May 5th, 2014: The nefarious life of the Winter Hill Gang’s most prolific member, James J. “Whitey” Bulger can best be captured through the following numbers: 30 years of mayhem, 16 years on the lamb, 19 charges of murder with 11 convictions all securely anchored to this 83 year old octogenarian. For Whitey, a Southie through and through, what was foremost on his mind as he enters the last chapter of his villainous existence was the perverse preservation of a legacy predicated on not being labeled a rat informant. “Whitey United States of America v. James J. Bulger” micro-manages the slippery slopes involved in courting, coddling and capturing one of America’s Most Wanted fugitives, and a U.S. Justice System that may have colluded along the way.
Whitey’s murky racketeering world of bookmaking, drug dealing, loan sharking and extortion forms part of the underworld narrative that questions the cozy yet somewhat predatory relationship FBI enablers, handlers and informants had with the Winter Hill Gang. Academy Award-nominated and two-time Emmy and Peabody winning Filmmaker Joe Berlinger mines heartfelt stories of victims, friends, family members and associates whose lives have forever been changed through Whitey’s deadly touch. Add to this the structural shortcomings within the FBI’s Top Echelon Informant Program, disgraced former FBI Agent John Connolly and a woefully inaccurate government files that form the basis for prosecution as we see just the tip of the rot within the Boston FBI Bureau. Berlinger explore the ends and means paradigm which begs the question, How far will the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation go to get their man?
Verdict: 4.5 out of 5: The criminal enterprise of the Irish Mafia in Boston helmed by one James J. “Whitey” Bulger existed long past its due date and that protracted tenure was underwritten in part by the institutional corruption within the US Justice System. Boston FBI headquarters held many secrets and Berlinger’s hardboiled investigations uncovered the never ending internal realities where good cops get skewered and bad cops get off. Pushing through the challenges of not being able to film in a Federal Court House created unique workarounds using punchy montages and court exhibits for an engrossing trial recreation narrative. The story of Whitey may be rooted in the murderous escapades of Whitey Bulger for the last 30 years, but the slow transformation into an indictment on the structural failings of the justice system quickly becomes the real story. Access is everything.
Final Thought: In the case of United States of America v. James J. Bulger, the truth is not always where you find it.
Genre: Documentary, Biography, Crime
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 2014
Director: Joe Berlinger
Producers: Joe Berlinger, Caroline Suh
Premiere: International
Runtime: 107 Minutes
Cast: David Boeri, Steve Davis, Dick Lehr, Hank Brennan, Shelley Murphy, Patricia Dobahue, J.W. Carrey Jr., Daryl Zules, Fred Wyshak Jr., Angela Clemente, Kevin Weeks, Rob FitzPatrick, Zachary Hafer, Tommy Donahue, Brian Kelly, T.J. English, Stephen Rakes, David Wheeler, Kevin Cullen, Edward Hinchey, Col. Thomas Foley, James E. McDonald.
