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Hoffa is a 1992 film about Jimmy Hoffa, directed by Danny DeVito. The film stars Jack Nicholson. It features a cameo by Tim Burton as a corpse.

Plot[]

On July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa and his longtime friend Bobby Ciaro are impatiently waiting in the parking lot of a roadhouse diner. Moving in vignettes from when he was an International Brotherhood of Teamsters union organizer working the various trucking firms and laundries around Detroit, Hoffa's life over the four preceding decades gradually unfolds. In 1935, Hoffa boards a parked truck where he meets driver Bobby Ciaro. Hoffa pitches the benefits of joining the Teamsters and gives Ciaro a business card, on which he has written: "Give this man whatever he needs." A few days later, Ciaro reports to work to find Hoffa attempting to persuade his fellow drivers to unionize. Hoffa blurts out that he already spoke to Ciaro, getting him fired. He later accosts Hoffa with a knife, but Hoffa's longtime bodyguard Billy Flynn forces him to drop it at gunpoint. Ciaro assists Hoffa and Flynn in the arson of a laundry whose owner refuses to cooperate with the Teamsters. Flynn accidentally sets himself on fire and dies of his injuries. Ciaro then becomes Hoffa's new bodyguard and assistant.

During a Teamsters strike that quickly turns into a street brawl with non-union workers, Hoffa is taken to see Detroit Mafia's top boss, Carl D'Allesandro, with the Italian-American Ciaro acting as interpreter. A partnership is soon formed between the Teamsters and the Mafia, and Hoffa makes several illegal loans to the mob using union funds. At a Congressional hearing, Hoffa is questioned by Robert F. Kennedy over allegations that the Teamsters are controlled by organized crime. When Hoffa becomes president of the Teamsters in 1957, Kennedy and Hoffa engage in a loud and bitter feud, especially after John F. Kennedy is elected President in 1960 and Bobby becomes Attorney General.

During a hunting trip, D'Allesandro and Hoffa discuss an embezzlement scheme involving the Teamsters pension fund. Having no paper with them, the plans are sketched on the back of a hunting license. Hoffa is then betrayed by Teamsters official Peter Connelly, who not only testifies at Hoffa's trial for labor racketeering but also provides the prosecution with a crucial piece of evidence: the license. Hoffa surrenders to federal officials and receives a long sentence while Connelly's uncle, Frank Fitzsimmons, assumes control of the Teamsters. Ciaro is also convicted but on lesser charges, and quickly obtains early release from prison. D'Allesandro advises him to have the Teamsters endorse Richard M. Nixon for President in 1968 in exchange for Hoffa receiving a presidential pardon.

Hoffa is pardoned by the Nixon administration but learns that one of the conditions of his release is that he cannot have any involvement with the Teamsters for at least ten years. Hoffa becomes furious and meets with D'Allesandro, asking him to have Fitzsimmons killed, resulting in a failed attempt to assassinate him with a car bomb. D'Allesandro believes that Hoffa has become "too hot" with his public antics and declines to help him any further. In response, Hoffa has Ciaro deliver a message to D'Allesandro that unless Fitzsimmons is dealt with, Hoffa will go to the press. D'Allesandro replies that he will meet with Hoffa at a nearby diner the next day to work out a plan.

Hoffa and Ciaro spend several hours waiting in the diner's parking lot, but D'Allesandro does not come. A union driver has been waiting for hours in the dining room, allegedly for a part for his truck. He and Ciaro start talking, and Ciaro lets him take some coffee to Hoffa, who is waiting in the car. The "driver"pulls out a silenced pistol and kills Hoffa and Ciaro. He is immediately driven off in a car that pulls up; at the same time, men emerge from the truck, drive Hoffa's car with both bodies into it, and drive off.

Cast[]

  • Jack Nicholson as Jimmy Hoffa
  • Danny DeVito as Bobby Ciaro
  • Armand Assante as Carl "Dally" D'Allesandro
  • J.T. Walsh as Frank Fitzsimmons
  • John C. Reilly as Petey Connelly
  • Kevin Anderson as Robert F. Kennedy
  • John P. Ryan as "Red" Bennett
  • Frank Whaley as Young Trucker In Diner
  • Natalia Nogulich as Josephine Hoffa
  • Nicholas Pryor as Hoffa's Attorney
  • Robert Prosky as Billy Flynn
  • Paul Guilfoyle as Ted Harmon
  • Karen Young as Young Woman At RTA
  • Cliff Gorman as Soloman "Solly" Stein
  • Bruno Kirby as Nightclub Comedian (uncredited)
  • Jon Favreau as Extra (uncredited)
  • Tim Burton as Corpse (uncredited)

Reception[]

Videos[]

Trivia[]

  • Based on the real life events of the life of the labor union leader Jimmy Hoffa.
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