Johnny Depp’s gangster movieBlack Massisand nearly a decade later, I still can’t believe Depp got snubbed for the Oscar. Directed by Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart,Hostiles,Deliver Me from Nowhere),Black Masschronicles the true story of the real-life crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger, one of the most notorious gangsters and kingpins in United States history. Depp portrays Bulger, who was the brother of Massachusetts State Senator Billy Bulger and eventually became an FBI informant who helped weaken the Italian Mafia’s power in New England. Bulger became an infamous figure of the Irish Mob out of South Boston, Massachusetts, and died in federal prison in 2018.
Black Masshas an outstanding supporting cast, which also got widely overlooked at the 2016 Academy Awards. Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, Joel Edgerton, Dakota Fanning, David Harbour, Peter Sarsgaard, and Kevin Bacon were astoundingly all in the same movie and none of them walked away with a single Oscar nomination (or Golden Globe for that matter). The film begins in the mid-to-late 1970s asa young Whitey Bulger becomes the leader of the notorious Winter Hill Gang out of Somerville, Massachusetts. By theend ofBlack Mass, fate catches up with Whitey Bulger, who was finally found and arrested in 2011 after spending twelve years on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.
The film is based on the 2001 bookBlack Mass: The True Story of an Unholy Alliance Between the FBI and the Irish Mobby Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill.
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Black Mass tells the story of how Whitey Bulger became an FBI informant
Black Massnarrows its focus on one of the most controversial and hard-to-believe parts of Whitey Bulger’s true-crime story. Bulger was released from prison in 1965 after serving a nine-year sentence for armed robbery and truck hijacking. He returned to the Greater Boston area where he and the Winter Hill Gang held formidable power and influence over the streets of Somerville and South Boston. In the film, Whitey’s brother Billy Bulger, who became a Massachusetts State Senator in 1973, meets with FBI agent John Connolly and learns about John’s assignment to take down the Italian mafia.Connolly, who grew up in South Boston, makes a deal with Whitey for their mutual benefit.
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As the film plays out, Connolly successfully convinces Whitey to help each other out even though the Irish mob boss can’t stand the idea of being seen as a rat. Driven by the mutual goal of taking down the mafia, Whitey plays ball and gives Connolly what he needs, which ultimately makes Connolly a hero at the FBI, although some of his associates, including his boss Charles McGuire, finds the ease of the whole operation suspicious. Over time,Connolly gets closer and closer to Bulger and his Winter Hill gangsters, which starts to have negative effects on his life, job, and family.
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It’s unfortunate that Depp was snubbed of an Academy Award nomination for playing Whitey Bulger as it was one of his greatest performances in years leading up to it and is arguably one of the overall most compelling roles of his acting career. The nominees for Best Actor at the 2016 Oscars were Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo inTrumbo, Matt Damon as Mark Watney inThe Martian, Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs inSteve Jobs, Eddie Redmayne as Lili Elbe inThe Danish Girl, and Leonardo DiCaprio as Hugh Glass inThe Revenant, who took home the award.Depp certainly belonged in this category and it’s frankly nonsensical that he was not nominated.
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Black Masshad the makings of an all-time great gangster movie. However, the film received strong but not outstanding reviews from critics, resulting ina Rotten Tomatoes critic score of 73% and a lower audience score of 68%. Similarly,Black Massreceived a Metascore of 68, which again, is solid but not necessarily Oscar-material. Regardless, there are plenty of actors who have stellar lead performances in mid-level films, Cranston’sTrumbobeing one of them.
Black Mass’also surprisingly made little noise at the box office, earning just under $100 million worldwide against a production budget of $53 million. There could also have been some recency biases at play, with Cranston’sBreaking Badending in 2013 and Depp having a critical slump afterThe Lone Ranger,Transcendence, andTusk.
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Bulger called the film inaccurate while also claiming to have never seen it
AlthoughBlack Massis based on a published 2001 book of the same name,Whitey Bulger himself said that he hated the way that he and his life were portrayed in the filmand said it was entirely fictional. According toThe Hollywood Reporter, “Bulger voiced his anger for the filmmakers behind the Whitey biopic Black Mass. Whitey wanted to be the architect of his own mythology. For decades he had cultivated a reputation as a “gentleman gangster” when in fact, he was a cold-blooded killer and a top echelon informant for the FBI.” Bulger also admitted, however, that he “never saw Black Mass” while also claiming it “not at all accurate.”
Bulger passed on the opportunity to meet with Depp and theBlack Massproduction team, which could have resulted in a more authentic or more glorified rendition of the film. Regardless, Depp did the best he could do with what he had available and, at the very least, deserved the Best Actor Oscar nomination, especially considering the legendary actor has never won the award.
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Black Mass
Cast
Black Mass is a crime drama biography based on the true story of one of the most notorious criminals in U.S. History, Whitey Bulger. When Bulger’s turf is encroached on by a rival mafia family, the Angiulo brothers, the death of one of his own mafia family members leads him to join his long-time friend and become an informant for the FBI to exact his revenge - and push the Angiulo’s out of his turf.
