So Low, So Evil

If you want to read something interesting after watching Scott Cooper's “Black Mass,” a film about the life and times of Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, check out Howie Carr's Sept. 22 column in the Boston Herald. It gives the reader an idea of the reach of Bulger's Winter Hill Gang, and of the caliber of the individuals involved.

James Bulger is an Irish-American gangster from South Boston, currently in federal prison. His younger brother, William Bulger, was president of the Massachusetts state Senate from 1978 to 1996, and the most powerful politician in the commonwealth (governors being a transient species). If anybody found this troubling, they didn't say so.

Whitey Bulger and an FBI agent, John Connolly, who grew up with the Bulgers, had an arrangement. Bulger passed the feds information on the Italian mob, and the feds turned a blind eye to Bulger's activities. Bulger's intelligence, however, was of limited value, at best. Eventually, even the feds realized they were getting played.

But in the interim, the Winter Hill Gang expanded into all the usual spheres of influence, particularly the drug trade, and murdered dozens of people.

When the balloon finally went up in the late 1990s, Connolly and most of the gang were arrested, but Whitey Bulger went on the run and remained at large until 2011.

Cooper's film takes liberties with the chronology, not that it really matters, since the story is about the rise of a stone cold psychopath and the curious notions of blood and honor that inform his actions — and that of his FBI handler, Connolly (who refused to testify against Bulger).

Johnny Depp is completely convincing as Bulger, as are Joel Edgerton as Connolly and Jesse Plemons as enforcer Kevin Weeks.

Other members of the cast are in the wrong film. Benedict Cumberbatch, a talented actor, is simply too tall to play Billy Bulger (the Herald's Carr dubbed him “The Corrupt Midget”) and he struggles with the Southie accent.

Dakota Johnson as Whitey Bulger's common-law wife, Lindsey Cyr, also has trouble with the sound of Southie.

The costumes are also a problem. Not a sack suit in sight, in public service jobs, in Boston? Come on.

Although as Connolly gets in deeper, and receives promotions for his handling of his infamous informant, he starts affecting double-breasted suits.

But these are quibbles. What is truly admirable about the film is the lack of glamor. These criminals may have had a long reach, but they were all essentially small-timers — grubby, unintelligent men living a violent and stupid life.

Their success was due to the corruption of the public officials so easily and successfully manipulated by Bulger — not to their criminal genius.

Nobody is going to treat “Black Mass” as a primer on how the successful gangster behaves, a la “Scarface” or “Goodfellas.” And for anyone of Irish descent, well, now we know how Italian-Americans feel.

It's a disturbing, violent film about horrible people. And such an honest treatment of organized crime is long overdue.

“Black Mass” is rated R for violence, language, sexual references and drug use.