‘MASS’ IS A GREAT FILM ...
... IT’S TOO BAD THAT WHITEY WOULD’VE LOVED IT
Like everyone else, couldn’t wait to see “Black Mass.” Two-word review — loved it. Having followed the Whitey saga, listening to Howie Carr’s countless Whitey stories for years when I worked for him, I thought I’d be rolling my eyes.
But, and there is a but, there is one big problem with “Black Mass” that I haven’t been able to shake. And that is, as much as I loved it, I think if Whitey were to ever see it, he’d love it, too.
Bummer. There was a rumor that Whitey went to see “The Departed” when he was in Santa Monica, but we don’t know what he thought of it if he did. We needn’t wonder what he’d think in this case.
After all, “Black Mass” got all of the Whitey myths in there that Whitey loved.
Myth 1: Whitey kept the drugs out of Southie. He loved that one, and while the movie does have lowlifes talking about Whitey bringing drugs into Southie, you never see any images of drugs in Southie, and you never see Whitey talking or dealing with drug dealers. Whitey may not have kept drugs out of Southie, but they kept the drugs out of “Black Mass.”
Myth 2: There was something other than Whitey that made Whitey evil. And the movie hits on all three of Whitey’s favorite theories.
• Those LSD experiments in Alcatraz. “He did it over 50 times,” the movie tells us, it must have done something to his brain.
• The death of Whitey’s son changed him. Maybe, but quick show of hands, who thinks if little Douglas Cyr didn’t die at age 6, then Whitey would have been a kinder, gentler gangster?
• The death of Whitey’s mom. What exactly did Whitey do when Ma Bulger was alive that leads anyone to believe that her death was what made him take a turn for the worse? Hadn’t he already been in Alcatraz?
Here’s my theory, which is not in “Black Mass”: Isn’t it possible that Whitey was born just as rotten as that right front tooth Johnny Depp was so proudly flashing throughout the movie?
Myth 3: Whitey wasn’t a rat. At times watching the movie, I wondered if Whitey was a consultant on it, seeing the great pains the movie went to in saying that Whitey never gave the FBI any useful information on anyone other than the Italian mafia in Boston. Maybe, more likely maybe not. After all, Whitey’s own right-hand man, Kevin Weeks, testified in Whitey’s trial that Whitey was “the biggest rat.” That line did not make it into the movie. Whitey would be pleased.
Ask yourself, of the gangsters portrayed in the movie, which one would be happy with their portrayal?
Stevie Flemmi? My guess is if Stevie saw “Black Mass,” he’d say, “With all the stuff they left out about Whitey, they had to get in that I had sex with my girlfriend’s daughter?”
John Martarano? The opening scene has Martarano drawing Whitey’s wrath for being a slothful Beer Nuts eater. I guarantee you Whitey would love that scene. I can almost as surely guarantee you Martarano would not.
And what about disgraced ex-FBI agent John Connolly? Watch the movie and tell me who the worst guy in the movie is. Is it the mass killer at No. 2 on the FBI most wanted list, or is it John Connolly?
No need to finish that autobiography you were supposedly working on when you got captured, Whitey. They already made a movie of it. And it’s a great movie. I’m just bummed knowing you’d say the same thing.