Authentic Story of a Life of Crime

Rating: 8/10 (11 January 2017)

"The Friends of Eddie Coyle" and "The Departed" are probably both better movies about crime in Boston than "Black Mass." Johnny Depp's brilliant performance as Whitey Bulger, by itself, raises the level of this movie to equal them. This movie captures the grittiness of many Boston neighborhoods in much the same way "Mystic River" did. The story is a cautionary tale about power, in this case as wielded by the FBI, and counts as one of many black marks against an agency that rewards ambition more than integrity. The treatment of Billy Bulger, Whitey's younger brother, who rose to become President of the Massachusetts Senate and President of the University of Massachusetts, is nuanced but perhaps overly kind. I lived in Boston during much of this time, and in Southern California when Whitey was apprehended, so I was aware of much of this story. What I really didn't know was the high proportion of his associates who ultimately turned state's evidence against him.