Kill the Irishman

Reid was a fan of Mafia movies (including The Godfather and Goodfellas) and aspired to become a filmmaker. Being of Irish and Italian ancestry, he wanted to make a film that would relate to both nationalities.[17] Reid first heard about mobster Danny Greene from his roommates in Ohio, and believed that New York City, Chicago and Boston were the "three meccas of mafia crime". According to Reid, there wasn't much documentation on Greene's life, but after hearing that Porrello was about to publish a book on Greene and the Mafia in Cleveland, he was determined to make a movie about him.[1]

Prior to making Kill the Irishman, Reid and screenwriter Jeremy Walters conducted research on Greene's life and organized crime in Cleveland. Reid spoke with Sister Barbara Eppich, a nun who helped raise Greene during his childhood. Sister Barbara told Reid of how Greene was abandoned during childhood and was raised by his grandfather. Because his grandfather worked nights, Greene was left to walk the streets. He would go to school dirty on a regular basis, and Sister Barbara would have to wash him. She also stated that Greene would sleep all the time but was a "phenomenal athlete".[18]

Reid spoke to a number of law enforcement agencies, including the FBI. The FBI wanted to make sure that Reid wasn't glorifying the Mafia. Reid stated he had no intentions of glorifying crime and that "the whole message at the end of the movie is that crime doesn't pay".[17] On a similar subject, Hensleigh also said the "film [doesn't suggest Greene] was a hero". However, he did note the film provides a balanced perspective.[11]

While researching his role, Stevenson looked at TV footage of Greene and read Porrello's book, To Kill The Irishman.[19] According to Stevenson, there was "quite a bit" of research material available.[19] D'Onofrio, on the other hand, had the opposite experience. Information on Nardi was scarce, so Hensleigh allowed him to improvise on his character.[20]

Although the screenplay was adapted from his book, Porrello had "minimum involvement" in its writing. Hensleigh regularly contacted Porrello, and they agreed not to use the real names of anyone who was still alive, "out of respect and sensitivity" towards them.[21]

Due to the troubled development of Kill the Irishman, Reid decided to make a documentary about Greene's life, known as Danny Greene: the Rise and Fall of the Irishman. From his research for the movie, Reid became specialized in the Northern Ohio crime scene and Greene's life,[18] and felt that by making the documentary, at least he could go to his "grave 'saying I tried'".[1]

In 2009, with 17 hours of the documentary shot, Reid was told his film had been green-lit. He joined forces with the production company Code Entertainment and engaged with a "reliable" director; Jonathan Hensleigh. They then signed the actors Val Kilmer and Christopher Walken,[1] and later Vincent D'Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket), Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas), and the Irish actor Ray Stevenson, respectively.[1] Stevenson was filming The Book of Eli when he got a telephone call from Hensleigh, so they arranged to meet in Los Angeles; according to Stevenson, he was drawn to the script and immediately made a deal.[19]

On May 19, 2009,[22] the film entered principal photography.[23] It was shot within seven weeks, mostly in and around Detroit. This was partly because the city gave tax credits which Cleveland would not match.[1] According to the 2009 report by the Michigan Film Office, Kill the Irishman received roughly $3 million in subsidies.[24] Michigan's film rebate pays up to 42 percent of filmmakers' expenses for costs incurred while filming in the state.[24] Ohio offers only 25 to 35 percent in subsidies, meaning that if the producers spent the same amount filming in Cleveland, they would have received $500,000 to $1.25 million less in subsidies.[24] On the other hand, Stevenson said that they wanted to film in Cleveland, but the city had "prettied itself up" and changed, whereas Detroit was - in his opinion - still "on its knees".[18]

Two incidents occurred during filming. On the first, seven bullet holes were shot into one of the trucks used during production.[19] On the second, the cast and crew were driving from the set, and a pedestrian was shot in the neck outside a supermarket. The ambulance took 35–45 minutes to arrive, and waited a further 35–45 minutes for the police to arrive. The paramedics refused to take the victim to the hospital without a police escort. According to Stevenson, there was a possibility that rival gangmembers would shoot at the paramedics for trying to resuscitate the victim.[19]

The destruction of Greene's car. As with many scenes, the explosion couldn't be re-shot.[19]

Due to the limited budget, some of the effects seen in the film couldn't be replicated. Stevenson said everyone "had to be on point," and that any mistakes couldn't be rectified by re-filming. For example, the producers couldn't afford to shoot the film's final scene (in which Greene is killed via a car explosion) twice. Before filming, the production crew and actors had to check everything on the set. Time was also lacking, with Stevenson saying everyone "had to be extremely focused."[1][19]

