Donnie Brasco (film)

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Donnie Brasco

Donnie Brasco DVD cover
Directed by Mike Newell
Produced by Alan Greenspan,
Patrick McCormick
Written by Paul Attanasio
Starring Johnny Depp
Al Pacino

Michael Madsen
Anne Heche
Bruno Kirby
Distributed by Sony
Release date(s) 28 February 1997
Running time 127 minutes
Language English
IMDb profile

Donnie Brasco is a 1997 film by Mike Newell starring Al Pacino, Michael Madsen and Johnny Depp. It is based on the real-life events of Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent who successfully infiltrated the Bonanno crime family, one of the Mafia's Five Families based in New York City during the '70s.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In the late 1970s, FBI agent Joe Pistone (Depp) is given an assignment to infiltrate a New York City Mafia family. Calling himself Donnie Brasco, and posing as a diamond expert, he befriends Lefty Ruggiero (Al Pacino), a low-level mob hit man whose personal life is in tatters, and Dominick Napolitano (Michael Madsen). Lefty can't seem to make any money, his son is a junkie, and he is continually passed over for promotion to a higher position within the Family. He continually reminds Brasco of his growing disillusionment about having spent 30 years in the Mafia (and killing 26 people), with little to show for it. But in Donnie, Lefty sees a young protege who might be able to succeed where he failed. He takes Donnie under his wing, and under Lefty's tutelage Donnie quickly becomes accepted by the other Family members, although he is never elevated above the rank of "associate" member (the lowest Mafia rank). But the longer Pistone plays the role of a gangster, the more he finds himself actually becoming Donnie Brasco during his rare off duty hours; this personality change drives a wedge between himself and his wife (Anne Heche) and three children. Eventually Pistone realizes that the slightest mistake in his performance as a mobster could mean a death sentence for himself and his family. In addition, Joe Pistone has come to regard Lefty as a close and trusted friend. He knows that when the day finally comes that the FBI nails his mob associates, he'll be ending Lefty's life as surely as if he put a slug in his head himself.

Spoilers end here.
  • Depp met with Pistone several times while researching his role.

[edit] Historical Inaccuracies

  • The loanshark collection scene at the strip club really did happen, except Joe Pistone was with the notorious Anthony "Tony" Mirra who worked for the Bonanno family. He was notorious for carrying around a knife which many New York mobsters did because of the New York gun laws. In particular, people always said that if you got into an argument with Tony Mirra, you should stay an arms length apart or he might stab you with his switchblade. Tony almost did this after Joe got into an argument with a drunken patron at a nightclub. Anthony Mirra met the same fate as Sonny Black, at the age of sixty, he was gunned down in a Manhattan parking garage on February 18, 1982 just several months before several fellow mobsters were to be brought up on racketeering charges. The murder was discovered to be ordered by Joe Massino.
  • Joe Pistone was never involved in the murders of Alphonse Indelicato and his two capos, Giaconne and Trinchera. Joe only found out afterwards.
  • Nicky, portrayed as "Nicky" by Bruno Kirby was never murdered by Benjamin Ruggiero, as he is still alive today. This was probably added for dramatic effect. Bonnano soldier John "Boobie" Cersani (whose character was called Paulie in the movie), filed a libel suit against Sony Corporations, TriStar Pictures and other corporations that were involved in producing the film. Cersani had dealings with Donnie Brasco from back in 1972 and was actually brought up on racketeering charges in 1982 that were brought on by the Donnie Brasco investigation.
  • The movie closely follows the real events surrounding the investigative work of Joe Pistone, but makes several deviations. One of these implies that the character Lefty was killed by fellow Family members for allowing Pistone to infiltrate the Family; in reality, Ruggiero was rescued by the FBI on his way to being shot in a restaurant, and was later put into a witness protection program. Ruggiero died of lung cancer on Thanksgiving in 1995. And in real life, "Sonny Black" Napolitano, Lefty's boss, was the one murdered for having allowed Pistone's infiltration.
  • Also over the closing credits it states that "there is still a $500,000 open contract on his head". This is untrue. Following separate sitdowns FBI officials had with the Bonanno family and Paul Castellano, the head of the The Commission and boss of the Gambino crime family at that time, ordered all Mafia bounties on Pistone to be rescinded. Subsequent wiretaps and intelligence reports confirm that this was indeed ordered throughout the Mafia.

[edit] Trivia

[edit] Box office

US Gross Domestic Box Office Numbers: US$ 41,909,762

+ International Gross Box Office Numbers: $83,000,000

= Worldwide Gross Box Office Numbers: $124,909,763

[edit] External links

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