Donnie Brasco: Out of the Shadows (2000) 

*** (out of 4) 

Nice featurette on the making of DONNIE BRASCO, the 1997 gangster film with Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. Director Mike Newell, writer Paul Attacnasio, the real life Donnie Brasco himself Joseph D. Pistone and producer Louis DiGiaimo are all interviewed about the making of the film and takes you from the early stages to when the film was released. Some of the more interesting stories about about the original version, which was meant to have Pacino and Tom Cruise but the studio backed out after GOODFELLAS because they felt the public wouldn't accept another gangster film. We also hear about certain changes that were made in the screenplay as well as hearing how Pacino got into the role. We really get to know more about the real life Lefty and hear what changes Pacino made to the character. Fans of the movie will enjoy this look at it even though there's certainly nothing ground-breaking here. At just under 20-minutes there's certainly not enough time to really dig into the subject and it's really too bad that Pacino wasn't interviewed as I'm sure he could have talked much more about what he wanted to bring to the character. With that said, what we do get is entertaining and worth watching once you've viewed the film.

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Donnie Brasco: Out of the Shadows

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