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Donnie Brasco: Difference between revisions
Not to be confused with
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{{quote|''"When I introduce you, I'm gonna say, 'This is a friend of mine.' That means you're a connected guy. Now if I said instead, this is a friend of ours that would mean you a made guy. A Capiche?"''
|'''Lefty'''}}
'''''Donnie Brasco''''' is a crime drama staring [[Al Pacino]] (Lefty), and [[Johnny Depp]] (Donnie) set in the Mafia gangland of 1970's New York. An imposing mafia hit man, one Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero needs some advice on a jewel he as been given as collateral. Nothing here is as it seems: the jewel is a fake, Lefty isn't a made man and the guy giving him advice, expert jewel thief Donnie Brasco, is in truth working deep cover for the FBI.
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There is a big problem with being a crook: you work with crooks. The situation heats up. Both men have to make some painful choices.
Not to be confused with [[Dante Basco]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Becoming the Mask]]: While discovery puts Donnie at risk of being [[Deadly Euphemism|clipped]], staying undercover isn't safe either: where does the act end? He identifies with his fatherly mentor, and life makes more sense on the wrong side.
** The real Joe Pistone mentions this as a case of artistic license. While he had real friendship with Sonny Black, and found the rest of the wiseguys superficially charming, having to deal with their brutality and lack of any basic humanity day in and day out more or less reinforced his negative views of the Mafia.
* [[Composite Character]]: Lefty in the movie is a composite of the real Lefty, the real Sonny Black, and several other wiseguys Joe Pistone met during his undercover work. The movie's Sonny Black has the less sympathetic aspects of the real person.
* [[Damn, It Feels Good to Be
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▲* [[Damn It Feels Good to Be A Gangster]]: Lefty draws his life from being a gangster. He's fully signed up to the whole mystique.
* [[Domestic Abuse]]: Donnie hits Maggie, showing how negatively being undercover has affected him.
▲{{quote| '''Lefty''': "This is my family. More even than my own family."}}
▲::No matter how Lefty ''feels'', events show the trope is ultimately subverted. These gangsters are not always living the high life. These are the guys at street level in a grubby, overlooked corner of the mob world. A visit to a high-class Manhattan nightclub only shows how out-of-place the Brooklyn crew is. Lefty himself has been burned by his own guys for thirty years and had gotten to resent it.
* [[Deconstruction]]: Not only do the book and the film totally deglamorize the nature of organized crime, they make it look ''boring''.
* [[Dramatization]]: The film takes as its starting point the hair-raising exploits of Joseph Pistone, an real life FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family over several years, living the role in deep cover. Who did what, even who lives and dies, was changed around to serve the story. Some characters are [[Composite Character|Composite Characters]].
* [[Dramedy]]: There are many understated comedic moments in the film. And many different kinds of comedy. Sometimes its very verbal, jokes about langauge. Othertimes it is all nonverbal, or situational. Or character driven. As a whole the film is a drama, not a comedy, but it would be a very different film if it stuck to that genre. It's interesting to note that this fairly full-on mob film was directed by one [[Mike Newell]], better known for ''[[Four Weddings and
* [[Follow in My Footsteps]]: Lefty needs a son. He needs a son following in his footsteps, to get where he himself wanted to get to. His own son is a junkie. But maybe Donnie can act as a surrogate.
* [[Girlfriend in Canada]]: Donnie tells his mobster buddies that he has a girlfriend "back in California" (because he actually has a wife, and doesn't want to cheat on her). The mobsters buy it hook, line, and sinker, despite never seeing him call, speak of, or show around photos of his alleged girlfriend.
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* [[Last Second Chance]]: Just before the FBI swoop in to make the climatic busts, Donnie essentially gives Lefty a chance to walk away and escape the deadly mob consequences of letting in an police undercover agent into their world. Lefty indignantly turns it down and thus faces the expected consequences.
* [[The Mafia]]: With the real life Donnie Brasco, Joseph Pistone, providing the source book and on-set assistance the movie is packed with detail. The paradoxical world of the Mafia is explored: hierarchy, loyalty, codes of honor. But also harsh penalties for failure or transgression, betrayal, and promotion via dead men's shoes.
* [[Married to
* [[The Seventies]]: The setting. And the horrible tracksuit. In the Miami scenes it is odd to think [[Scarface]] is only a few years away from coming ashore.
* [[Taking the Kids]]: What Maggie Pistone threatens to do when their marriage hits the rocks.
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* [[Witness Protection]]: Where Donnie and his family end up.
* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Many central scenes show Donnie and Lefty sparing. And when Lefty finally accepts the possibility that Donnie is FBI:
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