This is a true story. But truer for some than for others.
Like other communities organized crime families revolve around rules and rituals. You do the same thing in the same way over and over again. This way you know that what you do is necessary. It weights everything down: right, wrong…good, bad.
Punishment, reward.
But this is always in an endless tug of war with power.
Joe becomes Donnie in part because it feels good to be weighted down. And damn near anything will do.
We also learn that most of these guys are…pretty fucking dumb. And scary.
Here’s what I can’t figure. Why doesn’t the mob make it a requirement that anyone who is just “a friend of mine” commit some major crime. Like, say, murder. Every undercover cop would be exposed then. What am I missing?
IMDb
In Joseph Pistone’s report, he lists Lefty, Lefty Guns, Lefty Two Guns, Half Cocked, and Horse Cock as false names for Benjamin Ruggiero (Pacino)
The film’s version of “Lefty” Ruggiero is an amalgam of the real “Lefty” and the real “Sonny Black” Napolitano.
The movie ends with the implication that Lefty was killed after being “sent for”. In real life, the FBI intercepted Lefty on the way to being killed and arrested him. Sonny Black, however, was “sent for” and subsequently murdered, his body turning up a year later on Staten Island. The individual who had orchestrated his murder, Joe Massino, wasn’t convicted until 2005. Lefty was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, and running an illegal gambling operation; he was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but received early parole in 1992 after it was discovered he was suffering from terminal cancer. He died of lung cancer in 1994.
DONNIE BRASCO
Directed by Mike Newell
[b]Lefty: You know who you’re talkin’ to, my friend?..In all the five boroughs, I’m known. Forget about it. I’m known all over the fucking world. Anybody ask anybody about Lefty from Mulberry Street. You’re pissing up the wrong fucking tree.
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Lefty [to Donnie]: I got 26 fucking hits under my belt and you’re the one he’s scared of. Hah!
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Lefty: A wise guy’s always right. Even when he’s wrong, he’s right.
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Lefty: There’s the boss. And, under him, there’s the skipper. You know how this works?
Donnie: Yeah, it’s kinda like in the army.
Lefty: Bullshit. It ain’t nothing like the army. The army is some guy you don’t know telling you to go whack some other guy you don’t know.
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Lefty: [to Donnie] When I introduce you, I’m gonna say, “This is a friend of mine.” That means you’re a connected guy. Now if I said instead, this is a friend of ours that would mean you are a made guy. A Capiche?
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Lefty: Wise guy don’t carry his money in a wallet. Wise guy carries money in a roll. Like this. Beaner on the outside…That mustache—you gotta get rid of that mustache. That’s against the rules. And get a pair of pants. No jeans. This ain’t a fucking rodeo. Dress like I dress.[/b]
Apparently, it’s against the rules to have a mustache in the FBI too.
[b]Joe [to his FBI contact]: I got him. I got my hooks in him.
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Lefty: I’ll die with you, Donnie. But anything happens, I’m responsible.
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Joe: Seven days a week I’m out there busting my ass and this is the kind of shit I have to come home to.
Maggie: You said it would be three months. It’s going on two years.
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Donnie: Sonny Black is your friend. What’s the big deal?
Lefty: Friend? What friend? The whole time Sonny Black’s in the can he’s got a family, he’s got a mistress. He’s got a mistress for the mistress. I watched out for all of them. Me. I was the only one. Nobody else gave a fuck. 200 fazools, week in, week out.
Donnie: Exactly. Why are you worried then?
Lefty: Donnie, sometimes I thing in that orphanage they dropped you on your fucking head.
Donnie: How am I supposed to know if you don’t explain it to me?
Lefty. I know how a hit gets set up. You think I don’t know that? How many times have I been on the other end of that phone? Twenty-six times.
Donnie: Right, but you just got finished saying that you and Sonny Black are friends.
Lefty: Donnie, I got sent for. In our thing, when they send for you, you go in alive, you come out dead, and it’s your best friend that does it.
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Lefty: Whackin’ the boss…another thing I get left out of.
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FBI contact: What’s forget about it?
Joe/Donnie: 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! you know? 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.
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Sonny Black [to Donnie]: You belong to me now. That’s it.
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Maggie: Joe, I want a divorce.
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Sonny Black: You know what to do when you find that rat, Lefty.
Lefty: Could be I found him already.
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Nicky: C’mon Donnie, let’s fillet this fat fuck.[/b]
The last words he ever spoke.
[b]Lefty: Nicky was a rat because Sonny Black says he was a rat. Who the fuck am I? Who am I? I’m a, a spoke on a wheel. And so was he, and so are you
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FBI Agent [to Maggie]: Standard procedure is that he checks in with us every day. Now maybe he might miss a day or two but it’s been three weeks now.
Maggie: I want you to tell me where my husband is. I demand that you tell me where he is.
FBI agent: We can’t tell you because we don’t know. If he gets in touch with you, you have to talk sense into him.
Maggie: You want me to help you out? You want me to help the FBI that used my husband and sucked him dry?
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FBI agent: Mrs. Pistone, there is a war going on in the Mafia family where Joe is undercover. Three leaders of a rival faction have been murdered. He’s right in the line of fire not because he’s one of us but because he is one of them.
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FBI agent: We’ve got to pull him out. Help us. He’ll listen to you.
Maggie: You think so? He was here a week ago. He snuck into the house after I was asleep. He didn’t even wake me up. Didn’t even say hello to me. He came to get a sports coat.
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Lefty: We got the contract to kill Sonny Red’s kid. Now, this thing gets done right…when the books open up, I’m proposing you for membership. You know what that means?
Donnie: Yeah.
Lefty: What?
Donnie: It means I can’t fuck it up.
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Lefty [to Donnie]: You gonna be a made man. A Capiche?
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Joe [to Maggie]: This job is eating me alive. I can’t breathe anymore. If I come out alive, this guy Lefty dies. They’re gonna kill him because he vouched for me…because he stood up for me. I live with that everyday. That’s the same thing as me putting the bullet in his head myself. I’ve spent all these years trying to be the good guy in the white fucking hat. For what? For nothing. I’m not becoming like them; I am them.[/b]
We are made to sympathize with Lefty here. But let’s not forget who he is: He himself has already “whacked” 26 others.
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[b]Donnie Brasco: You think I knew that was a federal boat? You think I’m a fucking rat…?
Lefty: How many times have I had you in my house? If you’re a rat, then I’m the biggest mutt in the history of the Mafia.
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Lefty [to his wife after being “sent for”]: And listen to me, if Donnie calls tell him if it was gonna be anyone, I’m glad it was him. All right?
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Afterword:
The evidence collected by “Donnie Brasco” led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions. Special agent Joseph Pistone lives with his wife under an assumed name in an undisclosed location. There is still a $500,000 open contract on his head.[/b]