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Rating: Always one of the most cast actors in gangster films, it was inevitable that sooner or later Al Pacino would take on a role where the aura of greatness he had in mafia movies like The Godfather and Scarface would be largely diminished. In Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco, he is Lefty, a "small-time worker" of crime, never happy with his role within the criminal organization led by Sonny Black (Michael Madsen). Lefty lives in his house without a penny, spending his days cooking and watching documentaries about animals, aware of his son's drug addiction.
The turning point comes when he crosses paths with Donnie/Joseph (Johnny Depp), an FBI infiltrator. Another man who, because of his work, inescapably ends up abandoning his wife and three daughters, losing sight of the importance of the family nucleus and throwing all his efforts into work. A job that slowly becomes a parallel life, alongside his everyday one. Although he must move within the "world" of the mafia to uncover its secrets and provide information to his superiors, he ends up forming friendships with various people, particularly with Lefty, who sees him as a son.
The great strength of Newell's feature film lies in several elements. First of all, the superb performances of the actors must be mentioned: Al Pacino, as always in great form, capable of shaping a character that starts with the air of toughness and ends up being a person destroyed by his own feelings. Johnny Depp in the role of the protagonist proves to be a more than fitting choice, confirming the good he had demonstrated with Jarmusch's western masterpiece "Dead Man." Michael Madsen is also good in the role of the "boss".
Another great point in favor of Donnie Brasco is focusing on a low-level criminal scene. We are not in the refined aristocracy of The Godfather nor in the "dizzying" circles of Scarface. The life of criminals in this film consists of small heists, local deals, favors. In this sense, it is a film that moves in the "underbrush" of crime, closely describing both the cruelty of that world and its humanity. Indeed, it is precisely the Lefty/Donnie relationship that is the true narrative core of the film: theirs is a friendship that strengthens day by day, hour by hour. It is a bit like Noodles/Max from Once Upon a Time in America and not at all like Carlito/David from Carlito's Way. Theirs is a true relationship that inevitably impacts the lives of both. An emotional realism that is tangible, thanks to which the director is aware of being able to rely on two top actors, resting both Paul Attanasio's screenplay and the various events of the story on their performances.
These are all the elements that make Donnie Brasco a magnificent portrait of Italo/American crime and that contribute to making it one of the major gangster movies of the nineties.
"In Cosa Nostra, if someone summons you, you're alive when you enter and dead when you leave."
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