Johnny Depp was once one of Hollywood’s biggest and most versatile stars, appearing in both blockbusters and true-crime dramas. The American actor gained global superstardom for portraying the eccentric Captain Jack Sparrow in five Pirates of the Caribbean movies from 2006 to 2017, earning an Academy Award nomination for the first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl. In the following years, Depp earned additional nominations for Finding Neverland and Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Over his career, Depp has also appeared in an array of crime dramas, including 2001’s Blow, playing a real American cocaine kingpin, George Jung, who was connected to Pablo Escobar. In 2009, Depp starred in Michael Mann’s Public Enemies as the notorious bank robber John Dillinger, chronicling his final years. In 2015’s Black Mᴀss, Depp played American mobster Whitey Bulger. Most recently, he starred in 2018’s City of Lies as a retired LAPD detective investigating the murders of rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. However, Depp’s most acclaimed crime drama came early in his career.
Donnie Brasco Receives A Near-Perfect Accuracy Score From An Expert
Johnny Depp Played The тιтular Character
The robbery and Mafia activity in Donnie Brasco receives a near-perfect accuracy score from an expert. Directed by Mike Newell, with a script written by Paul Attanasio, the 1997 crime drama stars Johnny Depp as Joseph D. Pistone, following the true story of the undercover FBI agent who infiltrated the Bonanno crime family in New York City during the 1970s under the alias Donnie Brasco, a jewel thief from Florida, gaining the trust of aging Mafia hitman “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero (played by Al Pacino). The cast also includes Michael Madsen, Bruno Kirby, James Russo, and Anne Heche.
In an Insider video, former mobster Anthony Ruggiano Jr. rated mafia scenes in movies and TV shows, including separating fact from fiction about truck hijackings in Donnie Brasco. He says the film’s depiction is largely accurate, rating it a near-perfect nine out of 10, especially in terms of the types of goods stolen and the role of insider tips. However, he clarifies that real-life hijackers often wore masks and many thefts were prearranged with the truck drivers. Read his full comments or watch the portion of the video below:
So this movie definitely depicts Lefty Guns in his crew and Joe Pistone, Danny Brasco, the undercover agent. My father, Fat Andy, was good friends with them, and he always told me that Lefty Guns was like a desperado and that crew were big hijackers, but a lot of crews back there were hijackers because Kennedy Airport was wide open, and they were robbing trucks like mad back then.
So they were robbing everything, but a lot of electronics and mostly a lot of clothes, believe it or not, like a lot of like jeans and, you know, stuff you could sell in the neighborhood, stuff that people need, so you were going to get stuff that you could purchase in the neighborhood and when the economy was doing bad, you sold more stuff because people wanted to buy cheap stuff then. That’s definitely spot on.
When they taped up the guy’s mouth, and he still saw their faces, normally they would wear masks if they didn’t know the truck driver. A lot of times, the loads were given up by the drivers, and they would just park the truck and just walk away, and then we would get in the truck and just drive it away, so there was no reason to use masks or to tape their mouths up. 80% of the time, we knew it was coming off the trucks. In my neighborhood, Ozone Park, everybody in the neighborhood either worked at Kennedy Airport or at Aqueduct Racetrack, so a lot of information was coming out of the airport, giving up trucks or telling you there’s a truck pulling out right now that has a load of leathers on it and giving you the truck number. I would give that a nine.
What The Former Mobster’s Rating Means For Donnie Brasco
The Movie Is A Near-Perfect Portrayal Of Mafia Life
The former mobster, Anthony Ruggiano Jr., only analyzed the accuracy of the truck hijackings in Donnie Brasco, rating it a near-perfect nine out of 10, though this scene serves as a microcosm of the movie’s overall accuracy. The film was based on the nonfiction book, Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia, co-authored by Pistone himself, who also served as a consultant to help Depp and Pacino develop their characters and ensure they were portrayed accurately. All this amounted to Donnie Brasco becoming an authentic portrait of Mafia life, bolstered by strong performances from the two leads.
Source: Insider
