Safe House and Donnie Brasco have a lot in common. Both deal with two government agents: one an undercover FBI agent, the other a rookie CIA agent. The young men end up looking up to the older man of status- Toben Frost is a respected CIA agent until he went rogue and Lefty is a respected hit man of the Mob community. These characters also develop an emotional relationship with the respected man of their specialty. Both films share the themes of the loss of identity or innocence and respect of something from higher authority.
Both films share the loss of identity and/or innocence. Weston, played by Ryan Reynolds, is a young naïve CIA agent who is looking after a safe house in Africa although he knows his skills are more qualified for something higher. When he is placed to look after Toben, and the two must run to survive. Toben is a man of many questions. You do not know if he telling the truth or just playing mind games with Weston. When Weston joins him and goes rogue as well, his views of his duties and truth are changed due to what he now knows about the corruption and the hidden ugliness going on within the CIA. Although he does shoot a man, he did not kill him. When he made his first kill, that was the moment when he really lost everything: his values, his beliefs, his purpose within the CIA and true ugliness of this agency. He is a changed man.
Donnie Brasco is similar, may be even more extreme. Johnny Depp is Donnie Brasco whom the audience soon find out is really FBI undercover agent Joe Pistone. He has been undercover for about 2 years, and he is losing his real identity to ‘Donnie Brasco’. He falls into the lifestyle and their habits, that he is distancing himself not only from his wife, but from the FBI as well. He is turning into these men right before the audience very eyes and it is just intense. He is losing himself of that thin line of true reality and of presenting a performance.
Both films also deal with the emotional relationship developed with an older man of status, although one film is more highly developed throughout the story. Toben Frost, Denzel Washington’s character in Safe House, is a highly respected CIA agent, one of the best within the agency until he goes rogue. In my opinion, it would have been more interesting, if not keep my attention, if the film focused more the relationship developed between Toben and Weston. There’s not only the difference of experience, but also personality, knowledge, etc. There was a sense of a possible father-son/mentor relationship being developed, but not to the fullest potential which was one of the bigger flaws of the film.
In Donnie Brasco, the relationship developed between Al Pacino as Lefty and Johnny Depp as Pistone as Donnie Brasco, was one of the major focuses of the film. The audience watch this bond grow as the film progressive. The two have such great chemistry and you really see Lefty take this kid under his wing, teaches him. A couple scenes that stand out of this father/son relationship is when Lefty has Donnie come celebrate Christmas at his apartment that he shares with his girlfriend and son. The audience watch Lefty as an average Joe, sitting watch National Geographic videos, in sweats, and cooking as well. Another scene is when they are at the hospital because Lefty’s son had an overdose. Since Donnie was suppose to be in Florida, looking after the business prospect for Sonny Black, he goes to the hospital. Lefty tells him to go back to Florida and then looks at him and says,” I love you”. It is a very touching scene because he really cares for Donnie as if he were his own blood.
Both films deal with change as well. They both deal with that father-son/mentor relationship and the loss of identity or innocence. I also realized that the deaths of both Lefty and Toben were eloquent. Toben, despite a through and through shot, dies quietly in front of Weston. There is almost this poignancy to his death and Lefty, when he is prepping himself for his impending death, he quietly puts away his jewelry and personal items. It is just beautiful then you hear the shot of the gun and you know that he is dead even though the gun being fired was by Pistone, alone at a firing range.
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