SOURCE: Kempton, Murray. “The Jumper.” New York Review of Books 90, no. 4 (11 February 1993): 31.

In the following review, Kempton criticizes Hoffa's portrayal of Teamsters' union leader Jimmy Hoffa.

Danny De Vito's Hoffa is artfully constructed, masterfully played, and travels at speeds beyond the prescriptive norm. It weaves back and forth across the dividing line between truth and myth with the controlled recklessness of an over-the-road trucker making up time by breaching the peace of mind of drivers slower than himself. Jack Nicholson's Jimmy Hoffa is magnificent, but it is not Jimmy Hoffa. Nicholson has caught and occasionally even come close to incarnating Hoffa's tragedy. But he cannot define it for us because a misconception of the hero as an idealist keeps getting in his way.

De Vito's tale, as told by David Mamet, begins with the fallen president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters sitting with his last loyal...