August 29, 1999 -- I generally don't like gangster movies because of all the graphic violence, but of the few I've seen, "Donnie Brasco" is one of the very best.

Besides being very violent, gangster films are also depressing because they concern organizations that live on long past the lives of the people who belong to them, organizations which corrupt people, chew them up and spit them out. These films seem to exude a sense of melancholy determinism. Worse, the films often depict the police and FBI employing tactics as underhanded as their criminal enemies. The result of all of this is often less than entertaining.

"Donnie Brasco," however, is a brilliantly-acted perfect character study of two men thrown together in the unholy mix of the Mafia and undercover law enforcement work. Donnie Brasco (real name, Joe Pistone), an undercover FBI agent, is perfectly played by Johnny Depp (who stars in "The Astronaut's Wife"). He is matched by Al Pacino ("Devil's Advocate") who gives an equally great performance as the down-on-his-luck mob underling, Lefty Ruggiero.

Brasco gains the confidence of Ruggiero and works his way into the organization. He becomes friends with Ruggiero and his family. As he works his way up the organization, he leaves the hapless Ruggiero behind. He finds he has a knack for mob business and begins to lose himself in the part he is playing. He begins to lose his wife and children and even begins to lose the FBI.

The morality of what he is doing troubles him and he tries to make things right with his friend, Ruggiero. As the story winds its way down to its inevitable conclusion, that sense of destiny hangs over the film like a dark cloud. The final parting shot of Ruggiero putting his few pitiful belongings in a drawer is poignant indeed.

I don't know if I can emphasize enough how much I enjoyed the fine performances of Depp and Pacino. Michael Madsen, who plays gangster Sonny Black, again shows the menace that he showed in "Reservoir Dogs." The screenplay by Joseph D. Pistone, based on his book about his own real life story and by Richard Woodley, is also excellent, as is the direction by Mike Newell ("Pushing Tin"). This film rates an A.

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