The Look of The Irishman

The film's color palette plays a crucial role in establishing its tone. At the start of Frank Sheeran's story, the colors are much brighter than in the muted last scenes. This was done first to replicate the period and represent Frank's initial naivety and willingness to become a part of organized crime. There are several instances throughout the movie that use color in clothing to represent character traits, This choice reflects the bleak realities of Sheeran's life and the moral decay surrounding him. The drab visuals serve to reinforce the film's themes of regret and loss; they suggest that the glory days of organized crime have faded into a dull existence filled with remorse. Scorsese's decision to avoid bright colors aligns with his narrative intent to present a more realistic view of gangster life, contrasting sharply with the vibrant depictions often found in traditional mob films. In the younger stages of Frank's life, he almost always wears red ties, a very important color in this movie, especially for Jimmy Hoffa.

Al Pacino constantly wears red decorations, such as ties, and a ushanka, up until the moment he dies when he wears a red shirt. Color theory is extremely prominent especially in Jimmy Hoffa's final scene, where the build-up sees Frank, O'Brien, and Sally Bugs driving to pick Jimmy Hoffa up, all wearing somewhat of a blue shirt, as Jimmy get in the car, the most subtle but giving detail about the circumstance is how he is still wearing red, a color that pretty much every character wore at some point in the earliest decade portrayed in the movie, but as their lives went on the color drained from them, and even though Hoffa lost what gave him the power he is still hanging on to those days, in the form of wearing red.