Donnie Brasco
by Mike Newell
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Actor: Al Pacino, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, Johnny Depp, Michael MadsenDirector: Mike Newell
Producer: Alan Greenspan
Producer: Barry Levinson
Producer: Gail Mutrux
Producer: Louis DiGiaimo
Writer: Joseph D. Pistone
Writer: Paul Attanasio
Writer: Richard Woodley
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 127 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-01-20
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of Donnie Brasco
DVD Review: Excellent and insightful drama of loyalty and betrayal
Summary: 5 Stars
DONNIE BRASCO is an excellent film in every way. The justly Oscar-nominated screenplay is complexly layered. The performances are all of the highest calibre. Pacino should have received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for his performance as Lefty and Anne Heche deserved a nod in the Supporting Actress performance as Donnie's put upon wife. This was Depp's first great performance as well. His Donnie has to be able to operate on three levels simultaneously - allowing the audience to perceive wordlessly what he is thinking and feeling, while not betraying any of this to the underworld characters he is interacting with - a subtle and galvanized performance.
At first with a moustache and sporting a Brooklyn accent, Depp as Donnie is an FBI agent infiltrating a NY mob. His protector is a two-bit gangster, Lefty, disillusioned that he has nothing to show for a life time of service. He is also disappointed in his drug-addicted son. Donnie gives him a chance to believe in something and becomes his surrogate son. Donnie in turn gives Lefty the respect and schemes for wealth that have been absent from his life. These two bond in ways that go beyond the FBI's predictions of what the sting should look like.
Donnie becomes enmeshed with Lefty, slowly becoming a "wise guy" himself, disillusioned at the lack of respect and reward he as an FBI agent is receiving. As the sting gets closer, Donnie is torn between doing his job and saving his new friend, Lefty.
It is an emotional film and one very taut and tense. There are moments when we are sure Donnie is going to be exposed and we cringe. The whole thing is superbly directed by Mike Newell, who manges to extract amazing nuances from a script that Scorcese would have trampled over. (Indeed Scorcese's THE DEPARTED is simply a reworking of the DONNIE BRASCO script with two infiltrators rather than one.)
The mob is ugly- we are taken inside their world and see them for what they are - macho, ugly, brutal, ignorant, uneducated, evil pieces of scum - disgusting and revolting dregs of humanity. Newell pulls no punches here - be warned. We are shown in minute detail the steps whereby a novice gets into the undeworld and how he moves up, step by step - as well as the "language" of the streets.
There is an excellent and unobstrusive dramatic score. Paul Giammatti (sp?) appears in two small scenes, one as the inquistor we've been waiting for, asking "So, what does 'Forget about it!' really mean?"
To sum up: This is an excellent film about ugly people with a superb script, fine direction and top notch performances. One of the best and Depp's first step up the ladder to his position today as America's best screen actor.
Description of Donnie Brasco
Based on a memoir by former undercover cop Joe Pistone (whose daring and unprecedented infiltration of the New York Mob scene earned him a place in the federal witness protection program), Donnie Brasco is like a de- romanticized, de-mythologized version of The Godfather. It offers an uncommonly detailed, privileged glimpse inside the world of organized crime from the perspective of the little guys at the bottom of Mafia hierarchy rather than from the kingpins at the top. Donnie Brasco is not only one of the great modern-day gangster movies to put in the company of The Godfather films and GoodFellas, but it is also one of the great undercover police movies--arguably surpassing Serpico and Prince of the City in richness of character, detail, and moral complexity. Donnie (Johnny Depp, a splendid actor) is practically adopted by Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a gregarious, low-level "made" man who grows to love his young protégé like a son. (Pacino really sinks into this guy's skin and polyester slacks, and creates his freshest, most fully realized character since his 1970s heyday.) As Donnie acclimates himself to Lefty's world, he distances himself from his wife (a terrific Anne Heche) and family for their own protection. Almost imperceptibly his sense of identity slips away from him. Questioning his own confused loyalties, unable to trust anybody else because he himself is an imposter, Donnie loses his way in a murky and treacherous no-man's land. The film is directed by Mike Newell, who also headed up Four Weddings and a Funeral and the gritty, true crime melodrama Dance with a Stranger. --Jim EmersonBestsellers in DVD
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