DONNIE BRASCO - Blu-ray review

Director Sam Raimi was conspicuously absent from the recent "Spider-Man 2.1" release, and now director Mike Newell is missing on this new "Extended Version" of "Donnie Brasco. It's enough to make you think that maybe somebody at Sony is leaning on these guys to get the product out there to the buying public. You know what I'm sayin'? Fugedaboudit.

But the fact is, we don't know who authorized a version that added 20 minutes of footage--including a restaurant scene after a mob hit, domestic stuff between Donnie Brasco (a.k.a. FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone) and his long-suffering wife, and Donnie walking the lion (which is not slang for going to the bathroom). Now, the film runs 147 minutes. If I knew that Newell ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire") was behind it, I'd feel better. After all, purists want to believe that they're watching the version that the director is behind. Art is both communication and expression, a negotiation between artistic vision and a sense of audience. I'd hate to see the industry shift away from the aesthetic side. After all, there's no shortage of movies to sell collectors. They don't have to keep repackaging the ones that are out there.

If you already own this film, you should know that you also already own the extras. The back of the box makes it sound as if there might be HD-exclusive content added--"Exclusive featurette, Donnie Brasco: Out from the Shadows--but if you take a look at your old version you'll see the exact same features, minus the director's commentary. It's enough to make a guy think . . . Fugedaboudit.

Let's talk about the movie. If you like "The Sopranos," you'll like "Donnie Brasco." Unlike "The Godfather," with it's high style and drama, this film, based on the book by former agent Pistone and co-author Richard Woodley, is deglamorized. Guys hang out in restaurants, go to strip clubs (bada-bing, bada boom!), and talk about things that mid-level wise guys talk about. They're not running the world. They're making a living.

Al Pacino does a great job as Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, who's been a wise guy his whole life and is obviously hurt when the younger, more virile Sonny Black (Michael Madsen) gets promoted to head the Brooklyn mob over him. With his pork-pie hat and deliberate movement, he's getting dangerously close to the "puttering" phase of life. But he's a soldier, and so he stays in step, because that's what you do. He also knows the lay of the land. When he's called in for a meeting, he thinks he's going to get whacked. Instead, this nature-loving wise guy is given a semi-tame male African lion. "What am I supposed to do with this?" he asks. And we next see him leaving the warehouse with the lion on a leash. Comic relief? Yep. And when you add moments of wry comedy to the domesticity, you get a concoction that evokes the world of Tony Soprano . . . in a retro sort of way. This 1997 film is set in the '70s, and does a pretty good job of toning it down. Too many films set in that decade seem to evoke '70s night at a bar rather than the era itself. It's really easy to go overboard, but you have to give credit to the set and costume designers for "Donnie Brasco." It's an understated film partly because of understated design.

One departure from "The Sopranos," though, is that for all the scenes in which we see how annoyed Joe Pistone's family is with him, not knowing his undercover identity as jeweler/fence Donnie Brasco, we don't get the same level of information. Everything stays at the "we're annoyed" level, with no real development there. That's the primary weakness of this otherwise incredibly entertaining film. Pacino and Johnny Depp are wonderful in their roles as Ruggiero and Brasco, and Anne Heche makes the most of her screen time as Mrs. Pistone. As Sonny Black, Madsen evokes Vince Vaughn ("Be Cool") with his livin' large portrayal of a recently promoted mob boss. And the plot is enough to hold our interest, even (incredibly) with those extra 20 minutes added. As we watch Pistone/Brasco gain Ruggiero's confidence and end up being taken under his wing, it's easy to feel a warmth toward the aging mobster. Pistone ends up participating in some pretty horrendous stuff (like sawing through body parts to help dispose of hit victims) in order to maintain his cover, and there's always the chance that the tapes he's making of his day-to-day interactions with the Black/Ruggiero mob will get him caught and killed. Throw in some outside agents who decide to lean on him, and there's plenty of dramatic tension. It's just that the domestic side-plot isn't as well developed as it could have been, and the extra footage doesn't add much to our knowledge of the characters and their history together.

Video:
The Blu-ray version of "Donnie Brasco" is a pure delight. Bricks and bloody body parts never looked so good. For an older film, there's surprisingly good color saturation and pleasing black levels, with more detail than I would have expected. Presented in 2.40:1 aspect ration, "Donnie Brasco" is a pleasure to watch in HD.

Audio:
The feature soundtrack is English PCM 5.1 uncompressed audio, and as with previous PCM tracks it's quite good, with resonant bass and clear, bright treble in just the right balance. PCM distributes the sound nicely across the room, with ambient noises scattered far enough from the speakers so that they feel natural. An English 5.1 track is also provided, with subtitles in English, English SDH, and French.

Extras:
Here's the disappointment. No new features from the previous release, and director Newell's commentary track is absent. There's a short feature on "Donnie Brasco: Out from the Shadows" that covers the usual bases-background on how the film came to be, with some basics on Pistone as well-while a vintage 1997 promotional featurette does much the same. The only other extras are theatrical trailers and a photo gallery.

Bottom Line:
"Donnie Brasco" belongs in the first tier of mobster/wise guy movies, though the extended version doesn't add (or detract) much. Like "Goodfellas," it gives us an intimate look at the daily lives of wise guys and the guys who would bring them down. Like "The Sopranos," it deglamorizes the mob and brings in a healthy dose of domestic life. And Pacino and Depp are so good together, you almost wonder why they haven't hooked up more.