On This Day

Donnie Brasco released

February 28th 1997

12:04 28 February 2024

'Donnie Brasco' opened in theaters across North America on this day in 1997. Mike Newell's crime drama film, with a screenplay by Paul Attanasio based on the 1988 nonfiction book 'Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia' by Joseph D. Pistone and Richard Woodley, stars Al Pacino and Johnny Depp. Inspired by true events in the 1970s, the story follows FBI undercover agent Pistone (Depp) as he infiltrates the mob in New York City under the alias Donnie Brasco, a jewel thief from Florida.

Gaining the confidence of an aging Mafia hitman, Lefty Ruggiero (Pacino), Donnie moves deeper into the Mafia and the realisation that the lines between federal agent and criminal are becoming blurred and that he is leading his friend Lefty to an almost certain death.

The movie opened to positive reviews and was a success at the box office, earning $124.9 million against a budget of $35 million. Paul Attanasio's script went on to receive a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination.