The Departed
(M18)- Release Date: 12th October 2006 (Showtimes)
- Language: English
- Running Time: 150 mins
- Genre: Crime / Drama / Thriller / Action
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Cast: Alec Baldwin, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg. (Full Cast)
- Local Distributor: Warner Bros
'The Departed' is set in South Boston, where the state police force is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy is quickly gaining Costello's confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit.
Latest Review
An average movie
The Infernal Affairs was a better movie. The interactions between the psychologist, the cop and undercover fell short. The plot was familiar because I had watched the HK movie, thus the betrayals were expected.
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Maybe it was my expectations
Maybe it was the expectations on the standards set by Hong Kong's Infernal Affairs. I had great expectations of the movies, but it fell just short of it. It's a great movie. Just not as good as I had hoped. If I had not watched Infernal Affairs before, I might had rated it higher.
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Can't help but make comparisons to the origina
What I loved most: Mark Wahlberg
What I really hated: The sloooowww start
I couldn't help but compare this to the original Hong Kong version. Was so-and-so going to say exactly that? How would they make the two moles convince their respective 'bosses'? And so on. This wasn't helped by the fact that Scorsese decided to spend a good hour of the start creating a dreadfully plodding backgrounder for the two protagonists. Thank goodness things started...More
I couldn't help but compare this to the original Hong Kong version. Was so-and-so going to say exactly that? How would they make the two moles convince their respective 'bosses'? And so on. This wasn't helped by the fact that Scorsese decided to spend a good hour of the start creating a dreadfully plodding backgrounder for the two protagonists. Thank goodness things started picking up after the first hour though and there were at least a couple of good scenes that made up for the start. I was quite impressed by the entire casts' acting. Somehow, they managed to spew an incredible amount of cusswords in the dialog without making it look too over the top. I think Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen both deserve awards for their roles!
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Great Action!
What I loved most: The story and acting!
What I really hated: rats!
What can I say, this movie is not only packed with a roster of wonderful actors but a great story as well! It's an action-packed movie that keeps you in suspense scene after scene. Not only is it full of action, but thought-provoking as well, exploring the consequences of lies, deceit, double crossers, etc. I like everything about it especially the way the movie ended. Nice work by M.S.!
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great story
What I loved most: suspense
What I really hated: blood all around
This movie will not fail to keep you at the edge of your seat the moment the film begins to roll. It has enough suspense going on, and you keep rooting for the good guy s victory, or at least have justice at the end. Cheers to hollywood for not formulating a cliche for an ending. Brilliant! You just have to watch it!
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The story begins in the rough neighbourhoods of Boston where Nicholson opens the scenes with a narration in that slimy drawl of his. As he talks about how he does not want to be a product of his environment but rather, wants the environment to be a product of him, we quickly find out - through the help of a few slamming shots of dead bodies - who he is and what he does for a living. He is gangster kingpin Frank Costello, of course, and on a bad day, he kills people point blank.
We are also introduced to the two lives central to the story and very much connected to Costello - Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). Both start out life in the streets of Boston's Irish American community presided over by Costello but it is Sullivan whom Costello has taken to, almost like father and son.
Both Sullivan and Costigan enroll in the police academy. As a cop, Sullivan is the clean-cut rising star of the Boston Police Department's Special Investigative Unit but he is also Costello's man, lured to the 'dark side' as it were, by Costello since childhood to infiltrate the police force.
Costigan, on the other hand, has more ethical motives. He just wants to be a cop to escape his working-class, criminal background. His father was a mobster too, killed long ago in a gang fight. But right after graduation, Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sgt Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) hand-pick him for the job of infiltrating Costello's inner circle.
This sets off the high-wire duel between the two informants - Costigan sending back information to the cops about Costello's plans, and Sullivan leaking police intelligence to Costello. During one very intense operation, both men realize there's a rat leaking information from the inside of both camps but neither can identify the other. The pressure mounts when Costello starts getting jumpy and pushes Sullivan to sniff out the rat in his den. Sullivan, who is the rat in the police's unit, assigns himself the job of uncovering the spy. Meanwhile, Costigan, unhappy to be forced into a job where he has to assume the very identity he wants to escape from, begins to crack under pressure. Both moles, through furtive SMS-es and high-risk communication with their respective bosses, have to race against time to discover the identity of the other man to save himself. And as if this is not complicating enough, both Sullivan and Costigan fall for the same woman, police shrink Madeleine (Vera Farmiga), who doesn't know either of her lover's secret.
