Review of Donnie Brasco (1997) by Balliarno — 11 Oct 2020

Donnie Brasco is a film that while it only came in 1997 I feel watching it in 2020 has me thinking maybe just maybe its already a classic in my eyes. The story is a mafia story that sells itself to the audience as a true story and after the credits rolled I jumped on Google to know more and found that some details were left out or changed slightly, I didn’t think it made the film any less enjoyable though but I did think it was worth mentioning to you. Mafia stories in cinema are plenty and to be blunt most are rubbish but Donnie Brasco is one of the special ones that keep the viewer watching right to the end. Like all of my reviews I wont be giving away any spoilers about any film even older ones so you can read this one with confidence that you also can enjoy it. Mafia life, mafia death is a solid front for this film and I really liked that it showed more of everything in the “life” during the runtime than the downfall since that part of these gangster films really bring the tone down. The two major leads are Al Pacino and Johnny Depp and yes we all know Al Pacino is a fantastic actor and this film doesn’t change that but the true wonder is Johnny Depp. Depp shows us before he was Capt Jack Sparrow from Pirates Of The Caribbean he really was a solid actor and I for one would love him to fill the realistic role of an actor again. Donnie Brasco shows us what its like to be pulled into organised crime and go from being a nothing jewel thief to roaming the big city of New York with some of the most feared men that walk its streets. The film clearly doesn’t start exactly back far enough in my opinion but does give you enough back story to understand everything that is happening when the film kicks off. None of the areas of the film felt rushed or unfinished but I did wish the writers/director expanded of a few scenes and maybe cut down on others. This is the kind of film that if you had to guess what was going to happen next I think that 8 out of 10 times you’d be right on the money, this isn’t a bad thing because though you may know where its going you want to see how the screenwriter is going to show it.

For a film based on organised crime I was expecting more violence but I put that down to the fact that almost every other gangster film over uses the violent factor. Since I mention violence don’t go in watching thinking that its minimal because when it does show that side of the world it doesn’t shy away. Some films and tv shows glorify violence to shock the viewer but I have always thought that type comes across as lazy writing whereas here its used just right. During the film the story progresses quite quickly and of course that makes sense because of the time constraint of film but I think at least putting some time scale on the film from time to time would have given a better understanding of how many days/months or even years have passed during each major situation. It might sound like a minor gripe but it was really odd to follow a story only to be shuffled from one major situation to the other and have to guess how much time has passed.

I like most movie lovers know the big hitters in this genre of film and I would put Donnie Brasco into that group. Holding off on some films or just forgetting them for whatever reason isn’t always a bad thing as I don’t think I would have appreciated DB the same way if I was younger.