Thanks for posting this scene, Scott. It's a terrific movie with great acting, cinematography, editing, music – the works. Everybody's at the top of their game. Especially Paul Attanasio, who created one of my favorite TV shows Homicide: Life on the Street, and this film came out while he was working on that show. And somehow Mike Newell, an Englishman mostly known for directing Enchanted April and Four Weddings and a Funeral, was able to bring it all together. Every scene is so well-crafted. Every single scene has conflict. Even short little scenes that could easily have been throwaways have something going on all the time. And within the scenes there are moments of conflict and activity, push and pull and something going on. There's never a moment of status quo. Tension and activity all the time. It's interesting to see that they changed it up a bit from the script to the filmed version. In the script, it's Donnie who starts the physical fight with the Maitre d'. In the film, it's Sonny that drags him into the men's room and starts beating him. As it is in the script, it could be interpreted that the other guys join in only to defend Donnie, since the Maitre d' is fighting back – a physical reaction to what was going on. In the film, Sonny makes a conscious choice to start the beating and Donnie only join in the physical altercation after being punched by the Maitre d'. A seemingly minor change that makes a big difference in the larger picture. It means Donnie was convincing enough with his lie that he persuaded the others to fight for him. This is a big step and shows that he has earned their trust. It also shows that Donnie loses control and punches back almost as a reflex after being hit himself. The scripted version reads like he is control of himself the whole time, the filmed version shows that he's not. Here's what director Mike Newell had to say about this scene from an interview on the DVD: “Donnie has to be part of beating up the Japanese waiter because the reason that the scene is there is to show, as it were, the beginning of his descent to their level, as it were.” If Donnie had started with the beating instead of Sonny, there would have been less of an arc to this scene. Or rather, there would have been too big of a jump for Donnie to go from passive observer to willing participant. The filmed scene has a better arc, a smoother arc, if you will, and more effectively shows the moment when Donnie steps over the line for the first time. To me, these changes throughout the script prove that every single scene in this film is meticulously crafted and their purposes dissected to achieve maximum effect. “Screenwriting is scene writing” really shows in this film.