In Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Al Pacino plays union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Hoffa was the real president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and became one of the most prominent labor leaders in the United States.
The film focuses on Frank Sheeran, played by Robert De Niro, and presents a fictionalized account of Sheeran’s claimed involvement with organized crime and Hoffa’s disappearance. Joe Pesci plays Russell Bufalino, another important figure in the story.
Hoffa disappeared in 1975 and was declared legally dead in 1982, but the circumstances remain unresolved. The Irishman is based on Charles Brandt’s book I Heard You Paint Houses. Its dramatization should not be treated as a definitive historical solution to the disappearance, since Sheeran’s claims have been disputed.