for those of you who watched and read donnie brasco, does the movie follow the book? which one is better? what do you think of the movie in general?

I never read the book, but the movie was pretty good, I thought.

Pacino put on quite the performance, and so did J. Depp for that matter.

"I die witch you Donnie."

The movie does generally follow the book, but not when it comes to specifics....For instance, Donnie became closer to Sonny Black (personally) than to Lefty later on, and it was Sonny who "disappeared" when it became clear that Donnie was an agent.....

There are loads of details that were very nice, but I felt that the book/Pistone were repeating themselves on several occasions....

I think that the movie was very good (until I read the book)....Now, I think the movie (although very good compared to other movies) would be good compared to the book....

I really enjoyed both the book and the movie. I saw the movie for the first time a couple years ago and finished reading the book about a month ago.
Although there were comparisons, there were also differences, like the guy in Miami who's name was Richie Gatso in the movie was Tony Conte in the book. And Pistone's wife's name was Maggie in the movie and Penny in the book (I think it was Penny, I can't really remember).
I really love the movie, it's my 2nd favourite of all time, sometimes I say it's my 3rd favourite, depends on when I last watched it.
But the book is worth reading for sure I'd say.

I enjoyed the book,but the movie was really good dont get me wrong.The book is more descriptive and specific. I dont know if anyone already posted this,In the movie depp is more close to lefty. in the book its sonny black.also in the book its says what his prosedures where. IMO i liked the book better.

I loved the film, but it definately isn't up there with the likes of The Godfather Trilogy, Casino or Goodfellas... Don't get me wrong, I love it, but theres something not quite right about it, you know...

It borrows far too much from Goodfellas and Casino in terms of writing E.g. Near the beginning, Lefty and some of the others are talking about cars, and the coversation goes a little something like this "Its got more class, more power, more speed, better mile-age, er, more power urr" "You already said that" "What?" "More Power" "I already said that?" "Yeah" "Oh" Now, i've no doubt that gangsters talk like that, but please, this is right out of Goodfellas, with speach going on ten times longer than it has to...

Also, the writer seems to think that the audience isn't very intelligent, and makes points far too obviously like: "Wiseguys don't carry money around in wallets" etc... Everything was just too damn obvious! Give the audience something to think about! Also who's bright idea was it to have Michael (B-Movie) Madsen in the film?! I mean OMG!!!!! Oh yeah, how many times was the word 'wiseguy' used?! It's like, OK, we know that you are gansters, don't blirt it out every 5 mins, some cops gonna hear you...



noledge

A good movie, but no "GF." The book was much better, imhop. Had more detail and more interesting characters--particularly Tony Mirra and Frank Balestrieri.

I read some parts of the book while I was on the bus...I laughed my a$$ off when I read the part when Lefty pulled that number on Donnie and the other agent on Lefty's birthday (also I thought that the air-conditioning part was exceptionally funny...)

Never read the book but I loved the film. Does anybody have the DVD? Is it worth it? Nobody plays a better undercop on film than Al (Serpico) and Johnny.