The Departed (2006) Review

  Scorsese has created yet another riveting, powerful, violently profane movie centered around the exploits of gangsters.

Scorsese begins the film by repeating himself. A voice-over by Nicholson is delivered, while the Stones' Gimme Shelter plays and one of those smooth traveling tracking shots floats us through the scene. We want this scene in a Scorsese movie even if it is a re-run-and just as we realize he's repeating himself, he stops the voice-over (for the rest of the film as a matter of fact). We are put right into the world of the sadistic Boston gangster named Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and then begin to get introduced to the characters-the cops who want to put Costello away. Wait a minute, we aren't in Little Italy, but Boston and we are not being immersed into a world of just gangsters, but instead it's cops versus gangsters.

The juxtaposition of what's almost a Scorsese cliché to somewhere different was an inspired moment.

And if you want to think about the opening and the choice of music you'll figure out we are in a story with characters that have no shelter.   There's no real emotional shelter for any of the main characters.   There are characters who play GOD, others who avoid playing it safe and everyone has layers where compromises and even betrayals reside.

Scorsese isn't repeating himself, by making a variation of Goodfellas or Casino-- he's immersed in a story-a fiction story that's not directly based on a true story, but instead based on 3  excellent Hong Kong movies named Infernal Affairs. The movie was bought up by Brad Pitt's production company a few years ago which kept distribution of the original movie and its sequels to DVD without a lot of fanfare or attention. A lot of people didn't hear much about the 2002 original. I feared PITT would turn the movie into a star vehicle for himself. Instead, it's become a superb Scorsese film. He's very faithful to the story, even as screenwriter William Monahan changes certain details and changes locales to Boston, with different ethnicities and cultures. Since it's fiction, there's more criss-crossing of purposes and a few sub-plots that are juggled so effortlessly it all becomes almost too smooth, too much of a feast of riches for us as an audience to accept.

When things are building up and the movie breathes for several moments just past the half-way point, we still don't trust anyone's motives. We are watching an intricate game of chess, but we also know there's some things going on that we haven't been told about or shown. We get a handle on what is going on, perhaps expect a certain conclusion and then the rug is pulled out from under us. It's going to be too much for some.

I got so caught up in it, I almost forgot some of the twists and turns of the story even though I know the original movie pretty well. I figured at one point there would a little less going on then we got in the original. The cultural difference, the change of locale, the stars involved in this movie-some twists and turns are going to be dropped. Then, there's a cat and mouse scene where one character is following another that is done very similarly to the original. We catch up to it and what is going on and how all of these characters are headed for a big tragic show-down.

IThese are complex characters DiCaprio and Damon take on and both actors are up to the challenge. Nicholson isn't some campy menacing Joker doing an audience pleasing dance, he's inhabiting this character who doesn't find passion in drugs, or sex but plays power and control games that have become too easy and predictable to get him very excited. When he shoots someone he chuckles that they fell ‘funny'. When things begin to un-ravel we realize that the character is deeply insane. He doesn't just believe but knows he is King of the World, and he doesn't have a mother fixation or climb up a tower like Cagney does in White Heat. Nicholson's character is anti-catholic and anti-religion. He delights in insulting priests sitting in a restaurant by accusing them of sucking off young boys and brags he had a steamy affair with a nun before she took her vows. When he is convinced there's a rat working for the police in his organization he considers repeating what he did in the old days-killing everyone close around him to be completely safe. We believe he'll do it to. But then, maybe that's too easy and he's done that before, so he's got to try something else this time.

There's plenty of gallows type humor in the film. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg get a lot choice moments.  Nicholson of course makes sure he has a few ‘moments'.   Now don't worry that there's not moments of laugh-out loud very dark humor throughout the film-there is. The gallows humor of both the cops and the gangster comes out full force in a natural and believable way. We sometimes start to laugh at things we probably should not be laughing at. It's okay.

Like 2002's Infernal Affairs, the movie is built on several coincidences  and late a couple of additional ones that are believable.    Audience members are not told every detail  but you should be able to fill in anything that's not blatantly spelled out for you.

Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) is the product of a split home-one side of the family was rich and cold, the other from the streets. He wants nothing to do with the rich side of the family, so he becomes a cop and whizzes through his exams. However instead of getting to wear a uniform he's immediately recruited to play a very important role that few cops would be able to pull off-get inside Frank Costello's gang. He'll be so undercover, that only two people in the department will know he's a cop-Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sgt. Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).

Meanwhile we have Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) a kid from the streets whose been looked after and taught by Frank Costello since he was an alter-boy. Costello owns him. Sullivan becomes a cop and immediately gets a great job as the new detective on the Special Investigations Unit who reports to Captain Ellerby (Alec Baldwin). The unit works with the FBI to go after Frank Costello. Now that he's on the inside, Costello will always know when the cops are getting too close.

Eventually Costello comes to believe there's a rat inside his organization and Queenan comes to believe there's a rat inside his investigations unit. Which rat will be uncovered by whom first?

Add to the mix a love interest for Sullivan in the form or a police psychiatrist named Madolyn (played to perfection by Vera Farmiga). One of her patients is Billy Costigan and there is a complication.

I will end any futher explanation of plot right there.   Watching it unfold with its twists and turns is fun, unless the vicious sadistic nature of the criminals and the violence really bothers you. It is not as violent a film as  Taxi Driver  or Gangs of New York but there are some raw brutal moments.. 

Scorsese is of course moving his camera around effortlessly, and this time not setting up attention getting grandiose operatic scenes  but he isn't trying to emulate epic shots from some of his favorite Italian movies.  This time he is telling the story with Michael Ballhaus' cinematography and Thelma Schoonmaker's artistic editing with only an occasional over the top flourishes--. like the couple of voyeuristic shots and edit wipes that remind us, no one will be able to keep their secrets and no one will find shelter or be safe.

Also: there's an homage to both Third Man (as in the original Hong Kong movie) and Hitchcock. I can't describe either one without giving away too much so I won't. I encourage film buffs to keep an eye out for several homages.

The 2 disc collectors edition includes an excellent  documentary  Scorsese on Scorsese that allows the director to talk about his background and the making of several of  best known and favorite films.  There are family films and pictures of him as a child and clips from his earliest films through The Aviator.    

You also get some good behind the scenes footage,  deleted scenes and a commentary track.   Worth a few extra bucks to get the extra disc if you are a fan of Scorsese.

The Departed  2006  Directed by Martin Scorsese