'Black Mass" may sound like a classic horror film featuring Vincent Price or Barbara Steele, but it's actually a modern crime film about a gangster nicknamed "Whitey," played by Johnny Depp. Confusing? Yes, even more so when you examine its promo photos of a dome-headed Depp in aviator shades, which seem to promise "Fear and Loathing: The Sequel."
Alas, Dr. Gonzo is nowhere to be found in "Black Mass," but there is plenty of what he used to call "bad craziness." The movie is based on the real-life story of James "Whitey" Bulger, a street thug who rose to control the Irish-Catholic neighborhood of South Boston from the 1970s to the '90s with drug and bookmaking networks that spread much farther across the state and country. He was eventually indicted in 1994 but fled before he could be arrested, remaining a fugitive for 16 years — a feat worthy of Walter White from "Breaking Bad."
Whitey was well known in Boston, surprisingly so considering that his brother Billy was president of the Massachusetts state Senate. Some in "Southie" (South Boston) considered Bulger a local boy made good, a Robin Hood figure, but almost anybody who dealt with him knew better: Bulger was a slit-eyed lizard who had no qualms about killing people and removing all their teeth. Viewers who don't hail from New England may have never heard of him, but movie buffs should note that Jack Nicholson's character in "The Departed" was loosely based on Whitey.