The movie is directed by Danny DeVito, who also plays the key role of Bobby Ciaro, a trucker who Hoffa meets on the road. Bobby is afraid to join the Teamsters. He could lose his job just by talking to this guy. Your secret is safe with me, Hoffa promises him, and then betrays it at a key moment, costing Bobby his job but gaining himself a sidekick. And Bobby is at his side until the end, a faithful yes-man and lapdog, who looks at Hoffa and sees a great man.
I am not sure if Bobby Ciaro is based on a real-life person, but this movie needs him, as a window into Hoffa, who is portrayed as a loner, a selfcontained strategist who cold-bloodedly sets about finding the weak points of his enemies. We see Jimmy through Bobby's eyes. It's a good question whether Jimmy ever really sees himself.
The film's one weakness is that it never answers it; I would have appreciated more insight into Hoffa's own feelings.
The production is lavish with period details - the old trucks, the shabby roadside gas stations, the weather-beaten loading docks, the cigarettes, one after another in a life-long chain. The truckers' world contrasts with the world of power inhabited by the insiders: The Old World elegance of the Mafia meeting places, for example, or the rooms where men of power in the govern ment reside. The movie makes its best points for union organizing just by contrasting the cabs and roadstops of the drivers with the world of privilege.
Real names are used. The movie has two villains, Bobby Kennedy (Kevin Anderson) and Frank Fitzsimmons (J. T. Walsh), who for different reasons want to destroy Hoffa - Kennedy, because he has a personal vendetta against this foul-mouthed man who insults his family, Fitzsimmons because, having taken over leadership of Hoffa's union, he has no wish to give it back. You could argue that the third villain is the Mafia, as personified in a character played by Armand Assante, but actually the gangsters in this movie operate in a more objective, businesslike way than the public officials. The Mafia sponsors the murder of Hoffa at the end of the film, but it's nothing personal. It's because Hoffa's anger finally got the better of his negotiating ability.
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