Donnie Brasco [Blu-ray]

Great film

Excellent quality and speedy delivery, a good film, will definately purchase from again soon, A + seller

This review is going to focus on the blu-ray US import version of the 1997 gangster film, Donnie Brasco. The reason for this is that in 2007, Sony released an "Extended Cut" featuring an extra 20 minutes footage (taking the running time up to 147 minutes); of further possible interest to UK audiences, is that this version was never released in Britain, hence the US import review.No doubt as most of you already know, Donnie Brasco tells the (mostly) true story of how FBI agent Joseph Pistone (convincingly acted by Johnny Depp) worked undercover for six years in the 1970s, infiltrating the Bonanno mafia family in New York City. His gateway in to this world was through Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero, an aging hitman for the mob, brilliantly portrayed by Al Pacino (Pacino, here, plays a mafia character on the very bottom rung of the hierarchy, the diametric opposite to his Michael Corleone of The Godfather). Lefty comes to regard Donnie as the son he wished he had and as the two men bond, Donnie's critical distance from the mob becomes diminished (in reality, Agent Pistone never felt this deep sense of empathy for Lefty, as Ruggiero was a stone-cold killer with over two dozen murders under his belt).The blu-ray US import is not region coded, so it will work on UK blu-ray players. The video quality is solid with some good detail on the wider street scenes and the audio is respectable, given that it's mostly about older men talking in rooms. The best of the limited extras is a 23 minute documentary that contains an interview with the real Joseph Pistone.While I enjoyed immensely Donnie Brasco upon its initial theatrical release, the only real issue I had with the film was that while the story spans six years, that sense of this time actually passing was never really captured on film. The additional twenty minutes footage of this Extended Cut, making the film almost two and a half hours long, now resolves that issue; there are additional mob scenes but most importantly, Pistone's declining domestic life has some flesh put on the bones, which is something the real Pistone said was initially missing from this film (another departure from the true story is that in reality, Pistone never hit his wife). Scenes of Agent Pistone engaged in domestic chores or arguing with his wife, or engaging in trivial banter with his mafia "friends" were not essential to the film and I can understand why they were initially cut, in the William Faulkner, kill-your-darlings, sense. However, they make the film both more intimate and yet bigger and add that all important detail to the story.As to who actually restored this footage to the film, I am at a loss, though it doesn't appear to be British director Mike Newell, as this is not labelled a "Director's Cut" but rather just an "Extended Cut." This made me suspicious of the potential care and quality of this edit but certainly the additional scenes have been edited appropriately and nothing looks or feels out of place or jarring.The gangster genre is one of the defining genres in American cinema, with films like The Godfather (parts I & II) and Goodfellas popularly being considered amongst the best films ever made. Donnie Brasco, while not hitting those heights, is certainly a great addition to this category, with another amazing Al Pacino performance as a frustrated mafiosi, never getting the credit he feels he deserves, while also schooling new kid on the block Donnie Brasco in the customs and language of the mob. This Extended Cut of Donnie Brasco is well worth getting if you feel the same way about the mob genre. Writer Paul Attanasio has crafted a great story and delivered some classic mafia dialogue, such as, "When they send for you, you go in alive, you come out dead and it's your best friend that does it."

I watched this movie because Joe Pistone was interviewed on 21.03.2017 on The Hagmann & Hagmann Report and was intrigued. The part he relates about going into a room and knowing he could be coming out wrapped out in a rug, simply didnt happen in the film. Yes, he went to Florida with the mob but the reason he gives about why he was pulled off the job was not because the FBI did a bust on him as he was about to kill someone to be become a wise guy, so this script is only based on truth but a lot seems to be added in the film. Always a pleasure though to watch Johnny Depp and Al Pacino despite these differences. Best read Joe Pistone's books available on Amazon.

Told from the viewpoint of a low level gangster who's misplaced trust, and friendship, costs him everything. Excellent acting from Al Pacino and Jonny Depp. A must see.

FBI agent Johnny Depp works undercover with New York Mafia wiseguys in 1978 after winning the trust of shabby hoodlum Al Pacino. Away from his wife and three young daughters for weeks at a time, Depp pays a heavy toll for his close up view of criminals at work. Mike Newell’s heavyweight gangster drama, based on the memoirs of real-life agent Joe Pistone, is an East Coast blood brother to Martin Scorsese’s masterful Casino. It seems authentic in detailing the grubby lives of criminals on the make and the acting is simply terrific. Pacino, in particular, has rarely been so muted. His sad-eyed loser ‘Lefty’ Ruggiero is a curiously sympathetic killer. Pacino, great actor that he is, humanises a monster. There’s no wit and repartee in this bleak landscape of lost souls, just joyless banter and an all-pervasive paranoia. In one of the film’s most telling images, Pacino moves to give a congratulatory hug to newly made up crew boss Michael Madsen. As the men part, the fear in their dead eyes gives the lie to their smiling faces.

I think both actors( Johnny depp) playing donnie brasco and ( Al pachino) playing lefty two guns, nailed both characters..Brilliant watch if you like the American mob / mafia/ gangster stuff...

The film is amazing, 5 stars... But I had to watch it on Netflix because when I put the film in my DVD player, there was a problem with the aspect ratio. Basically the film was shrunk to a small rectangle half the size of my TV screen, despite the fact I have a modern TV and DVD player, I couldn't enlarge it. I feel bad giving a 3 star rating, it was delivered quickly and the actual film is well worth the watch but they have given me a defect disc so I have little choice.