Scorsese's Masterpiece of Boston Gangsters and Crooked Cops

Rating: 10/10 (8 October 2006)

Martin Scorsese should easily finally take home his first Academy Award for Best Director for "The Departed". With consummate skill he has assembled bewilderingly complex and varied ingredients: performers, story, settings, photography - with the result being a film that grabs your attention in the first few moments and doesn't let up until the credits roll. The film clocks in at a minute less than 2 1/2 hours. With about 10 minutes left the Mrs. and I shared that we both needed a bathroom break after our half-gallon sodas... but neither of us dared leave.
The screenplay, I learn, was adapted by William Monahan from a Hong Kong script by Siu Fai Mak which was translated into English as "Internal Affairs". I also read that Mr. Scorsese didn't see the Chinese film but, rather, worked from an English translation of the "Internal Affairs" script. The story is a compelling narrative and Mr. Monahan has adapted the story to a Boston setting of Irish cops and gangsters. The dialog is full of sharp, witty one-liners, but also with a realistic, gritty ring of truth. The language reflects the setting of South Boston, not Sesame Street, so if your ears burn with the constant use of profanity - you may want to wait for an "edited for TV" version.
The cast is brilliant. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a sizzling performance as a Boston "Southie" who joins the police force at a tender age, but because of his family (his father was a local tough guy and his uncle a low level mobster)and intelligence(we're told he scored 1400 on his SAT - not usual police recruit material) he is recruited by a secret undercover unit to infiltrate the local mafia. We see him put through a grueling interview by his to-be superiors, Martin Sheen, full of paternal wisdom, and Mark Wahlberg, full of suspicions and vulgarities (but with many of the movie's best moments in a role that is no higher than maybe 5th or 6th billing.) At the same time DiCaprio is being recruited to infiltrate the mob, Matt Damon has been sent by the same mob to join the police force where, with his intelligence, etc, he is soon in a parallel secret unit investigating both his boss, Irish Mobster Frank Costello (in yet another defining performance by Jack Nicholson) and the "mole" who it is apparent has infiltrated the police force. (Among the many fine scenes are one where Damon gets to inform Nicholson that he is now leading the investigation to find - himself.) Jack's performance is a Nicholson special. Frank Costello is a nearly untouchable sociopath. (The reason Costello is "ungettable" by the Massachusetts police force is one of dozens of intricate twists and sub-plots.) Costello is vulgar and menacing and everyone in Boston quakes in his presence, from local priests to the scariest hit men. The Mrs. and I differ in our opinion of whether the film revolves around Costello (her view), since all the other characters revolve around him and, after all, he's played by the great Jack Nicholson, or whether DiCaprio's Billy Costigan is the main character (my opinion), since he has the most screen time and, if this story has a protagonist, Costigan is it. It's enjoyable to discuss such things, but it's quibbling. "The Departed" has so many well-drawn characters breathed to life by stellar actors in brilliant performances that it could easily populate two *good* films! Vera Farmiga was previously unknown to me, but she delivers in the only major female role as a police psychiatrist who graduated from Harvard, but takes the presumably lower-paying position because she wants to serve her community while she also helps her patients. In one of the trickiest roles of the film she becomes romantically attracted to both "moles", not knowing the "true identity" of either until the climax of the film. Her steely determination after she discovers that Matt Damon is the police department "rat" reminds me of Alida Valli's famous performance in "The Third Man" and her final scene in this movie (walking away from a funeral in a cemetery towards the camera in a single shot, completely ignoring the man who thinks he has romantic possibilities with her) is an obvious homage by Scorsese to Carol Reed's film classic.
Ray Winstone (as Costello's right-hand man, "Frenchie") and Alec Baldwin (as the over-matched police detective who is trying to bring together the various machinations of the Boston detectives and undercover mob infiltrators) lead the next tier of supporting performances. It's just another sign of the overall quality of Mr. Scorsese's picture that actors who would "star" in other films take on roles that in other films would be fleshed out by unknowns.
The films ends, I think, as it must, and it's fair to say it's a Noir ending and not a "Hollywood" ending. Over the weeks leading up to this year's Academy Awards this film will be praised more than the last 25 films nominated for "Best Picture" combined. All the praise and hoopla will make "The Departed" and it's various investors a lot of money. This makes me wonder - if great films like this are profitable, why bother with the other 99% of brainless dreck that shows up at my local cineplex every week? Just wondering.