Gritty, dark, powerful mob drama

Rating: 8/10 (22 January 2020)

I saw "Donnie Brasco" years ago and recently watched it again. Excellent, pleasingly subtle performances from Johnny Depp, Al Pacino and Michael Madsden make this movie well worth your time. The storyline--FBI agent Joe Pistone's undercover journey into the dark, violent world of the Bonnano crime family and how he develops a close bond with mobster Ben "Lefty" Ruggiero that leaves him guilt-ridden about his deception (albeit in a quest to stop organized criminal activity)--keeps you fairly riveted throughout a long-ish movie. His stint as a fake jewel fencer named "Donnie Brasco" continues for years as his relationship with his long-suffering wife and kids in the suburbs is stretched to the limit. While there are plenty of details that seem like mob movie cliches at this point (although Pistone was a close advisor to the movie's production and said that what was shown was highly accurate), one thing that struck me about "Donnie Brasco" that distinguishes it from other films in this genre was that it does not glamorize the Mafia culture or violent crime. These seem like desperate men constantly pressured to produce revenue for their superiors, and their world seems grubby, tense and unappealing. Pacino's Lefty is bitter, an ill, aging man depressed by broken promises and dead ends in his life who dreams of breaking free, although he knows that is impossible. A very different character from Michael Corleone, the wizard-like Mafia don at the pinnacle of power who manipulates the men around him like chess pieces. Lefty knows he is a pawn. He smells doom and you can smell it too.
Depp's Pistone/Brasco internalizes his guilt and horror, and you can see it eat away at him as he interacts with his real family in brief visits that are heart-wrenching or with his FBI contacts. You see his horror when he witnesses the violence of the gang's crimes, and this movie does not turn the violence into opera or comedy as other films in this genre have done--it is messy and awkward. Victims suffer. The camera doesn't spare you that experience. That aspect of this film impressed me the most. Interesting that the director was Mike Newell of "Four Weddings and a Funeral"!!
Michael Madsden's portrayal of Sonny Black is terrific -- he is truly menacing in his quiet moments. The rest of the supporting players do a fine job. Watch for two young actors in one scene in bit parts, Tim Blake Nelson and Paul Giammati, years before they became famous. Definitely watch "Donnie Brasco" if you are interested in true crime, the Mafia or tense character dramas. It captures a grubby, gritty, bleak corner of American life so well.