"Yesterday's Gone and Over -- Tomorrow's On It Way! STARTING NOW!"

A great long sequence near the Third Act of The Irishman has Robert DeNiro's character being given a big testimonial retirement dinner by the Teamsters.

Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) is there to send DeNiro off, and the room is also filled with gangsters who wouldn't mind to see Hoffa dead -- even though the wives and daughters(many) and sons of Pacino and DeNiro are in the same room.. Pretty much the entire cast of The Irishman is in that room.

And there are three consecutive "acting duets" -- Pacino/Pesci; Pesci/DeNiro; DeNiro/Pacino -- that are thrilling exercises in acting as practiced by three Old Pros.

Its a great overall sequence --sort of a grandchild to the wedding scene that opens The Godfather.

Watching it several times, I always notice this:

As part of the dinner entertainment, a large group of pretty young women come on stage -- in front of DeNiro who sits there awkwardly -- and perform a big upbeat song and dance number that is so relentlessy sweet and cheerful that it becomes FUNNY -- these beautiful young lasses are singing and dancing their happy hearts out to a roomful of grim killers and their captive families.

The singing and dancing -- and beauty -- is largely in the background as the stars do their mob talk in the foreground, but Scorsese does give focus for a few moments to the singers singing this:

"Yesterday's gone and over , tomorrow's on its way!" A rueful suggestion of happy times ahead..when what is REALLY ahead is the murder of Hoffa and the near-permanent incarceration of all the gangsters in the room.

The dancers reach their big finish about when all this happiness is going to happen: "Starting now! Starting nowwww!" STARTING NOW!"

I find this a delicious counterpoint to the mob talk. The ladies are all beautiful and not quite fully dressed, too. They are like The Golddiggers or Jackie Gleason's June Taylor Dancers(to name some blasts from the past.)

I also like how, later during the testimonial entertainment, "Jerry Vale"(as played by Steven Van Zandt of The Sopranos) serenades the guests. The REAL Jerry Vale can be seen singing to the gangsters in GoodFellas.

The Teamsters paid for some real entertainment for DeNiro's send off!