Porrello had second thoughts about one scene being included in the film. This particular scene included the murder of two police officers. Porrello felt uncomfortable approaching Hensleigh, but did so anyway. Porrello said to him: "if you are going to kill a cop", it is "going to change the tone of the story".[21] The scene was nevertheless included in the final cut.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 62% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Kill the Irishman may not add much in the way of new ingredients to its crowded genre, but the admirable efforts of a solidly assembled cast add extra depth to a familiar story."[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 50 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[25] A number of critics have called the film a ripoff of Goodfellas (1990).[13][14][15]

Giving the film a positive review, Mike LaSalle, of the San Francisco Chronicle, said "What makes this film special and memorable is the character of Danny Greene, who is not the usual neighborhood hoodlum you see in movies, the kind who gets in deep and gradually loses his soul".[26] Marshall Fine, of the Huffington Post, gave the film a mixed review. He criticized it for jumping through different events in a "jerky fashion", but summed up the review by calling it a "movie with a lot of meat on the bone, even if some of it is tough or stringy. It's not fancy, but it's always tasty".[27]

Robert Abele, of the LA Times, said "the film plays like an explosion's aftermath; shards of mob movies that add up to the usual Goodfellas knockoff".[15] Scott Tobias, of the A.V. Club, had similar views; saying "the biggest problem" with the film "isn't that it rips off Goodfellas", but that plenty of "good films" have "ripped it off well".[14] In regards to the controversy surrounding Kill the Irishman and its purported similarities to Goodfellas, critic Dave Van Houwelingen said:

There are certain movies that serve as a standard bearer for a genre – a high water mark that filmmakers always try to hit, but seem to always come up short. To me, I think Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is that type of film for the gangster genre. In the 21 years since the film was released, so many filmmakers have tried so hard to copy Goodfellas' success, and so few have gotten even close to capturing the magic that Scorsese did in one of his very best films. The 21 years have been littered with a bunch of pale imitations. To that list, you can add Jonathan Hensleigh's Kill the Irishman, which wants so desperately to be Goodfellas, and comes up so very, very short.[28]

Hensleigh's directing was criticized. Scott Tobias said the directing "doesn't do much beyond filling in the template". He noted that Hensleigh was telling the "true-life tale" of the mob's decline in Cleveland, but also said that "every character and setpiece felt like it fell off a truck".[14] LA Weekly's Nick Pinkerton held similar views, saying that although "Hensleigh perks up when filming violence, the atmosphere throughout is past-prime, stymieing any strut".[29] Lisa Schwarzbaum, of Entertainment Weekly, also concurred, calling the film's structure "pretty square".[30]

Despite criticizing the film's structure, Schwarzbaum called the cast "tasty", and singled out D'Onofrio, Kilmer, and Walken for praise.[30] Clint O'Connor, of The Plain Dealer, held similar views, saying the "film's greatest strength is its cast".[31] On the contrary, David Rooney held the opposite opinion; saying the "low-wattage cast" is what turned the "potentially strong" film into a "routine crime thriller".[32]

On its opening day, Kill the Irishman earned $42,925 from five theaters (with an average gross of $8,585 per theater).[33] On its second day, the box office receipts increased by 46 percent; earning $62,446 from five theaters (with an average gross of $12,489 per theater).[33] Then on the third day, the film's box office performance dropped by 36 percent; earning $40,059 from five theaters (with an average gross of $8,012 per theater).[33] The gradual decline in box office receipts continued until the eighth day, where the film's gross sharply increased by 373 percent; earning $36,119 from 21 theaters (with an average gross of $1,720 per theater). The film continued to have periodic fluctuations at the box office.[33] By the end of its box office run, Kill the Irishman grossed a total of $1,188,194 at the domestic box office,[16] against a production budget of $12 million, considering it a box office bomb.[1]

After a limited theatrical release, Kill the Irishman was released on DVD by Anchor Bay Entertainment on June 14, 2011.[16] As of October 22, 2015, the movie has grossed $2,498,115 in US DVD sales.[16]

In the movie, Greene kills Shondor Birns by detonating a bomb on his car. In reality, Birns was killed by a car bomb, but there was no evidence to link Greene to his murder.[37] Even though it is commonly speculated that Greene killed Birns, Birns' murder remains officially unsolved.[38]

In the movie, Greene discovers his friend Art Sneperger is about to become an informant, so he decides to kill him in a car bombing. Greene has Sneperger place a bomb on Mike Frato's car, and as he is doing it, Greene detonates the bomb early, killing Sneperger in the process. In reality, Greene was questioned by the police,[39] but was never proved to have killed Sneperger.[39][40]