Scorsese back in gangsters movies genre

Rating: 8/10 (10 February 2007)

The return of Martin Scorsese in the gangsters movies genre is certainly a spectacle to watch. It takes a Scorsese to gather such a crowd of stars and herd them into a consistent and coherent film like this.
The story inspired by a Hong Kong movie is about two policemen belonging to the same generation in the police academy becoming each of them a mole - one for the police with the Mafia, the other within the Mafia for the police. They do not know the identity of each other and their mirrored cat and mouse game is at the core of the story.
Matt Damon and DiCaprio play the two main roles, and the mirroring of their fate reflects also in the acting, while sharing the fears of not being discovered and - how not - sharing also the love of the same woman. Although the credibility stack is raised very high in the movie Scorsese succeeds to make it interesting and slaloms well through what could have become a too heavy epic. As a viewer I hold my breath towards the final scenes filled with violence and leaving a number of corpses that rivals with a Shakespearean tragedy.
Jack Nicholson creates another of his memorable demonic characters in the role of the chief gangster who manipulates a mole in the police, while fighting to discover the one in his own ranks. It comes as a surprise that the shrewd and mean characters eventually dies at the hands of the unexpected character, but if you look well this is a story where everybody seems to be killed by the wrong man.
It is said that Scorsese and Eastwood are front-runners for the best movie and best director Oscars this year. Their two films are two different types of American epics, two poles of the American saga told in their specific ways and styles. 'The Aviator', the previous epic of Scorsese had similar ambitions but failed. Frankly I like that one less. This time, back in a territory that seems familiar, he may have a good chance again.