, which all end with some brutal death. Considering that the film is littered with mentions of menial characters' deaths, there is a sense that Frank understands how sudden one can die. Even then, he can't appreciate the value of life without it. As he atones for his actions, not able to feel remorse, he's looking at the body count he left behind and realizing that it was all so hollow. It means nothing to him. Even as he tries to talk to Peggy in his old age, worn down by crutches, she finds new ways to ignore him. He's trying to make something right, not realizing that it was never that way, to begin with. 

The reason he can't feel any remorse is that while he never says it, he comes to emphasize Jimmy's death as a crucial moment in his life. It could be that he killed one of the major figures of American history. However, it was the sense that he killed a piece of his daughter with it. To make matters worse, the moments leading up to the assassination feature Jimmy talking to his own son Chuckie (Jesse Plemons). They're having an argument about fish, but there's still this sense that they love each other. Frank could never have an argument that ends well. In fact, him having to be flown out to murder Jimmy shows just how much time he has to rethink his decision, giving into the loyalty that he shares with Russell. At that moment he's chosen friends over family, and there's no going back. This moment is important because he gave into a foolish decision and one that forever shut off a part of him. He could try and get redemption from Peggy, but it will never come. As the sign says as she's walking away from her bank teller job, she is CLOSED to him.

While Peggy is a character so minor that all of her scenes probably equal less than 10 minutes of a 3.5-hour movie, she is the heart and soul of Frank's story. He keeps coming back to her because unlike his other daughters, she meant something to him. It's the way that Peggy took a shining to Jimmy, creating a family bond that Frank lacked. Sure, he had the loyalty ring that Russell gave him, but what did it matter when he had little else to be faithful to? He was better off intimidating people than loving them. When the film ends, he is seen looking at pictures of his past. Among the work that he holds onto is one of Jimmy with Peggy. They're happy together, and they both are pieces that he regrets removing from his life. In some ways, he killed his family on the day that he shot Jimmy, and it aches at him. It's why he notices Peggy's only line of dialogue as an adult as "Why didn't you call Jo?" as if delivering bad news. It seems obvious, but there's clearly some guilt there that he doesn't want to address.

Zaillian's screenplay is a brilliant look at how small things inform the big ones. While the story revolves more around Russell and Jimmy, his choice to focus on the character that doesn't talk to him says something greater than her voice. Articles have been written detailing how Peggy was a poorly written character, that Scorsese doesn't know what to do with her. That's not the issue. Zaillian and Scorsese know plenty of what to do with her, and it's letting her live a life where Frank is on the periphery. It has to be that way because otherwise, it suggests too much about Peggy's relationship to Frank which is likely, not true. To tell him that she was intimidated would invalidate a lot that the quiet stares of intimidation explain better. It also would mean that Frank was adding flourishes that would negate his jealousy of Jimmy's relationship with her. She has to be quiet because the most painful things to atone for are the ones that can't give their acceptance back. Frank can accept killing those men, but losing the loyalty of his daughter feels worse because to Frank, what is there but loyalty?

The Irishman has a lot of themes that it's exploring throughout its story, all dealing with the ravages of age and a life of regrets. How does one live knowing that life doesn't get any better, that one is going to become lonely without those friends to keep them company? For Frank, it was Russell, who more felt like a figure that gave Frank credibility in the mob world. It's the power of this screenplay that anyone detail could open up a world of thought as to why Frank did what he did. Was he really a vicious psychopath, or was he just addicted to following orders and driving that metaphorical truck through life? He had no way to fix his own life, and that came at invaluable prices. It's a sad tale, but one rich with moments that look back on the gangster epics of yesteryear and asks what was really important in their journey. Was it having those people celebrate your reckless accomplishments, or was it having someone at the end of the day who loved you? The film ends with Frank looking out a door in his nursing home, not wanting to be alone. The priest has given him a ceremony to reflect his faith, but even that feels forced. Like most of his life, Frank is trying to find love that lasts. The only issue is that he killed it off long ago.