Watch: Go Behind The Scenes Of 'The Irishman' With Criterion's 36-Minute Making-Of Documentary

What's the point in owning the Criterion edition of Martin Scorsese's modern gangster masterpiece, The Irishman, you might ask? Well, we can debate about the benefits of digital versus physical copies for ages, but the special features alone would make it worth it. Criterion's The Irishman Blu-ray release includes everything from video essays, scene breakdowns, and making-of-featurettes, the latter of which has been made available to watch for free on YouTube now. Watch the Making The Irishman featurette below.

Making The Irishman

A making-of featurette of The Irishman has been released on Netflix's YouTube channel, to promote the film's Criterion Collection Blu-ray release. And while it seems like a bit of a cheat to drop this entire 30-minute making-of video on the internet for free, it does give us a taste of director Martin Scorsese's craft, and his close relationships with stars Robert De NiroAl Pacino, and Joe Pesci that only gets expanded on in the rest of the Criterion release's special features.

But Netflix has never been about exclusivity, and it is cool to see them celebrate Scorsese like this by making the entire featurette available. It's incredible to see Scorsese at work — the first two minutes of this featurette show him directing Pacino, and waving his hands as Pacino performs the scene, as if he were a conductor of an orchestra. It's beautiful to watch, and will perhaps make more casual fans of Scorsese's work interested in seeking out the Criterion release, which is available for purchase now.

Special Features Include:

  • New 4K digital master, approved by director Martin Scorsese, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Newly edited roundtable conversation among Scorsese and actors Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, originally recorded in 2019
  • Making "The Irishman," a new program featuring Scorsese; the lead actors; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Jane Rosenthal, and Irwin Winkler; director of photography Rodrigo Prieto; and others from the cast and crew
  • Gangsters' Requiem, a new video essay by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman's synthesis of Scorsese's singular formal style
  • Anatomy of a Scene: "The Irishman," a 2020 program featuring Scorsese's analysis of the Frank Sheeran Appreciation Night scene from the film
  • The Evolution of Digital De-aging, a 2019 program on the visual effects created for the film
  • Excerpted interviews with Frank "the Irishman" Sheeran and Teamsters trade-union leader Jimmy Hoffa from 1999 and 1963
  • Trailer and teaser
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien