The Departed Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)October 8th, 2006
THE DEPARTED
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Martin Scorsese surprises us with a film
that is more of a thriller than his previous efforts. THE DEPARTED is a close remake of a very good Hong
Kong crime film. The police Special Investigations Unit, unable to bring down gangster Frank Costello, places a mole into his organization. But Costello
(Jack Nicholson) has his own mole in the police SIU. Each mole tries to determine who the other is.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon play the two spies. The film takes a while to get going, but when it
does it really holds the viewer. Much of the credit goes to the original film. Rating: high +2 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
[Note that this Frank Costello is apparently not *the* Frank Costello, the model for THE GODFATHER's Vito Corleone. Costello died of a heart attack in 1972, while this film is full of cell phones and contemporary cars.]
Martin Scorsese's earliest films were crime films with just a little action. They were about character and the situations his subjects got into because they were the way there were. If he had action it was in small doses at the end, as he did with TAXI DRIVER. Later, his bigger crime films like GOODFELLAS and CASINO were more lavish, but they made sparing use of real action. He tried to keep the films historically credible and used action very sparsely. His films were thrilling, but it was more intellectual excitement and less visceral. Also his films were originals. He never remade a film, though his did base THE AGE OF INNOCENCE on a novel that had been previously adapted. With THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, he turned toward having a little more action. With THE DEPARTED, he has departed very from his earlier style. He is adapting a Hong Kong action film, Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's INFERNAL AFFAIRS. That film is an action film with a lot of blood and that rubbed off on Scorsese's remake. Scorsese holds off on the action until the last hour. THE DEPARTED is a long film, just shy of 150 minutes, and there is little other than establishing the situation that happens in the second and third half-hour. But that last hour explodes with just enough Hong-Kong-tyle action.
Billy Costigan (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) are two rookie cops in the Boston police force in the same year. The big difference is that Sullivan has more of a taste for the finer things in life and has friends in low places. Chief among these friends is Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), crime lord of Boston. Sullivan is a promising new policeman on the executive path, but at the same time he is the eyes and ears for Frank Costello in the Massachusetts State Police. Costigan is apparently dismissed from the police academy and only two people know that he is actually still an agent for the State Police working his way into Costello's organization. For Sullivan, police work is a comfortable life with high rewards coming from both sides of the law. Costigan's life is grimy and violent as he fights to win the trust of the vile Frank Costello. He is full of self-doubts, particularly about how far to go to win Costello's confidence. Sullivan is far more comfortable with his double life.
Each side knows that there are moles in their respective organizations. The police organize a program to find trap their mole while Costello gets more frustrated and crazier with the traitor becoming an obsession with him--an itch he cannot scratch. Costello is always vulgar and violent, but with the pressure of finding his enemy he seems to be descending further into psychosis. As the cop fades into the crook and the crook fades into the cop the story works out as a game of double agent versus double agent as Sullivan and Costigan each tries to ferret out the other's identity. It almost sounds like a good spy thriller, and perhaps that is what it really is.
This is perhaps one of Matt Damon's best roles. I am not sure he is believable in the "Bourne" films, being just a little too smooth and callow, but here he is a few years older and better fit for the part. DiCaprio stretches himself with each role and in spite his stint as a teenage heartthrob has been a good actor all along. Here his role is quite reminiscent of his part in Scorsese's THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, but he handles it well. Had the roles been reversed DiCaprio could have been as good as Sullivan and Damon could probably not have been believable as Costigan.
Like John Wayne, Jack Nicholson gets a lot of credit for playing very well one type of character with only modest variations. He does not stretch himself very much, and nobody seems to demand anything fresh of him. In spite of the public perception, I find it hard to think of him as being a very talented actor. Here he has some of interest in his character, but not all of it works. Scorsese shows him attending the opera, admittedly flanked by two attractive women. This minor touch of refinement fits with nothing else in his role and I am not sure why Scorsese has it in the film.
For comparison purposes I re-watched INFERNAL AFFAIRS the day after seeing THE DEPARTED. The plot is very close, and individual scenes and even some camera angles have been retained for the Scorsese version. THE DEPARTED was a little easier to follow than INFERNAL AFFAIRS was on first viewing. Jack Nicholson gives what may be a better performance than his counterpart, but it is difficult to tell because of the language and cultural differences. With 48 extra minutes Scorsese delves a little deeper into the background and motivation of his characters, but he pays a heavy price in pacing. Scorsese has more graphic violence and--if I am to believe the subtitles of THE DAPARTED--more (very) strong language. My wife pointed out how much better the two key action scenes were handled in the Hong Kong film. Scorsese conflates the two female leads into a single character and adds a male character. Those changes make for two interesting though contrived-seeming ironies. Because INFERNAL AFFAIRS originated the plot and because it has better pacing, I would say that Scorsese added surprisingly little value to the story in his remake. I would have expected more. While this is one of Scorsese's most entertaining films, I have to say much of the credit goes to INFERNAL AFFAIRS. THE DEPARTED is the bigger film in many respects, but INFERNAL AFFAIRS is the better film. Scorsese added only modest value in return for taking someone else's plot. I give the resulting film a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10, but he very much shares the credit. If it is not obvious I recommend INFERNAL AFFAIRS, particularly for people who liked THE DEPARTED.
Mark R. Leeper
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Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
