‘Black Mass:’ How Boston’s most famous mobster played the FBIDate: 9/25/2015 In this week’s film review column, there will be a homegrown crime drama and a compelling but flawed look at terrorists imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay.
In Theaters: Black Mass
I can imagine this is the film that won the weekend in the Boston area as it tells a story based on the life and career of the notorious gangster and Beantown’s very own James “Whitey” Bulger.
Already there have been criticisms of the film’s story line from one of the people who is portrayed in the film – Bulger associate Kevin Weeks – who has said that some of the details were wrong. He has said that some of the events in the film never happened; that Bulger would have never spoken to his son as seen in the film; that Bulger didn’t wear the same style of clothes all the time; and some of the murders were not seen as they actually happened.
Weeks may be correct. After all he was present helping Bulger maintain his crime activities in Boston. What Weeks did not say in the story I read was to dispute that Bulger was a killer who cleverly played the FBI in order to solidify his own control on crime in the city.
“Black Mass” paints a damning picture of an FBI so obsessed with stopping the Mafia in Boston it would be willing to use Bulger as an informant – only that Bulger didn’t see it that way. He believed the relationship was a two- way street. He gave them tips, which eventually led to the crushing of the crime family, and he received information and cover in return.
The film also addresses the relationship of James with his younger brother William, the man who became for years one of if not the most powerful political figure in the Commonwealth. The movie walks a careful line here, as it is careful not to imply that William knew exactly what his brother was doing, while presenting scenes in which it is clear the two brothers were close.
If you don’t know much about Bulger and treat this film simply as a gangster film, you’ll probably see it as a well-crafted fast-moving story about the rise and fall of a psychopathic criminal.
Johnny Depp excels as James Bulger with a carefully crafted performance. What fascinated me is that Depp made his eyes look “dead” throughout, with emotion shining through them only at key points.
Joel Edgerton is appropriately pathetic as the FBI agent and former Southie kid who grew up idolizing Bulger. He sees his informant relationship with Bulger as an affirmation of his South Boston roots as well as a way to advance his career in the FBI.
Benedict Cumberbatch also is impressive as William Bulger, who is just as concerned with power as much as his brother.
There has been a cottage industry surrounding Bulger with many books written about his crime career and relationship with his brother. If you see “Black Mass,” a great follow-up would be “Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger,” a documentary currently available on Netflix.
On DVD and streaming: Camp X-Ray
How do the people who guard the detainees at Guantanamo Bay feel about what they are doing?
That’s the question posed by this drama starring Kristen Stewart. I will admit up front she is not one of my favorite actresses and seems to have a limited range of emotions The role of an young Army private station at Camp X-Ray at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp, though, falls right within her scope.
Stewart’s Private Amy Cole is a woman who arrives at her new assignment with a certain amount of assumptions that are largely reinforced by the experiences of her first few weeks. Then something curious happens: one of the prisoners (played by Peyman Moaadi) begins talking to her as she is guarding him and the others.
At first I wasn’t sure where this film was going and I was praying it wasn’t going to wind up in some sort of romance. Thankfully writer and director Peter Sattler didn’t go there. Instead his aim was to present a story in which Cole considers the possibilities that not all is as it appears.
As an audience, we don’t know if the detainee in question is innocent or a terrorist, something that makes the story richer and more realistic.
My biggest complaints with the film are its slow pacing at times and a subplot concerning Cole and the corporal in charge of her. That diversion in the story seems to be unnecessary.
An interesting drama, “Camp X-Ray” would be sure to start discussions.
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