Hoffa is a 1992 American biographical film directed by Danny DeVito that follows Jimmy Hoffa's (Jack Nicholson) life before his infamous disappearance in 1975.
The movie also stars Armand Assante, DeVito, J. T. Walsh, and Robert Prosky.
Tropes for the film:
- Actor Allusion: Frank Whaley, who played the hitman hired by the mob to kill Hoffa, appeared in Ironweed, another film starring Jack Nicholson, where Whaley played Jack's character as a teenager.
- Anachronic Order: The movie alternates between Hoffa and Ciaro waiting in the parking lot outside a restaurant for a meeting and telling the story of Hoffa's career as a union official who started out as organizer who worked his way up to President before being forced out of the union for ten years in exchange for a pardon.
- Artistic License – History: The restaurant that Hoffa and Ciaro are waiting at is depicted as a roadside diner out in the middle of the country. The real Hoffa was last seen at the Machus Red Fox, an upscale restaurant in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, which even in the 1970s was fairly built up and no longer a rural area.
- Biopic: Tells the life of Jimmy Hoffa and his disappearance.
- Cigarette Burns: Bobby Ciaro has burns on his fingers because he's forced to drive long hours by his employers, and so holds a lit cigarette between his fingers to wake him up if he falls asleep at the wheel.
- Composite Character: Ciaro is an amalgamation of several Hoffa associates.
- Dramatic Irony: A Teamsters truck is used to dispose of Hoffa's body.
- Historical Domain Character:
- Jimmy Hoffa, Teamsters leader with ties to the mob.
- Robert F. Kennedy, US Attorney General who feuds with Hoffa.
- Left Your Lifesaver Behind: Hoffa borrows Ciaro's gun while he waits in the car. Later Ciaro sees a hitman draw a silenced pistol on the unsuspecting Hoffa, reaches for his now-empty shoulder holster, then gets shot himself as he desperately rushes to save his friend.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Bobby Ciaro DeVito pulls out a knife he uses for defense. Hoffa's partner Billy Flynn pulls out a gun. After he joins with Hoffa's crew, Flynn orders Ciaro to give him the knife, telling him that, "You wanna go around, go like a white man. Get a gun."
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last frame of the movie is of the truck carrying Hoffa's body driving off into the sunset and eventually fading from sight.
- Period Piece: Takes place from 1930s to the mid 1970s.
- The Stool Pigeon: Amusingly, John C. Reilly's mother thought he was one after she watched the scene where his character turns on Hoffa during a trial, even though said character was telling the truth.
- Supporting Protagonist: The film is seen through the eyes of Jimmy Hoffa's best friend, who is played by Danny DeVito.
- Victory Through Intimidation: Ciaro succeeds in his quest to get a newspaper reporter to kill an unfavorable story about Hoffa by sending him a jar containing human male reproductive organs.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After confronting Detroit mob boss Carl D'Allesandro about the deal the Teamsters engineered with the DOJ to get him out of prison, a deal that prohibited him from working in organized labor for 10 years, Hoffa has his associate Bobby Ciaro go to D'Allesandro to tell him that if the mob doesn't get that prohibition removed then Hoffa would go to the press about the Teamsters alliance with the mob. Which leads to D'Allesandro immediately deciding that both Hoffa and Ciaro are no longer of any use to the mob, and soon after orders a hit on both men.
