'The Departed' (2006) - Movie Review

Martin Scorsese once told Roger Ebert that he'll be going to hell for divorcing past wives and remarrying. It's a well known secret that Martin Scorsese grew up in Little Italy (Queens, New York) as a devout Roman Catholic, who for years considered joining the priesthood.

As a Protestant I want to speak the message of faith and forgiveness through the grace of a sovereign and loving God, however, that isn't why I am penning this article. The truth is that this guilt Scorsese has felt has been our gift, as the characters in his films - including all the protagonists in the films on this list - possess this same intriguing guilt and depth. 

In The Departed we are exposed to the wretched and guilt-ridden double lives of two typical Bostonian blokes, both of whom grew up in a strong Roman Catholic area, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). One of these men is a cop masquerading as a gangster, while the other plays a similar ace card; a gangster who appears to be a cop. Of course, above both these gritty individuals are feudalistic lords who don't give a damn. And in an effort to stir the pot even further, Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have constructed a suspenseful film which sees these two young men stuck in constant limbo. For example, if Billy's cop superiors Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Dignam (Mark Whalberg) are killed, then what is Billy? Just another street thug open to arrest. 

“Irish literature is very important to me - the poetry in particular. I’m also intrigued by the Irish sense of Catholicism - it’s a very interesting contrast to the Italian sense of Catholicism,” Scorsese says. “So there you have it. They’re my personal reasons [for doing films about the Irish].”  - Martin Scorsese.

 Both DiCaprio and Damon are believable and captivating, yet, they both benefit greatly from this fantastic script, which is based on the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Both characters suffer from issues of betrayal, guilt and mistrust, and it is my guess that these issues come across so realistically and viscerally because of Scorsese.

The rest of the cast in The Departed is superb. It's hard to believe Jack Nicholson and Scorsese haven't teamed up before this, as Jack plays Frank Costello, mob boss extraordinaire, with style, flair and intrigue. Perhaps it's his sly grin that gives him the edge? Or perhaps it's his philosophic/Shakespearean monologue at the beginning of the film? At the end of the day, it doesn't matter if he's holding a gun, bat, pencil, or even a dildo, anything goes when Jack is around. Let's stop there with Jack's performance and just call it outstanding, otherwise we'll find ourselves comparing performances to those in Scorsese's iconic Goodfellas. 

“The first day I worked with him [Nicholson], he had been working with Leo for about a week, and so I had the week off and I came back, and it's Sunday night and I'm looking over the script and I get a phone call. ‘Hi, Matt? Marty’. ‘Jack had some ideas for your scene tomorrow’. We were shooting a scene in a movie theatre. And he goes ‘ok, I'll just get to it - Jack's going to wear a dildo’. And so I thought, uh, ok, so I'll see you at seven? So we went in the next day and rehearsed it, you know, and Jack's idea was like, ‘Here’s the deal, I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna sit there, in the overcoat, and I'm gonna pull out the big dildo and we're gonna laugh’. And I thought, ok, you know, that's a really good way to get into the scene. Obscene sure, but Jack really brought this incredible new element, this new layer, to that character." - Matt Damon on working with Jack. 

 Next we have Costello's right-hand man Mr French (Ray Winstone). Ray came into The Departed after taking on the outback's most sinister, in one of my favourite - and most bloody - Australian movies, The Proposition (2005). Each time Ray opens his mouth, it's to bark a command, or to give Costello prophetic advice. He's the rough and tough Bostonian version of Tom Hagen. And there isn't a more memorable moment in the film than the beach scene, where Costello shoots a kneeling woman in the back of the head, and then quips, "She fell funny." To which French replies, "Francis, you really should see somebody." 

The other performance that is worth noting comes from Mark Wahlberg. Is it surprising that Wahlberg doesn't play a hoodlum with biceps popping out of a one-size-too-small white tee? Yes. The role of Dignam is all talk, well, nearly all talk, and it certainly isn't an easy one. Dignam comes across as detestable and, yet, he's one of the only honest buggers in the whole film. Wahlberg's authentic performance could be due to his own run-ins with Boston's finest. Wahlberg apparently based the character on the coppers he was confronted by in his earlier years. 

"It's a world where morality no longer exists. Costello knows this. I think he's almost above it. He knows that God doesn't exist anymore in the world that they're in. It’s the old story: in order to know you have a problem first you have to know you have a problem. You really do, and this is my own take." - Scorsese on the morality behind The Departed.

Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker make editing an art form. Fact. The action, the cuts, the back-and-forths, it is all terrific and helps make The Departed as suspenseful as a Hitchcock film! It flows beautifully, builds and then slaps you in the face. And when you throw in Scorsese's love for the Stones, this is the third Scorsese film to use Gimme Shelter, and his ability to use the right music in the right situation (praise also should go to composer Howard Shore) you get a movie which is as smooth as it is visceral and gruesome. Yet, it is also the artistic use of the word "fuck" - made famous by Joe Pesci in Scorsese's past films - that puts this film on edge.

Catholicism wasn’t the only thing Scorsese immersed himself in growing up. The maestro was a witness to America’s organised crime culture. The Departed shifts the crime culture to Boston, and does what very few Scorsese films have done, cement it with a clear plot. Don't fret Scorsese diehards, The Departed still mixes devastating violence with questions of morality and good and evil. 

9/10