Black Mass (2015)

Eighteen years ago Johnny Depp played an FBI agent infiltrating the mob in the movie Donnie Brasco, now in a weird bit of symmetry he plays a gangster infiltrating the FBI in the new(ish) movie Black Mass. Like Donnie Brasco, Black Mass is based on a true story, specifically it is based on the 2001 book Black Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mob by Dick Lehr and Gerard O'Neill. It is the story of how James "Whitey" Bulger used his position as a secret FBI informant to rise from a relatively minor figure in the Boston underworld to become the most powerful crime boss in Massachusetts, before going into hiding and successfully evading authorities for 16 1/2 years. Bulger has become a larger then life figure, perhaps the seminal American gangster of the 2nd half of the 20th century, he was the basis for Jack Nicholson's character in the 2006 Oscar winning film The Departed, and along with his successful politician brother William M. Bulger inspiration for the 2006-2008 Showtime series Brotherhood, both of which I would recommend.

The casting of Depp, a talented actor who all too often falls into self-parody is at the same time perfectly logical and thoroughly unexpected. This is a part that in another time or another universe would have gone to Ray Liotta, and I kept thinking of Liotta throughout the picture, even coming up with the tag line "Johnny Depp is Ray Liotta as Whitey Bulger". Now that could be seen as a put down to Depp, but its really not, its a testament to that fact that Depp is so good in the role that he hardly registers as acting, or even as being there. Depp is Whitey Bulger, and Whitey Bulger is the kind of character Ray Liotta would play in a movie, hence this weird trinity.

This is violent movie, it can be rightly criticized for that violence. It is a movie that makes a real life monster its central character, and by virtue of the way dramatic narratives work the viewers surrogate, which brings with it a certain level of implied sympathy. Though it delves into the darkness of Bulger, and how that darkness evolved over time (there is a certain murder he commits a little more then halfway through the film which is so clearly unnecessary, whereas his previous murders had a certain internal logic to them, that it forces the audience to acknowledge what an awful guy they've been following) it none the less can't help but in some ways glamorize him. I mean look at all the things he was able to get away with, and how long he got away with them, there is a reason movies have been made about this guy, he was very good at what he did. In a final, but less weighty piece of criticism, I've seen a lot of mob movies and this movie didn't break any new ground, as awful as these real life evils where, I felt I'd seen them before, and that lessened the impact.

But the central performance stands, while the supporting performances are largely sufficient if not much more then that, I feel the movie was over cast with recognizable names. A competent movie, but one whose very existence is kind of disconcerting. Why make this movie? Why did I see this movie? Not for lofty reasons, but because sometimes we like to vicariously see bad people do bad things. We probably shouldn't. The strongest emotion this movie invoked in me was that of unease. ***