Going Undercover
Donnie Brasco is the name former undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone used when he infiltrated the mob for six years before being pulled out; true story. The long running operation led to over one hundred arrests. To this day Pistone lives in an undisclosed location under an assumed name due to the large bounty on his head.
That’s quite a back drop to the film, but it’s true. Johnny Depp, long before becoming the pirate Jack Sparrow or the infamous Ichabod Crane in Sleepy Hollow, stars as Mr. Pistone. He plays a jewel dealer that catches the eye of an older, long time mobster nicknamed Lefty played by the incomparable Al Pacino. Mob movies and Al Pacino go together like milk and cereal, such a great fit. Bruno Kirby, who I know from the City Slicker movies, and Michael Madsen also star as mobsters along with Anne Heche who plays Pistone’s wife.
Lefty and Brasco meet early in the movie, and the relationship grows more intertwined throughout the film. Meanwhile, Brasco’s relationship with this family and even the FBI later in the film dwindles as Brasco gets further and further embedded in the mob to the point where he isn’t so sure he wants to leave anymore. In what you might call a movie about loyalties, Brasco ultimately struggles to leave the mob because that would mean the death of his voucher, and his friend, Lefty, who trusted him and treated him like a son. It’s a very interesting film and a really interesting and I think rather authentic look into mob life that will keep you entertained for the duration, which is about two and a half hours.
Impressive Presentation
Being ten years old, I wasn’t sure what to expect of the video quality on Blu-ray. I was able to tell right away however, from the first seen in bar, that the video quality was really, really good. Not quite the best Blu-ray movie I have seen in the forty or so that I have watched, but definitely way up there, Donnie Brasco looks excellent on Blu-ray. Full 1080p and uncompressed PCM audio make the film look and sound excellent. Of course it helps that the director and casting folk involved in the movie did a great job in portraying the various environments and characters, too.
Most Blu-ray films suffer from a lack of extras, but this Extended Cut didn’t do to bad for itself. There are about thirty-three minutes of total extras. A three minute photo montage shows various still photos from the film while various quotes from the film play along with some soft instrumental music. There is also an eight minute featurette that includes some quick comments from the actors and making of footage. Then you have a roughly twenty-three minute extra called “Donnie Brasco – Out From the Shadows” which is a very interesting piece that includes the real Joseph Pistone talking about his time during the mission and how he consulted on the film and became friends with Depp, etc. Lastly, there are four preview trailers for other Blu-ray releases.