The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.The true story of Danny Greene, a tough Irish thug working for mobsters in Cleveland during the 1970's.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
- Awards
- 1 nomination total
- Mike Frato
- (as Steven R. Schirripa)
- Frank Brancato
- (as Vinny Vella Sr.)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Featured reviews
I must confess that I haven't heard anything about this movie before I read that there will be free theater screenings of "Kill the Irishman" in my hometown. As far as i know, the film also had a very limited theater release in the USA, which is a sad thing because this movie was surprisingly good and well-crafted and was one of the best films I've seen in the last months.
The film tells the true story of Danny Greene, a tough irish gangster - and let me tell you, it is definitely a story worth telling.
I guess many of you are informed about the story of Danny Greene, so i won't go further into the story.
The movie features an impressive cast including Ray Stevenson, Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken and many other familiar faces known from other mob movies. Ray Stevenson gives an incredibly good performance as Danny Greene and manages to keep his character really violent, but also likable. This movie could give him a career boost for bigger roles.
The direction and the cinematography are very nice and i'm hoping this movie will enable Jonathan Hensleigh more work soon, because he's definitely a talented craftsman.
In some reviews i read that other people complained that this movie is just a ripoff of Goodfellas. That isn't true. The movie stands well on his own, despite featuring some actors known from Goodfellas, and wasn't that also the case in Shows like The Sopranos? Why complain about that? And last but not least, it IS a true story and who grows sick of seeing good mobster movies? Definitely not me.
Ray Stevenson does a credible job as Irish Danny Green and Vincent D'Onforio is even better as the conflicted John Nardi. Christopher Walken is barely visible as Shonder Burns. Tony Lo Bianco does a great job of a weak, indecisive mob boss who just can't get it right.
The movie is burdened with low production value, but the story is true. And the life they highlight deserves low production value. Anyone who compares this to Goodfellows or the Soprano's is out of touch.
None of the side characters get enough time to shine, thanks to a script that should have been more polished before making it.
The story is interesting enough to make a great film - it just needed someone like Scorsese to bring life to it.
Still, Ray Stevenson is so great as Danny Greene - that the thing is watchable.
Val Kilmer is probably the worst part of it, though I hate to say it.
It is from the time in his career where his passion was long gone, but he still needed paychecks.
Walken is shamefully wasted.
Even though they were gangsters, Greene and Nardi were surprisingly likable characters—for killers, that is—mostly because of the charismatic acting of the two leads, Ray Stevenson and Vincent D'Onofrio. The supporting characters were interesting also, including the talents of Christopher Walken, Val Kilmer, Steve Schirripa, Paul Sorvino, Tony Lo Bianco, and Mike Starr.
Interspersed with the actors' scenes were actual clips of film footage from local newscasts of the day, which added authenticity and a touchstone to the amazing story that unfolded in Cleveland some 30-40 years ago.
I highly recommend "Kill the Irishman" as an action-packed, escapist, period piece, featuring superior acting and excellent film editing. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 100+ minutes!
The downfall of this film is the script and the way it rushes through time and space without ever focusing enough on the characters and their relationship with each other (and in the case of Greene with society) to really get us connected into the world they inhabit. We see scene after scene that remind us of gangster movie staples. Greene beaten by Italian kids as a boy, Greene standing up to the crooked Union leadership, Greene making deals with the mafia, Greene gets a girl and they wind up married, Greene beats up bikers, Greene gets a partner out of hot water and tells him never to gamble again...and duh..he gambles again. Unfortunately, we always stay on the surface of people's motivations as these scenes fly by, we never stop and get a sense of why with the characters. And we never connect with them.
The acting is fine, Ray Stevenson's Greene is tough and smart and world-worn, everyone else is fine but they just stay on the periphery and play stock characters who come and go for the most part.
If the script had made a choice to either be the story through the eyes of Val Kilmer's Cleveland police detective, or the story through the eyes of Irish Danny Greene, instead of just a linear montage of standard gangster film clichés, we all could have been treated to a top-notch tale.
The movie just proves you need a great script to make a great movie, and it didn't have one.
Did you know
- TriviaDue to budget limits and to add to the realism to the movie, the director and producers chose to use real news clips from the Cleveland area from the actual events that took place in the movie.
- GoofsSt. Malachi's Church in Cleveland is spelled with an 'i,' not a "y" as shown in the movie.
- Quotes
Reporter: This is about the fourth time someone's tried to kill you. How do you account for the fact that you survive each time?
Danny Greene: I'm an Irish Catholic with the grace of God on my shoulder. I'm not going anywhere until he says so. You see the trailer behind me? It's where I work. See the bar at the end of the street there? Get a shot of that. I live on the top floor. Let me tell you something. If any of these maggots from the so-called Mafia wanna come after me, I'm not a hard man to find.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Youngstown: Still Standing (2010)
- SoundtracksI'm Gonna Keep on Loving You
Written by Norman Whiteside, DJ Will Gill (as William Gilbert) and John Primm
Performed by Kool Blues
Courtesy of Numero Group
By arrangement with Bank Robber Music
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Maten al irlandés
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $12,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $1,188,194
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $145,430
- Mar 13, 2011
- Gross worldwide
- $1,188,194
- Runtime
- 1h 46m(106 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1