A tough and gritty crime thriller, tossing up the issue of morality before shooting it down in a cascade of bullets . a piece of explosive cinema.
The Departed (2006)
Runtime: 2 hrs 31 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 6, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $132,310,442
Synopsis: Director Martin Scorsese returns to his trademark style with the violent, bruised, and bloody feature THE DEPARTED. Scorsese filched the basic storyline from Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's masterful 2002 Hong Kong action film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which saw a policeman going undercover as a... Director Martin Scorsese returns to his trademark style with the violent, bruised, and bloody feature THE DEPARTED. Scorsese filched the basic storyline from Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's masterful 2002 Hong Kong action film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which saw a policeman going undercover as a mob member and a mob member infiltrating the police force. Scorsese transfers the action to Boston, positioning Leonardo Di Caprio as undercover cop William Costigan and Matt Damon as undercover mobster Colin Sullivan. While Costigan and Sullivan get into plenty of nail-biting situations that almost reveal their true identities, Scorsese gradually unravels his strong supporting cast, including Jack Nicholson as Sullivan's mob boss, Frank Costello; Ray Winstone as Costello's meat-headed muscle; Mark Wahlberg as a hot-headed police sergeant; and Vera Farmiga as a love interest for both Damon and DiCaprio's characters. THE DEPARTED finds Scorsese generously dipping his toes back into waters that will be warmly familiar to his biggest fans. Rolling Stones songs pepper the soundtrack, recalling the remarkable "Jumpin' Jack Flash" sequence in MEAN STREETS; bullets and blood punctuate every key scene, bringing TAXI DRIVER's explosive finale to mind; and the mobster-themed storyline is a thrilling return to GOODFELLAS territory. Nicholson and Winstone provide acting master-classes every time they appear, neatly complementing the blossoming talents of DiCaprio, Damon, and Wahlberg, while further veteran support comes in small roles for Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin. Scorsese is often criticized for affording precious little screen time to female characters, and THE DEPARTED won't quell those dissenting voices, although Farmiga's character proves to be more than a match for DiCaprio and Damon's posturings. But Scorsese followers who balked at his diversions into documentary filmmaking (NO DIRECTION HOME) and period epics (THE AVIATOR) will be delighted to find raw male machismo puncturing the screen once again in this frenetic entry into his celebrated oeuvre. [More]
Genre: Dramas
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Martin Sheen
Screenwriter: William Monahan, Siu Fai Mak, Felix Chong
Producer: Jennifer Aniston, Brad Grey, Brad Pitt, Graham King
Composer: Howard Shore
Reviews
A great film? To some degree. Great fun? Absolutely. One of the year's best films? Most certainly
Scorsese has made an incredible cover version of the original, imbued with every ounce of his artistic personality transforming it into something both familiar and new.
The Departed heralds Martin Scorsese's return to the top of his game and simultaneously secures for the film a place in the pantheon of the very best of American crime cinema. Welcome back to Scorsese's mean streets.
The story rattles along at such a lick there's little time to ponder the plot holes -- no mean feat in a film of this length and with so many fine actors competing for our attention.
... a fantastically entertaining crime thriller, crackling with energy from beginning to end. ... But Nicholson's outrageous over-acting becomes a distraction.
Scorsese revisits old territory in The Departed, and he doesn't do anything he hasn't done brilliantly several times before.
Scorsese is clearly a master filmmaker but in my opinion, he's only phoning it in here. THE DEPARTED is a matter of been there, done that. Second tier Scorsese is still good, it just doesn't rank up there with his best work.
Probably the director's most taut piece of storytelling since Goodfellas.
What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread, is the director's use of actors, locations and energy, and its buried theme. I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it.
Freud claimed the Irish were the only people impervious to psychoanalysis. Scorsese goes about proving him wrong.
Sometimes accused of failing to harness the kinetic energy that abounds in his films, Martin Scorsese has done such a fine job of balancing the heat and the cold here.
The Departed doesn't improve in any way on Infernal Affairs, which served up a return to stylish Hong Kong action.
Scorsese takes William Monahan's brilliant adaptation and completely makes it his own, resulting in not only one of the best movies of the year but also one of the best of his amazing career.
Scorsese's treatise on honour and trust has a sprawl that's at once epic and cohesive.
An over-plotted, pressure-cooked crime caper directed by Martin Scorcese which touches on every classic theme imaginable.
A return to genre for Martin Scorsese, this cops and gangsters film is unqestionably entertaining.
The Departed's lucky-charmed score is one of many subliminal devices in the film: No one better lay a hand on Scorsese's Oscar.
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