I visited Fenway Park (sorry, “Pahk”) frequently in the late 1980s. The longer a night game lasted, the more likely ushers and cops became bleacher bouncers. I suppose this was (more-or-less) necessary as every night a new group of drunken frat idiots from one of the dozens of colleges in the area showed up and every night a new group of drunken frat idiot didn’t get that their boorish behavior was the exact same shit as the night before. Still, drunken frat idiots are mostly harmless and when a group of policemen and blue-coated bruisers would forcibly remove a boisterous soul, it seemed a tad overkill. I remember one such instance where the blowhard next to me shouted, “way to go, officers, clean up crime in Boston!”
And there’s something to be said for that, especially given that -at the exact same time in Boston- the FBI gave gangster James “Whitey” Bulger (Johnny Depp) run of the city in exchange for information to bring down rival gangs. I want that deal. “Hey FBI, some people I hate are located on 2nd street, got it? Ok, now I want immunity for several years.” It helped, of course, that Jimmy (yes, given the name “James” and the nickname “Whitey,” this movie insisted on calling him “Jimmy.” Don’t ask me; I never liked being called “Jimmy.”) cut a deal with the FBI through his childhood pal, John Connolly (Joel Edgerton). Yeah, Connolly can’t arrest the guy he spent childhood Christmases with, but cutting a deal that Bulger never gets prosecuted for anything?!
It also helped that Jimmy’s brother Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a state senator. I don’t doubt Billy was powerful, but I was a tad skeptical of Black Mass calling him the most powerful politician in Massachusetts. In the film’s timeline, this statement was averred during the Michael Dukakis gubernatorial administration, right before Dukakis took the Democratic nomination for President. Oh, and also around there at the time was Senator John Kerry (another future Democratic nominee and future Secretary of State), Presidential wannabe Paul Tsongas and Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill. OK, I’m reasonably confident Billy Bulger was among the top 10 most powerful political people in Massachusetts in the 1980s. Certainly Top 20. He was, at the time, much bigger than Mitt Romney — that is a fact.
For fellas who were supposed to have grown up together, Depp, Cumberbatch and Edgerton all approached the filming with a different accent. Explain that. IMHO, Cumberbatch’s evolved Brahmin comes closest to one you might find on a Mass politician of the day. But none of the three truly finds the mellifluent Southie garble punctuating every third sentence with the word “wicked” and 
spouting off in blue collar sports bars about how Larry Bird is a cleah demonstration of white powah.
The coordination of gangster & FBI is what sets Black Mass (which sounds like an astrophysics term, am I right?) apart from standard mob films. Depp plays Bulger as constantly in control and occasionally brutal, all of which will shine through the slicked-back baldness, black leather jacket and grey incisor. Still, it’s hard to laud a mob film whose best moment of mountain/molehill intensity is stolen straight from Joe Pesci in Goodfellas. Tell you what, Depp, as this is the first film of yours in years that caught my attention more than it didn’t, I’ll give you a pass, for now.
Black Mass claims Jimmy sure didn’t forward the FBI a whole lot of information – I’m not sure whether we buy that or not. It’s in everybody’s best interests here to argue the position that Bulger wasn’t a big divulger. Why? Painting Bulger as a stoolie makes him look weak; painting Connolly as a third-rate magician strengthens the case that he deserves jail time; painting the FBI as getting useful tips weakens the position that they’re incompetent and Bulger needs to be corralled. So we’re all gonna just pretend that in the decades of the FBI/Bulger collaboration, Bulger gave nothing. I suppose that could be the truth. And maybe Black Mass didn’t steal from Goodfellas, either. But it did.
My friend from home became a fed
While Alcatraz was where I bled
Now we’re both back in the fens
Can I trust where I tread?
I’m in bed with the FBI
Sure, I’m just a normal guy
‘Cept for the gangster part (shrug)
I’m in bed with the FBI
Rated R, 122 Minutes
D: Scott Cooper
W: Mark Mallouk and Jez Butterworth
Genre: A Boston collage
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: James Bulger
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: The FBI
