My screenwriting partner G is a fan of gangster movies. When he read “Directed by Martin Scorsese. With Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel….”a seraphic beam of fulfilment splashed itself over his handsome features, as if his latest girlfriend had finally admitted to being a millionairess. “Got to see this!!!” He said, and he ran right out of our critical script conference and straight to the nearest cinema showing this much-hyped movie.

After all, Bradshaw in the Guardian had splashed out the full five stars in his review. And he wasn’t alone.

G was more than effusive with his praise, having sat through the entire hours and hours of the thing, so of course he insisted I see it. Being rather more patient than he is, I waited until I could get it on Netflix. I saw it last night.

And this is what I wrote to him this morning:

“On Irishman: I cannot share your enthusiasm for stories about the interactions between narcissists, psychopaths and sociopaths. I don’t care who kills whom, I just want them all imprisoned or dead. Our film is about the effects and actions of a single such character and the massive impact she has on those about her. She is a stone dropped into a pond. The characters in Irishman are swamp creatures tearing each-other’s throats out for territory and their massive bruised egos. Continually throwing stones at each-other. Yes there is some fascination. The performances and the writing are of course faultless. It’s the subject matter that leaves me cold.

“It is also annoying: America’s gun culture is glorified. The scene when he decides which guns to use for a killing, giving his v/o reasons, would delight any psycho gun nut. Sure, we normals are repulsed, but that’s not the point. A psycho would love the great hints and tips on how and when to murder, with what, and what to do with the gun afterwards.

“This movie exemplifies everything that is rotten right at the heart of America. Perhaps that’s why it was written and produced – the actors and producers haven’t been shy about their detestation of Trump. And yet they serve up this confection, which Trump’s base will adore.”

To which G replied:

” I get why you felt that way about The Irishman. They’re all rotten characters and I like how Scorsese doesn’t apologise or justify their actions, like perhaps a lesser director would have done. When the priest asks Deniro in the end whether he has any remorse, he plainly says no. In the gangster genre, I think it’s even worse when directors take these characters and glorify them into heroes. So I’m a fan of Scorsese for that – he doesn’t make any excuses for them. I also feel like it‘s an incredibly timely film with everything going on in America at the moment. Hoffa and Trump are cut from the same soiled cloth, and I know Scorsese and DeNiro despise Trump so I’m sure that was a motivation behind making the film.”

So my question is: is it ok to continue to glorify assholes? I mean there’s nothing wrong with the ass as a body part, but it does emit some dreadful smells. The stench of the rise of the populist right is proof of that. But of course gangster movies have been around for a very long time.

So has the populist right.

I really don’t want to open the hoary old debate about which came first, the glorification of guns and violence or the movies, books and programs which appear to glorify killing, nastiness, war. Frankly, I think testosterone came first. We humans kill for fun, as well as for territory or food or politics. We’re just not very nice.

Which takes me back to the debate in my last blog: are we worth saving? Are we evolving?

Dunno.