Film reveiw Donnie Brasco PDF

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Film Review Scarface Donnie Brasco is an American crime drama film that came out in 1997 directed by Mike Newell that stars award winning actors Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. The screen writers attached to this film include Richard Woodley, Paul Attanasio and Joseph D. Pistone. FBI agent Joe Pistone observes this real tale as he infiltrates the New York mafia. Pistone (under the name Donnie Brasco), a friend of Lefty Ruggiero, is able to infiltrate himself into a mafia group led by Sonny Black. As the party goes about gathering cash for the managers, Ruggiero and Pistone get close. Eventually, as Black himself becomes a leader, the party becomes big-time all while Pistone gathers facts. The struggles and tribulations of the undercover career, however, become more detailed. Not only does Agent Pistone place his life on the line with this operation on a regular basis, he is also isolated from his family. Pistone never sees his family, except for the odd short return home. But during these six years, they are able to have one holiday together and when Pistone's wife is in a dreadful car accident, he leaves the job for several days to help her recover. Agent Pistone is forced to give up his own life for this kind of job during those six years, and his family is forced to survive without him. Agent Pistone is able to keep his family united and safe given the circumstance. Agent Pistone not only discovers never before known information on the inner workings of the Mob during his six years of undercover, but also helps his fellow investigators operate their Mafia investigations in other nations. At times, Agent Pistone helps investigators work their mob investigations as far away as Milwaukee and Florida. Pistone and Rossi, the Florida agent, are able to fool the New York Mob into the opening of the FBI-funded King's Court, a joint partnership with another crime family in Florida.

During this time, Pistone formed close relationships with the Bonanno family's Lefty Guns and Sonny Black. Lefty is a New York City mob veteran, although he is very tired and wore out from the life he lives. He also has a serious gambling problem, owes serious money to his bosses, has a son that is a junkie and has been passed up for promotion in the ring several times, as he is ready to get out of the game. Sonny is a young man who doesn't run quickly enough through the ranks of the mafia, so he takes it out on his competition and establishes himself as the boss of the New York mob. You never know if Sonny is going to use his psychotic brain and physical intimidation to compliment or injure someone. Sonny is the one who is known to put Pistone in and almost have him 'made'. Agent Pistone starts his tenure as Lefty's right-hand guy in the Bonanno household, but soon after meeting Sonny Black he is forced to bounce between the two with both demanding loyalty from Pistone. Agent Pistone has such faith that Sonny Black agrees to make Pistone a part of the Family Bonanno. Before this can happen, Agent Pistone is pulled from the process. Sonny dies after the truth about Pistone's identity is uncovered and is later found dead and killed by a Mob hit. Lefty is soon held in safe custody so that he can trail himself. The time undercover with Pistone transforms the Mafia Jordan Pellegrino

forever. Many top Mafia bosses are accused of their crimes or murdered for their connection with Pistone, from the data he collects. After Pistone, the membership guidelines are also altered, and the Mafia assures that no other FBI agent can ever come this personal.

Throughout the film Donnie Brasco, I noticed that there were two occurring themes, one being sense of duty and the other one tension. With a sense of responsibility to the FBI, agent Joe Pistone started his time undercover. He was an FBI agent, and that was the job entrusted to him. He never wavered in his sense of responsibility in his six years undercover with the mafia. He never forgot why he was there or why it was necessary, except when he encountered individuals who were innocent of the circumstance and would be hurt when the reality of his identity came out. Sonny was a decent man doing things that were really wrong and immoral, and it was the duty of Pistone to stop him and those like him. The sense of obligation of Pistone was greater than his relation to Sonny Black. To be an undercover agent and also pretend to be in the Mob isn’t an easy task. This theme contributes to my understanding and knowledge of organized crime because in these industries or crime groups having a sense of duty is major. This movie is based on a real-life story thus making the theme sense of duty even more real. When an undercover or informant go to an unknown area or heavily populated area with major criminals to talk about the next load of opium coming in, the informant cannot give up his undercover or else he could die or blow the whole case. The whole purpose of going undercover, In specific, is to conceal one's own identification or to use a suspected identity to discover or validate sensitive knowledge or to gain the trust of selected people in order to collect information or facts in order to gain the trust of a person or agency. There have been so many cases where an informant has stopped major crimes from happening and every undercover job can be life threatening because of the type of people that you’re dealing with. Organized crime groups do not play well with informants or in the crime world known as “Rats”. Nobody likes rats especially when your dealing with tons of drugs and money because that’s the crime groups way of making money and if someone messes that up the bosses are going to want an explanation which will probably mean death. Overall, this theme is portrayed through undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone who plays the role very well with his great knowledge and great sense of duty.

The next theme that I noticed in this film is tension. The film beautifully captures the perpetual feeling of tension that is implicit in the life of the mob, the fact that you never know who you can trust or when you can step into a darkened space and find yourself whacked. The tension is doubled, of course, for Donnie: not only is he in trouble as a mobster, but because he is a rodent. Not only will he die if his mask is blown, but Lefty will too. And as Donnie and Lefty grow closer and closer, Donnie gets more worried about his old mate. Lefty would be the first casualty if he were to do his duty correctly and push the mob down. There is the prickly tension of actual, unresolvable marital discord in the scenes between Donnie and his wife, Maggie. The Jordan Pellegrino

character of Maggie isn't an afterthought in the movie's male universe. She's verifying her truth. This woman is loved by Pistone because she is as strong as he is. And that's what endangers marriage as it becomes more of an absence than a family presence. This theme contributes to my understanding and knowledge of organized crime because tension can be felt through every organized crime group in the world. Tension can be intense, suppressed suspense, anxiety or even excitement. Crime groups go through tension all the time, like when they have to go kill someone because the boss told them to, there feeling tension in many ways. They could be excited to kill the person and the tension on them isn’t so tight. But if they are scared to go kill the person, they could be anxious, and it can be an intense tension. You never know who you can trust when you’re in that type of industry where people don’t care about your life but more for themselves and their crime group. To live the life of a criminal is full of all types of tension, from going home at night and being worried about someone shooting up your house or even going to a big drug deal. The tension between law enforcement and organized crime groups is really tight because they both hate each other, and one is trying to always catch the other doing illegal things. Criminals are always worried about law enforcement making the tension very tight between the two. Overall, this theme is portrayed throughout the whole film in every character but especially Donnie who is living in two different worlds.

To conclude my film review on the movie Donnie Brasco my overall feelings and thoughts for this movie are great. I’ve watched this movie many times as I am of Italian heritage and I love watching Italian crime movies. The actors in this movie are great and play the role of mob members really well. My favourite actor is Al Capone who is the star actor in many great Italian crime films. I liked how Donnie Brasco played the role of both an undercover FBI agent and a Mob member. I love the plot of this movie as it shows a good representation of the reallife story of Donnie Brasco. I also like how they used the real names of the real story which makes it seem like you are watching the real thing go down. I would recommend this film to people who like crime movies, especially Italian crime dramas as the plot and acting are really good.

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