Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger

James Whitey Bulger operated in Boston for thirty years, was caught in 2011 and tried in 2013 on charges including nineteen murders. The documentary follows that trial as it happens. Joe Berlinger directs. The question the film is interested in is not guilt. What Bulger did is not in doubt. The issue is whether he was protected for years as an FBI informant and, if so, which agency looked away from which killings. Bulger denies being an informant and builds his defence on that; the prosecution does not want the argument, because the argument moves the FBI toward the dock. Berlinger gives a great deal of room to the victims' families, and the hardest material comes from them. Some of them say plainly that the state knowingly protected the man who killed their relatives. Another strand is Boston's story about itself: the mythologising of Bulger, neighbourhood loyalty, and the romantic place given to him in popular culture. Berlinger questions that directly. Bulger was sentenced to life in 2013 and was killed in 2018 in the prison he had been transferred to. Who it is for: viewers interested in organised crime, institutional corruption and courtroom documentary. Who it is not for: the film names a great many people and agencies. Without knowing the Boston case it is hard to follow.