What makes Sullivan's and Costigan's predicament fascinating is that morally, they both have a conscience and this is what makes the audience feel for them. DiCaprio is the one who captivates us, he being the haunted person with an emotional burden. In many ways, this is DiCaprio's coming-of-age role - he was still a boy in a man's suit in "The Aviator" - but here you no longer see him as a boy, but someone aged and wracked by the torment, the terror and the loneliness of being stranded in no-man's land between good and evil. Damon is good too. He holds his part as the cool, ruthless brain behind the proceedings but he doesn't let in much on his character.
And Nicholson? Oh, he's electrifying, magnetising and terrifying. His role looks like it is tailor-made for him and he plays his part of the homicidal maniac like a maestro. But he doesn't dominate the scenes. Instead he complements the two younger men. Wahlberg is particularly enjoyable as the verbally abusive and foul-mouthed police sergeant. He's funny but not as funny as Alec Baldwin who doesn't appear much, but every time he does as police supervisor Ellerby, he is hilarious, thanks to his blunt, unexpectedly comic lines. I don't often laugh out loud at the movies but William Monahan's script had me chortling. It is funny, smart, and just wicked.
Scorsese has done a good job of remaking the 2002 Hong Kong crime caper "Infernal Affairs", as this is what "The Departed" is based on. Although he has retained the basic plot structure, he has added length, breadth and depth to the characters and situations, changing what was essentially a two-dimensional cop thriller into a multi-faceted masterpiece. Cinematically, the mood is intense and dark, interjected by violence that's so sudden, it hits you square in the face. And every inch of the way, Scorsese tightens the screws of tension... People, this is one movie you must not miss.Those who have seen the 2002 Hong Kong 'cat-and-mole' epic may get a sense of deja vu watching this Hollywood remake of "Infernal Affairs". Despite setting the action in Boston (instead of Hong Kong), director Martin Scorsese and scripter William Monahan remain faithful to the original "Infernal Affairs" plot by Alan Mak Siu Fai and Felix Chong.
"The Departed", about the tussle between Boston police and the Irish mob led by Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), is just as gritty and violent as the original. The one irritant viewers may find about the movie is the lame censorship attempt which sometimes leaves the 'F-words' intact while deleting the innocent phrases.
The story is about two police recruits, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) and Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), who both start out their lives among Boston's Irish-American community which is 'ruled' by mobster Costello. Always planning ahead, Costello has taken Sullivan under his wing since he was a boy (by buying him a bag of groceries). Sullivan is 'enrolled' in the police academy so that he can be Costello's 'mole' in the police force.
Costigan, on the other hand, is more of a rabble-rouser who wants to escape the criminal life he has been linked to. Ironically, after graduating as a cop, he is hand-picked by his bosses (Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg) to infiltrate Costello's set-up so that the police can get enough information to nail the kingpin.
The tension and suspense in this high-stakes game begins when both Sullivan and Costigan realise that there is a mole in the other's organisation and each is assigned to flush him out. There is also a romantic touch here with both Sullivan and Costigan involved with psychiatrist Dr Madolyn (Vera Farmiga in the Kelly Chen role) - without the other being the wiser. This pot-boiler comes full steam in almost the same way as the Hong Kong version - making us wonder if Scorsese, or other Hollywood moguls, would also do a remake of "Infernal Affairs 2", the prequel.
Now, maybe it is because I am more accustomed to movies in English than Cantonese but "The Departed" is definitely more of a seat-gripper than "Infernal Affairs". While the Hong Kong version had its top stars like Andy Lau and Tony Leung Chiu Wai in the lead, they could not garner as much audience sympathy as DiCaprio and Damon do here. We root for both of them, especially in their 'secret' affair with Dr Madolyn.
And then there is Nicholson who is deliciously maniacal as Costello (we expect no less of him). Wahlberg's foul-mouth Sgt Dignam has only a few scenes but he manages to heat up the screen whenever he appears. Famiga provides the tender sequences if only to remind us that the players are human and in need of affection. (In the HK version, Kelly Chen had been rather 'distracting' as Dr Lee).
As usual, Scorsese uses some familiar tunes on the soundtrack to 'colour' his palate, most notably the Rolling Stone's Gimme Shelter and Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb. Yes, "The Departed" marks a welcome return of a director known for making waves in the cinema. And this is definitely also one of his best efforts.
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