Poll Position: Donnie Brasco (1997)

Last week we proposed to our readers to pick a gangster movie for us to watch. Of all the choices, the winner by a completely landslide was Donnie Brasco, starring Johnny Depp and Al Pacnino. I'm not sure how I managed to go through life never hearing about this movie, it's got 2 gigantic stars in it after all. I guess that's why it got so many votes. Yet another "you haven't seen that?!" movie off the list it seems. As with most gangster movies, this is about the life of a made-man in the New York mafia. Unlike most, however, it's about an undercover FBI agent getting in so deep that he can't get out even if he wanted to. He isn't turning into one of them, he IS one of them. Hit the jump for more.

Without a doubt Depp and Pacino do excellent jobs portraying their characters Donnie Brasco and "Lefty". In fact, I'm so used to seeing Depp play such over the top wacky characters that he almost wasn't even recognizable, and for once he didn't have any makeup on. Both he and Pacino embody the spirit of the mafia gangster, and it's a pleasure to watch. Actually at the start, Depp's character Donnie, has no idea how to act or what the mafia life is like, and we get to see Lefty educate him and shape him into a mobster throughout the film to the point that he can't stop talking like a made-man even when he's at home.

Quite the team

There are several really tense moments as characters flirt with death and the possibility that they could get set up for their own execution with any screw up. And there's some big ones in the course of the movie. I really enjoyed these moments as I really had no idea what could happen, since it's stated early on in the film that it's sometimes required to kill even your best friend. This means you can never trust anyone. It really added some good tension in those key moments of the movie.

There's not much else I can think to talk about. I can't think of anything negative that stood out. I liked the story and the characters and the script etc etc. It was all good. If you like gangster movies and you haven't seen this one, it's definitely a good one that you should seek out.