The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family... Read allThe true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.The true story of Whitey Bulger, the brother of a state senator and the most infamous violent criminal in the history of South Boston, who became an FBI informant to take down a Mafia family invading his turf.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 24 nominations total
- John Martorano
- (as W Earl Brown)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMany of the murder scenes were shot in the locations where the real-life murders took place.
- GoofsIn the film, Buddy Leonard diffuses a fight between Whitey Bulger and Tommy King at Triple O's. Tommy is subsequently murdered, and Buddy is found dead in the front seat of a car a few scenes later. In real life, Buddy was murdered before the altercation at Triple O's. His death was the real reason Tommy attacked Bulger.
- Quotes
Whitey Bulger: [from trailer]
[at dinner]
Whitey Bulger: What did you marinate this steak in? Because it's out of this world! You're killing me with it!
John Morris: Now, now, it's a family secret.
Whitey Bulger: Oh, come on! You got to tell me that! What's the secret? Come on, you can do it, come on, that is one of the best goddamn steaks I have ever had in my entire life. What's the family secret recipe?
John Morris: It's ground garlic, with a bit of soy.
Whitey Bulger: That's it?
John Morris: Yeah, that's it.
Whitey Bulger: [pause] I thought it was a family secret.
John Morris: It's a recipe.
Whitey Bulger: No, no. You said to me this is a family secret, and you gave it up to me, boom just like that. You spill the secret family recipe today, maybe you spill a little something about me tomorrow, hm?
John Morris: I was just saying that...
Whitey Bulger: You were just saying? "Just saying" gets people sent away. "Just saying" got me a nine-year stretch in Alcatraz, you understand? So, "just saying" can get you buried real quick.
[suddenly laughs]
Whitey Bulger: Look at his face!
- Crazy creditsAs the actors are listed, pictures and footage of the real people they portrayed are shown.
- SoundtracksIt's Not My Cross to Bear
Written by Gregg Allman
Performed by The Allman Brothers Band
Courtesy of Island Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises
*** (out of 4)
Violent telling of Boston criminal James 'Whitey' Bulger (Johnny Depp) who started as just a small crook but quickly rose to be one of the biggest crime lords out there. A lot of this was due to his childhood friend John Connolly (Joel Edgerton), a FBI agent, who began working with the criminal in exchange for information.
BLACK MASS really wasn't as great as I was hoping it would be but there's no question that it's a solid film that managed to features some very good performances. I think the film falls short of being great for a number of reasons but one of the biggest is the fact that we've seen this type of gangster film countless times before and there's really nothing here that separates this film from various others out there.
I will say that the best thing about the film was the performance from Depp who really sinks his teeth into this role. Depp had been criticized for some of his film choices over the past few years but this is certainly him jumping back into the game and showing what he can do. I thought he was extremely good here and especially with that coldness he brought the character. He's surrounding by some nice support from Edgerton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard, Rory Cochrane and Dakota Johnson.
The gangster genre has delivered some of the greatest movies ever made and it's created some rather by-the-number films that were quickly forgotten. I wouldn't say this film is going to be forgotten but it's certainly not going to reach the levels of GOODFELLAS, THE GODFATHER or WHITE HEAT. With that said, there's a nice little story here, some great performances and some graphic violence that makes it worth watching.
- Michael_Elliott
- Apr 1, 2016
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Pacto criminal
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $53,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $62,575,678
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $22,635,037
- Sep 20, 2015
- Gross worldwide
- $99,975,678
- Runtime2 hours 3 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1