Black Mass

When we meet James (or Jim) “Whitey” Bulger, it’s in South Boston 1975, as the chilling voice from Session 9, Lonnie Farmer, narrates Whitey’s reintroduction to the criminal under-wold of Massachussets. Farmer, as Agent Olsen, is interviewing one of Whitey’s heavies, Kevin Weeks (Jesse Plemons) who immediately starts off explaining he “ain’t no rat.” There is a lot of emphasis on ratting in Black Mass, and the distinction between Whitey’s alliance versus actual snitching.  But, I am getting ahead of myself.

If you saw The Departed, you know Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) was liberally based on Whitey.  But Black Mass is his real story, as near as Hollywood can tell it, I imagine.  Depp doesn’t play Whitey as a king pin, crime lord, he plays him as an on edge monster.  And as transgressions build, they weigh on his character and make him even more of a menace to society.  I won’t reveal those devastating blows that Whitey endures, nor will I excuse the man for his actions because of them.  He is a flawed man, and he’s every bit the psychopath the FBI profilers claim him to be.

As ruthless as Whitey is though, he’s not untouchable until after one of his old admirers, John Connolly (Edgerton) reaches out to Whitey’s brother, State Senator Billy Bulger, played remarkably well by Benedict Cumberbatch.  Connolly, who is now an FBI agent, has a bold idea. He wants to turn Whitey into a snitch for the FBI.  Whitey recently got out of prison at Leavenworth and Alcatraz because rats put him there.  It’s no easy sell, but as Connolly explains, it isn’t ratting, it would be an alliance, and he’d only ever have to give intelligence on enemy players.

It’s a win win, really.  And, unlike in The Departed, the FBI is completely on board with the idea.  Connolly isn’t some spy within the FBI like Matt Damon portrayed.  In fact, Connolly’s boss, played by Kevin Bacon initially likes the idea and gives Connolly some leeway on how to proceed.  As long as he follows protocol and there are no drugs and no killings, the FBI is prepared to keep the unholy alliance.

As you can imagine, at first, it’s great for everyone involved, Whitey gives the Feds just enough intel to keep them happy, and it’s only dirt on the Italians anyway.  He hates the Italians.  Some intel he provides delivers a major coup for Connolly, who rides that success for a few years.  Then, as with most people who have a good thing going, they get greedy and start to take more risks.  Oh, and Whitey, he’s still murdering people to keep his enterprise intact.  And yet the FBI keeps protecting him.  Granted, some of the people he murders are no saints.  But some are just in his way and have to die.  And some people die just because they are dumb.

Here’s where the debate develops.  At what point do you think the FBI becomes as heinous as Whitey?  When do they get to walk away with a clean conscious?  Connolly’s partner John Morris (David Harbour) provides the common sense character that we are most likely supposed to identify with.  But even he, eventually, starts to get in too deep.  In one scene over a steak dinner at Connolly’s house, Depp delivers his best performance of the film.  He turns a casual dinner into a tense confrontation and again, those eyes are looking right through Agent Morris.  What’s he thinking?

Johnny Depp becomes Bulger, and that is all you can ask of the finest of actors.  Will he get a much deserved Oscar?  Frankly, I don’t care anymore than he probably does, as The Academy has really lost their credibility over the years.  And maybe that is why Depp is such a consumed actor, he doesn’t worry about awards, he worries about transformation. There were moments in Black Mass where I completely forgot I was watching an actor.  You can’t get much better than that.

The entire cast delivered in their parts, from the small to the robust, they helped build on the belief that what you were seeing wasn’t a film.  It was a story, a true crime story, about a viscous creature that the U.S. government made a despicable alliance with.  Whitey is not sympathetic in the usual understanding of that word.  But Depp gives him depth and makes him real.

Black Mass is violent and difficult to stomach, but it serves as a wonderful lesson in choosing your sleeping partners wisely, less you adopt their sins.  And, perhaps, another lesson to be found is when you have something that works, use it, but don’t abuse it.  For instance, let’s imagine that we never found out about this alliance, because everyone did what they said they would?  Let’s imagine there was no corruption and Whitey was handled like any other CI (Confidential Informant)?  Would that change your opinion of the FBI or Whitey, for that matter?  Watch Black Mass to get a glimpse into how our criminal justice system really works in this country and seek the answers yourself.