The Shocking Depiction of a Life in Crime

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2016)

Johnny Depp's portrayal of Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger must rank among the most repellent characters in recent Hollywood films. Perhaps the film's greatest achievement is to dramatize how Bulger escaped prosecution for blatant lawless, including racketeering and multiple murders for years. Incredibly, he lived undetected for sixteen years in an apartment in Santa Monica, California, prior to his arrest and conviction to two life terms in prison.
One of the themes of the film is the loyalty that existed among the Irish men from South Boston. Bulger had lifelong ties to his childhood friend John Connolly, who became a career FBI agent and protected Bulger for years as a presumed informant. The sleaziness of the FBI agent, the associates of Bulger, and Whitey Bulger himself are a great accomplishment of the filmmakers.
While much care went into the recreation of the period of the 1970s and '80s, the pacing of the film was slow and there were too many extraneous subplots and incidental events portrayed. The editing could have been tighter to focus on Bulger. Except for the depiction of his devotion to his mother and the tragic death of his young son, Bulger's personal life was not fully developed. It was not clear, for example, why he would not be a pallbearer at his mother's funeral.
Despite its shortcomings, the film was a compelling portrayal of a life in crime and the shocking incompetence of the police and the FBI to allow Bulger to create mayhem and madness in Boston for so many years.