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WITH the Oscar's around the corner we take a look at some of Hollywood's
most famous films and the true crimes that inspired them.
FAMOUS: American Hustle is one of several Oscar-nominated films based on a true story
COURT IN THE ACT...WHY THE MAFIA SLATED WISEGUY AL
RELEASED: 1997, DIRECTOR: MIKE NEWELL
ACADEMY AWARDS: NOMINATED FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
AL PACINO may be guilty of the odd bit of over-acting but you’d never expect to hear one of his performances rubbished in court.
But that’s what happened at the 2005 trial of Joseph “Big Joey” Massino, suspected head of New York’s Bonanno crime family.
In Donnie Brasco, Pacino plays Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero – a crook who welcomed undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone (played by Johnny Depp) into the mafia clan in the late 1970s.
Pistone spent six years gathering evidence on the Bonnano family by posing as jewel thief Brasco.
When his identity is revealed in the film we see Lefty remove his jewellery before reporting his own killing.
But in the trial we learned that did not happen.
Lefty was actually picked up by police before the mafia could get to him.
It was his side-kick, Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, played by Michael Madsen, who was murdered for introducing Pistone to the mob.
It was Sonny who was rumoured to have removed his jewellery before the mafia came for him. And it was Massino himself who ordered the killing.
“I went on a ‘walk-talk’ with Joe Massino in Howard Beach,” Bonanno underboss-turned-informant Salvatore “Good-looking Sal” Vitale told the court.
He added: “He said ‘I have to give him a receipt for the Donnie Brasco situation’. I understood that to mean he wanted him dead.”
Mr Vitale said Massino waited in a van outside the Staten Island house where the murder took place, ready to shoot Sonny Black if he escaped.
His body was found a year later, minus its hands, in a local swamp.
British director Mike Newell implied that Lefty was the victim of the hit to make his ending more powerful.
After all, the film had spent two hours exploring the growing friendship between the low-level mafia man and the FBI agent.
But most of the rest of the film is close to real life.
Pistone says the movie, based on his memoir, is “95% accurate”.
Newell hired him as a consultant and made sure he was around on set to keep things real.
“He was very concerned that he capture me and do my character justice,” said Pistone.
But the agent, who retired from undercover work in 1981, got involved long before the cameras rolled.
Pistone said of working with Johnny Depp: “They started shooting the movie in January that year and I hung out with him from November.
“The first time I saw the movie it was definitely surreal seeing myself portrayed on screen but he had me to a T.”
An FBI agent since 1969, Pistone infiltrated a New York truck hijacking squad and was then asked to undertake a six-month operation to penetrate the gangs who handled the goods they stole.
No one, not even Pistone, thought Operation Sun Apple would last for six years or reach so far into the heart of the New York mafia.
Pistone was married with three children and his increasingly infrequent visits home put his family life under enormous pressure.
He took the name Donnie Brasco and invented a back story for himself as a non-violent jewel thief so he could avoid being ordered to hurt people.
“If you say you’re a collection guy for loans you’re expected to smack people around,” he said.
In the film, Pistone has an uncanny ability to befriend mafia men. But he insists that, unlike in the film, he never lost sight of his job.
“You never let your guard down,” he said.
“I considered them acquaintances who I worked with. But you’ve got to keep in your mind that the guy who is closest to you is probably the guy who’s going to kill you.
“All wiseguys know that but it was especially true for me being undercover.”
STARS: The cast of hit film Donnie Brasco back in 1997
WHAT'S GREAT ABOUT THE FILM?
In mob circles, the film has a reputation as one of the most accurate mafia films ever made.
But it was the performances of Depp and Pacino which impressed the critics.
At the time, Depp was known for quirky romantic roles in films like Edward Scissorhands and Benny and Joon.
Total Film magazine even talked about “a star-making performance from Johnny Depp, who finally seems to have given up playing too-good-to-be-true eccentrics.”
BEST SCENE
DONNIE goes to a Japanese restaurant with microphones hidden in his shoes, unaware that all footwear has to removed at the door.
BEST LINE: DONNIE explains mob slang – “‘Forget about it’ is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it. But then, if you disagree, like a Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it! But then, it’s also like if something’s the greatest thing in the world, like mingia, those peppers, forget about it! But it’s also like saying ‘Go to hell’ too. Like, you know, like “Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker?” and Paulie says “Forget about it!” Sometimes it just means forget about it.”
FIVE FACTS
• AT first Tom Cruise was lined up to play the lead role. But the project was postponed after the 1990 release of Goodfellas. Producers thought it was too soon for another fact-based mafia movie.
• IT was Brit director Mike newell’s first Hollywood movie. He was better known then as the man behind Four Weddings And A Funeral.
• PISTONE and Newell, clashed with Pacino over the scruffy hat he wore to play Lefty. Pacino thought it helped him get into character. But Pistone knew Lefty was a snappy dresser.
• A BOUNTY of $500,000 was placed on Pistone’s head. He lives under an assumed name.
• NEWELL went to Brooklyn social clubs to meet real mobsters. In one club he saw a jukebox with nothing but Sinatra records. A hand-written sign below the payphone warned that the phone was bugged.
