Going undercover - the worst job ever?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Donnie Brasco
otr91 — 10 years ago(November 30, 2015 04:32 AM)
So you put yourself in dangerous situations with dangerous people, spend loads of time away from your family (and Pistone's breaks down in the film), have to not step in as other people get beaten up or killed, get transformed by the experience (e.g. the way he begins to talk in the film) and then betray all these people that you've spent months getting 'close' to (if they really are close, like Lefty and Donnie are) and have the entire mafia against you so you have to spend your life in witness protection and quite possibly get found and be tortured/die/have your whole family die.
How much does he get paid for this? How can it ever be worth it??
Also, there's no way you can spend this much time with people and not get close to some of them, which makes the eventual 'betrayal' that much harder. I really felt for Lefty at the end.
"Idrinkyourmilkshake!" -
NotForMeThanks — 9 years ago(June 10, 2016 02:40 AM)
And all Pistone got was a medal and a check for $500.
I think they portrayed exactly how Pistone felt "it was all for nothing" in the scene where he was receiving the medal and check and the official didnt even pronounce his name right. Cut to wife looking like "really?! Can't get his name right?!" To Pistone's eyes filled with sadness looking out, wondering wtf was this all for?
Sure, it payed off for the real Pistone because of how popular the story became but if it hadn't, yeahthat would have been extremely sh!tty. -
cabal24 — 9 years ago(June 28, 2016 08:34 AM)
And all Pistone got was a medal and a check for $500.
Yep this was one of my biggest complaints about the movie. This never happened. At all. There was no $500 nor did he expect there to be. And with some exceptions, most of the FBI as a whole treated him like a hero.
He even came back later to train future undercover officers. -
amcalabrese-1 — 9 years ago(July 18, 2016 10:24 AM)
Also, keep in mind he was only supposed to go undercover for about 6 months. And he was not supposed to go after the mob originally, but to go after hijackers and those fencing property for them. It turned into a mob program by accident, though given how much the mob was involved in hijacking in those days, it makes sense.