Martin Scorsese Does Not Recommend Watching ‘The Irishman’ on a Phone: ‘A Big iPad, Maybe’

By Erin Nyren

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour long mob epic “The Irishman” became available on Netflix — and therefore its app — Wednesday, but that doesn’t mean the director wants viewers to watch the film on their phones.

“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,” Scorsese told critic Peter Travers on his YouTube show, Popcorn With Peter Travers .

Scorsese attests that despite its lengthy runtime, the film is capable of pulling in — and sustaining — people’s attention.

“I’m not saying because, ‘Oh, I made it,’” he said. “It was an interesting narrative structure, and it got me involved each time. In a funny way, I think I made it to cover all the bases in terms of how you could watch this picture. Ideally, I’d like you to go to a theater, look at it on a big screen from beginning to end. And I know, it’s long — you gotta get up, you gotta go to the bathroom, that sort of thing, I get it — but also at home, I think if you can make a night of it, or an afternoon thereof, and know that you’re not gonna answer the phone or you’re not gonna get up too much, it might work.”

As for making movies specifically for phones, Scorsese said he never has and “I don’t know how to do it. I wish I could, I don’t know how. No, I don’t get it.”