Donnie Brasco

Donnie Brasco (1997) is about an FBI agent infiltrating the mafia, and it is based on real events. An agent named Joseph Pistone went into the Bonanno family in New York under the name Donnie Brasco and stayed six years. That is what the film rests on. But it is less an infiltration story than a story about a friendship. The man who brings Donnie in is Lefty, an old, tired hitman who never rose. Lefty vouches for him, and by the rules that means if Donnie does anything wrong, Lefty pays for it. The pain of the film comes from there. The better Donnie does his job, the closer he moves Lefty to death, and he knows it. Al Pacino plays Lefty and it is not the usual Pacino; he never raises his voice. Johnny Depp's Donnie grows stranger to his own household as it goes on, and that is the second story. The slang is largely real; the scene explaining how many things one phrase can mean comes from Pistone's book. The real Pistone still keeps his identity hidden. Mike Newell directed. An English director making a New York mob film was an odd choice, and it worked. It runs 127 minutes. Good for: mob films, true stories, and character drama. Less good for: the violence is harsh and there is a body disposal scene.