Donnie Brasco

It is understandable that Al Pacino initially balked a little at playing an Italian gangster for the 117th time, but the role offers the change that Pacino's character, Lefty Ruggiero, is not a powerful Mafia boss but a lowly henchman and con man who has killed 26 people without being 'rewarded' with a higher rank in the Mafia hierarchy. Lefty smells success, however, when he makes the acquaintance of the young jewel dealer Donnie Brasco, who is not entirely squeaky clean either. Donnie becomes Lefty's protégé and is initiated into a rather unglamorous Mafia world. What Lefty and his cronies do not know is that Donnie's real name is Joe Pistone, that he has a wife and three little girls in a nice suburb, and that he works as an FBI agent with the aim of unravelling the Mafia.

The problem arises when Donnie begins to feel pangs of conscience towards Lefty, who treats him like a son. Lefty is in many ways a wretched human being, but it is hard not to feel pity for him. At the same time Donnie finds it hard to slip back into his role as father and husband. His wife Maggie is all too right when she accuses him of becoming just like the people he is spying on. The film is based on real events, built on Joe Pistone's own account, which here ends with the FBI getting hold of Donnie / Joe before he falls apart. Now they have enough material to bring down several gangsters, both big and small. Joe is rewarded for his work, but he has to live with the knowledge that Lefty will be killed because of him, because he vouched for him.

Donnie Brasco has many qualities, but it is a small film, perhaps precisely because it takes the myths, all the grand dreams, down a peg.