FAMOUS: American Hustle is one of several Oscar-nominated films based on a true story RELEASED: 1997, DIRECTOR: MIKE NEWELL
ACADEMY AWARDS: NOMINATED FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
AL PACINO may be guilty of the odd bit of over-acting but you’d never expect to hear one of his performances rubbished in court.
But that’s what happened at the 2005 trial of Joseph “Big Joey” Massino, suspected head of New York’s Bonanno crime family.
In Donnie Brasco, Pacino plays Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero – a crook who welcomed undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone (played by Johnny Depp) into the mafia clan in the late 1970s.
Pistone spent six years gathering evidence on the Bonnano family by posing as jewel thief Brasco.
When his identity is revealed in the film we see Lefty remove his jewellery before reporting his own killing.
But in the trial we learned that did not happen.
Lefty was actually picked up by police before the mafia could get to him.
It was his side-kick, Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, played by Michael Madsen, who was murdered for introducing Pistone to the mob.
It was Sonny who was rumoured to have removed his jewellery before the mafia came for him. And it was Massino himself who ordered the killing.
“I went on a ‘walk-talk’ with Joe Massino in Howard Beach,” Bonanno underboss-turned-informant Salvatore “Good-looking Sal” Vitale told the court.
He added: “He said ‘I have to give him a receipt for the Donnie Brasco situation’. I understood that to mean he wanted him dead.”
Mr Vitale said Massino waited in a van outside the Staten Island house where the murder took place, ready to shoot Sonny Black if he escaped.
His body was found a year later, minus its hands, in a local swamp.
British director Mike Newell implied that Lefty was the victim of the hit to make his ending more powerful.
After all, the film had spent two hours exploring the growing friendship between the low-level mafia man and the FBI agent.
But most of the rest of the film is close to real life.
Pistone says the movie, based on his memoir, is “95% accurate”.
Newell hired him as a consultant and made sure he was around on set to keep things real.
“He was very concerned that he capture me and do my character justice,” said Pistone.
But the agent, who retired from undercover work in 1981, got involved long before the cameras rolled.
Pistone said of working with Johnny Depp: “They started shooting the movie in January that year and I hung out with him from November.
“The first time I saw the movie it was definitely surreal seeing myself portrayed on screen but he had me to a T.”
An FBI agent since 1969, Pistone infiltrated a New York truck hijacking squad and was then asked to undertake a six-month operation to penetrate the gangs who handled the goods they stole.
No one, not even Pistone, thought Operation Sun Apple would last for six years or reach so far into the heart of the New York mafia.
Pistone was married with three children and his increasingly infrequent visits home put his family life under enormous pressure.
He took the name Donnie Brasco and invented a back story for himself as a non-violent jewel thief so he could avoid being ordered to hurt people.
“If you say you’re a collection guy for loans you’re expected to smack people around,” he said.
In the film, Pistone has an uncanny ability to befriend mafia men. But he insists that, unlike in the film, he never lost sight of his job.
“You never let your guard down,” he said.
“I considered them acquaintances who I worked with. But you’ve got to keep in your mind that the guy who is closest to you is probably the guy who’s going to kill you.
“All wiseguys know that but it was especially true for me being undercover.”
STARS: The cast of hit film Donnie Brasco back in 1997In mob circles, the film has a reputation as one of the most accurate mafia films ever made.
But it was the performances of Depp and Pacino which impressed the critics.
At the time, Depp was known for quirky romantic roles in films like Edward Scissorhands and Benny and Joon.
Total Film magazine even talked about “a star-making performance from Johnny Depp, who finally seems to have given up playing too-good-to-be-true eccentrics.”
BEST SCENE
DONNIE goes to a Japanese restaurant with microphones hidden in his shoes, unaware that all footwear has to removed at the door.
BEST LINE: DONNIE explains mob slang – “‘Forget about it’ is like if you agree with someone, you know, like Raquel Welch is one great piece of ass, forget about it. But then, if you disagree, like a Lincoln is better than a Cadillac? Forget about it! But then, it’s also like if something’s the greatest thing in the world, like mingia, those peppers, forget about it! But it’s also like saying ‘Go to hell’ too. Like, you know, like “Hey Paulie, you got a one inch pecker?” and Paulie says “Forget about it!” Sometimes it just means forget about it.”
FIVE FACTS
• AT first Tom Cruise was lined up to play the lead role. But the project was postponed after the 1990 release of Goodfellas. Producers thought it was too soon for another fact-based mafia movie.
• IT was Brit director Mike newell’s first Hollywood movie. He was better known then as the man behind Four Weddings And A Funeral.
• PISTONE and Newell, clashed with Pacino over the scruffy hat he wore to play Lefty. Pacino thought it helped him get into character. But Pistone knew Lefty was a snappy dresser.
• A BOUNTY of $500,000 was placed on Pistone’s head. He lives under an assumed name.
• NEWELL went to Brooklyn social clubs to meet real mobsters. In one club he saw a jukebox with nothing but Sinatra records. A hand-written sign below the payphone warned that the phone was bugged.
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