Martin Scorsese urges viewers not to watch The Irishman on their phones: ‘Please, please don’t’

Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro attend the international premiere of The Irishman at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival on 13 October, 2019: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images
Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro attend the international premiere of The Irishman at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival on 13 October, 2019: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images

Martin Scorsese has pleaded with viewers not to watch The Irishman on their phones.

The three-and-a-half-hour film was released on Netflix on Thursday (28 November).

The director told Rolling Stone: “I would suggest, if you ever want to see one of my pictures, or most films – please, please don’t look at it on a phone, please. An iPad, a big iPad, maybe.”

The Irishman, a gangster film that follows real-life Mafia hitman Frank Sheeran across several decades of his life, stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and Stephen Graham.

It was awarded five stars by The Independent's critic Clarisse Loughrey, who called it a “throwback to Scorsese’s golden age”.

However it has been criticised by some for the lack of airtime and dialogue offered to its female stars, most notably Anna Paquin, who says a total of six words in the 10 minutes of on-screen time she is allotted.

Some fans have been teasing Scorsese since he made the remarks by uploading pictures of themselves watching the movie on their Apple watches.

The Irishman is available to stream now on Netflix.