Donnie Brasco

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Movie
German title Donnie Brasco
Original title Donnie Brasco
Donnie Brasco DVD.Logo.png
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1997
length 123 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Mike Newell
script Paul Attanasio
production Louis DiGiaimo ,
Mark Johnson ,
Barry Levinson ,
Gail Mutrux
music Patrick Doyle
camera Peter Sova
cut Jon Gregory
occupation

Donnie Brasco is an American Mafia - film from 1997 with Johnny Depp and Al Pacino in the lead roles .

action

In the late 1970s, FBI agent Joseph Pistone is smuggled into a New York Mafia family as an undercover agent . He poses as a jeweler named Donnie Brasco and thus wins the trust of Mafia members "Lefty" Ruggiero and Dominic Napolitano . Lefty is an aging petty crook and contract killer who is always short of cash and feels left out in family promotions. Again and again he reminds Donnie that he has been working for the Mafia for 30 years, has committed 26 murders and is still without money. With the help of Lefty and Dominic, who leads a crew as the Capo regime , Donnie makes a career in the Mafia and is accepted as a friend of the family (lowest rank within the Mafia), even if he never reaches the rank of full member .

Donnie's wife, who tries to persuade him to come home more often from the start, notices how her husband is falling into the mafia habits more and more. Over time, Donnie can no longer get out of his role even in the few hours he spends a week at home, which puts a heavy strain on their marriage. His children also suffer from their father's absence. The situation comes to a head when it becomes clear that the slightest mistake in his role that leads to the disclosure of his identity would mean not only his death but that of his family as well. With the disclosure of his action, the death sentence would also be pronounced for his confidante, Lefty, because he has vouched for Donnie. Lefty has become something of a friend for Donnie over time, which is why he tries to enable him to escape with a bag of misappropriated money. When Donnie even begins to disobey orders from his superiors and break off contact, and is supposed to commit a contract killing with Lefty, the FBI ends the mission.

Some time later, Lefty and Napolitano are still in the dark about Donnie's real identity, Pistone's FBI client appears in the mafiosi's local pub. They use photos from Donnie's FBI training to explain his true origins to the members. The mobsters don't believe the FBI men that Donnie was a snitch. A few days later Lefty is seen sitting in his apartment and talking on the phone, he is about to be summoned. That means he has to stand up for Donnie, since he smuggled him into the family and vouched for him. At the end, Joe Pistone is shown receiving a medal and a check for $ 500 for his earnings. He looks at his award, then looks up. You can hear his wife's voice off: "Come on Joe, let's go home."

background

  • The film is based on the book Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia in 1990, the FBI agent Joseph describes the experiences D. Pistone, who under the alias as "Donnie Brasco" six years undercover (Engl. Undercover agent ) in the circles of the Mafia family Bonanno , one of the five New York Mafia families, in New York City and Florida in order to infiltrate them . In the early 1980s, this led to 120 members of the Bonanno Mafia family being arrested and sentenced.
  • After Pistone was exposed, he was accepted into the US witness protection program and given a new identity.
  • Pistone is a writer and advisor to various law enforcement agencies around the world. In 2004 his second book was published with the name The Way of the Wiseguy ( wise guy means in slang "Mafia member").
  • The film mentions the murder of Carmine Galante when "Lefty" Ruggiero speaks of the "murder of the boss " after he was "summoned". At the time, Galante was the incumbent boss of the family when boss Philip "Rusty" Rastelli was imprisoned.
  • The film suggests that Lefty will likely be murdered. In fact, the real Lefty was put into protective custody by the FBI. After refusing to betray the "family," he was sentenced to 20 years in prison on three counts for conspiracy to commit murder. After eleven years in prison, he was released and developed testicular and lung cancer. He was "pardoned" by the mafia and died in 1994 of lung cancer. In reality, it was "Sonny Black" Napolitano who had to take responsibility for bringing Donnie Brasco into the family and was murdered.
source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

Awards (selection)

  • Paul Attanasio was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 1998 .
  • Al Pacino won a BSFC Award for Best Actor .
  • The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Documentation

2012: In the Mafia Network - The FBI's secret files : Undercover agent Donnie Brasco; First broadcast 10 June 2013 ZDF (OT: Mafia's Greatest Hits: Donnie Brasco: Undercover In The Mob; first broadcast UK 6 July 2012)

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Donnie Brasco at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on November 15, 2014
  2. ↑ a b Donnie Brasco at Metacritic , accessed on November 15, 2014
  3. ↑ Donnie Brasco in the Internet Movie Database (English)