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
- 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
Oh, Scott Cooper... how did you manage to make one of the most twisted, unusual, and mysterious gangster stories into an emotionless web of a film? From acting to editing, there was so much wrong that it's almost surprising.
My main issue was the nonexistence of a certain necessity: stakes. In all great mafia flicks, stakes are essential. Would "Goodfellas" have been as remarkable if it didn't feel like any wrong move would set off a universe-ending set of events? Would the "Godfather" have been considered the greatest film of all time if a war wasn't seconds away from breaking out? "Black Mass" managed to keep a story that easily could've had those steaks from having any at all. This was, of course, caused by the emotionless acting, but more on that in a second. But this film really made me not care if the protagonist (whether you consider that to be Bulger or Connolly) lives or dies; and in a mob movie, that is a worse crime than anything committed on screen.
So the acting I blame entirely on Cooper. Every single actor did a great job with what they were given, but the problem is that they were given the wrong thing. For example, Depp was probably told to play a silent yet psychotic, friendly yet intimidating crime lord. Did he do that well? Absolutely. Is that who the character was written as? Not at all. Same goes for Joel Edgerton's - who I thought did the best job out of all of the actors - character, Jesse Plemons' character, and even smaller characters like Adam Scott's. All those actors did well, but not in the right parts.
The list goes on with issues, so let's talk about why the movie got 2 stars rather than zero (therefore, let's talk about the positives). I've heard some critics discuss the overuse of violence in the film. Though there is quite a bit of violence, I thought it was used very tastefully. No blood was used where it didn't seem necessary, and personally, I think that the violence becomes numbing, which takes us even further into the mob guys' mentality on murder. Also, I thought the shooting locations were very well chosen, as they really captured the narrow-mindedness of the lead characters' lives.
So should you see this movie? -If you love mafia movies of any shape or size, then go see it. -If you love Johnny Depp, wait until it comes out on demand. -If you don't love mafia movies, haven't seen many mafia movies, or just have none of the listed qualities above, then don't see this film.
- jacobcornblatt
- Sep 19, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Bố Già Huyền Thoại
- 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