In 1978, FBI agent Joseph Pistone (Johnny Depp) goes undercover as a jeweler named Donnie Brasco. After becoming friends with an aging mob hitman named Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero (Al Pacino), Pistone becomes privy to the inner workings of a New York crime family, but his devotion to Lefty threatens his marriage, his career, and his life.

CRITIQUE

I suppose it’s somewhat inevitable that people compare Donnie Brasco to GoodFellas. After all, GoodFellas is the king of mob movies, but I think it’s a little unfair to judge Brasco against Scorsese’s masterpiece. Yes, any movie should be judged on its own merits and not by how it stacks up to other similar films, but that’s only part of it. First of all, it’s pretty much a given that no other mob movie will ever rival GoodFellas. Hell, Scorsese himself can’t make another mob movie to rival it, so how can we expect it of anyone else?

Secondly, aside from the world it depicts, Donnie Brasco really has little in common with Goodfellas. Scorsese’s film is a mob story, while I’d argue that Brasco is a story that just happens to be populated by mobsters. What director Mike Newell (of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame) and writer Paul Attanasio (who adapted the memoir written by Pistone with Richard Woodley) have crafted is more of a character study focusing on two guys who strike up an unlikely friendship than it is a study of the criminal underworld. It’s not about mob life, but rather about the lives of two men who are tied to the mob, which I think separates it from almost every other film in the genre.

Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but when I think of this movie, I don’t think of the scenes involving day-to-day mob operations, or the brief outbursts of violence, but instead remember the relationship between Donnie and Lefty. Lefty is a guy who’s paid his dues to his superiors, and has trained himself to be unquestioningly loyal (even going so far as to see his targets, many of them former friends, as sub-human), yet has never received what he sees as his just rewards; he’s spent most of his life in the organization, but he’s still just a flunky. On top of this, his son is a drug addict, constantly breaking his father’s heart. I think it’s safe to say that Lefty latches onto Donnie because he sees him as both the son he never had and his opportunity to rise through the ranks, and believes the two will remain loyal to one another.

As for the other half of the equation, I can’t draw any firm correlation between anything in Donnie’s background (we learn almost nothing of Pistone’s life outside his job, a problem I’ll get to in a minute) and his friendship with Lefty, but I don’t think it would be out of the question to assume something in his past draws him to Lefty. I would also say that Donnie is drawn to Lefty simply because you can’t help but be drawn to someone like Lefty. Despite the fact that Donnie is there to get dirt on Lefty and his partners, there’s a basic decency to Lefty that ultimately muddies the waters for Donnie. Lefty comes across as more misguided and put-upon than truly amoral, and you get the impression that he wasn’t drawn to the life he leads inasmuch as he simply had nowhere else to go. Not that any of this justifies his actions, or the actions Donnie considers taking late in the film, but it does go a long way to helping understand why both men do what they do.  

The performances by the two leads are simply wonderful. I don’t think Depp has ever been better than he is here; it’s a relatively quiet performance, as Brasco spends much of the film listening, learning and reacting, but there’s an underlying intelligence that comes through, even when it’s obvious he’s losing his grip and recklessly risking everything for Lefty. And Depp is marvelous when it comes to expressing the slow evolution of the character over the course of the film. As for Pacino, when you take into account that he was in the middle of the most hammy phase of his career at this point (remember--this movie was released the same year as The Devil’s Advocate), his work here is made even more impressive. There’s no flash to Lefty, and without scenery to chew on Pacino does the only thing one should do with such a character: humanize him.

Now on to what bothers me about the film. In concentrating on the relationship between Lefty and Donnie, the movie shortchanges the other half of the story, that being Pistone’s relationship with his wife and kids (who have no idea exactly what type of assignment he’s on). At times Pistone’s home life plays like an afterthought, just something to increase the tension and dread at certain points. And when the scenes do come, they’re awfully conventional. First we get a scene of Pistone and his wife (played here by Anne Heche) having passionate sex, then we jump to him arriving late on Christmas Day, or missing his daughter’s confirmation, and eventually his children no longer see him as an authority figure. Honestly, I think the single moment from this plotline that actually works is the scene where Pistone attempts to tell his wife and their marriage counselor what he really does for a living, as it’s the only one that breaks away from the norm.

The version of the film presented here is the extended cut Sony recently concocted. The new material consists primarily of a dinner sequence following the execution of members of a rival faction, as well as a few scenes focusing on Donnie’s family (the latter are particularly welcome, although they still don’t bring enough balance to the story). The new footage adds roughly twenty minutes to the film’s running time, and in the end it neither helps nor harms the film.

THE VIDEO

The only real flaw in the 2.40:1/1080p transfer is some digital noise, probably stemming from compression issues. The visuals have a realistic, naturalistic appearance, which the nicely detailed transfer captures very well; color saturation and reproduction are excellent, and blacks are solid and deep.

THE AUDIO

Audio is available in English uncompressed PCM and Dolby Digital 5.1 options, and the former is by far the better experience. The sound design if front heavy, with dialogue--which is always clear and intelligible--driving much of the film; surround use is confined to a small number of scenes, and the low end only kicks in for the score, period music, or the occasional gunshot. English and French subtitles are included.

THE EXTRAS

Sony released a special edition of this film back in late 2000, but unfortunately only a few of the bonus features have been included here.  Missing is the director’s commentary.

The making-of featurette Donnie Brasco: Out From the Shadows (22 minutes) features interviews with director Mike Newell, writer Paul Attanasio, and Joseph Pistone (who’s still living under the protection of the federal government), who spend most of their time discussing the film’s authenticity.

The original 1997 making-of featurette (7 minutes) is nothing more than your typical behind-the-scenes EPK-style piece.

A photo gallery/montage (3 minutes) features a series of production stills set to music featured in the film.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Theatrical version or extended cut, Donnie Brasco remains a very fine film. The new footage and improvements in the audio and video make this Blu-ray disc a nice upgrade, but if you own the old standard-def special edition, hang on to it for the extras.