Johnny Depp as South Boston mob boss Whitey Bulger is the centerpiece of the much anticipated silver screen adaptation of the book "Black Mass." But here in Boston, where much of Bulger's loan sharking, extortion and murders took place, that anticipation is often met with skepticism, disgust and anger.
"Well I think it's a disgrace that he's having a movie done. He is the furthest thing from a legitimate hoodlum, he's a stool pigeon rat," said Maurice Fitzgerald, who knew Bulger from childhood.
"I don't know that I can go and watch it. I know the history of what he did and the people that were affected so, he was a legend here though," Boston native Patricia Malcolm said.
"Well it shouldn't be glorified at all, but the movie looks good, I read the book, the book was excellent, it's just showing how things were at that time," added another Boston native, Bernie O'Brien.
But in the movie Black Mass, showing "how things were" in South Boston in the 70's, 80's and early 90's is unabashedly violent and a painful part of the lives of many relatives of Bulger's victims and alleged victims.
"It’s like an open wound because they're still hurt by the fact they lost loved ones and they just captured him a few years back," said Steve Davis whose sister Debra was allegedly strangled by Bulger.
Although her murder is not depicted in the movie, he says he has no interest in seeing some of his friends' loved ones' murders play out on the big screen.
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"But this is real, this isn't like two generations out, down the road like an Al Capone movie or something, they're hitting us right in the gut with it and it hurts," Davis said.
