Scorsese scores yet again with his best to date.

Rating: 9/10 (2 April 2008)

Martin Scorsese has finally won his Oscar for the brilliant, intense and powerfully, courageously acted film, "The Departed". Like the film "Internal Affairs" (the film prior this of which it is adapted) the viewers are, most likely, going to have a hard time following the plot, because there is so much constantly happening there is no time to catch their breath.
The plot is actually rather simple. Billy Costigan Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio-in a role that he got snubbed by at the Oscars, if anyone in the cast, even a dynamic Mark Walberg, he deserved it the most) is a temperamental kid with aspirations to be a police officer for the Staties, the Massachusetts State police department. But he is assigned a job as an undercover who will be sent to jail again, and then released to get inside of the Irish mob led by the feared and yet aging Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). However, on the other side of the universe, Colin Sullivan is a seemingly normal, hardworking citizen (Matt Damon) who is a shoe-in for the rank of Detective. But this man is not who he seems. Costello corrupted him as a kid, intelligently using quotes from political people and pop culture references-a theme often used in the sub-text of the film- and now, the detective for the Boston Police Department is the mole inside the special investigations unit. This is when the plot begins to spiral out of control. Sullivan is assigned to find the mole in Costello's crew, and at the same time trying to find himself, the rat in the Special Investigations Unit. The real nightmare, is the horrors that Billy Costigan faces as he is tortured by the subtle messages and disregard to him by the mob. And as Costello begins to act more sinister, Costigan then realizes everything is not as it seems within the grainy and dark depths that is the Irish mob.
Dicaprio plays a role that easily should have granted him an Oscar nomination. Being the kid that could never murder, but is surrounded by an environment that calls for him to require the stomach to handle such regression, and only able to spill his guts to a police shrink, played very well by new comer Vera Farmega. All he wants is to get pills so he can sleep, to be out of his situation and to finally be in the position of Sullivan. Costigan had a rough childhood, and faced with this conundrum, he resorts to using his intelligence to gain Costello's trust before it is too late. Many scenes are brilliant and truly say something about what fear, danger and intimidation can do to us. There are times where Colin Sullivan sits in his office with the lights off, and silently ponders the thought about quiting his position. Billy at his lonely and grainy home, looking at old photographs of his departed family. Frank Costello, talking to his men with the pride and bleak intellect that he brandishes within his wealth.
Martin Sheen, (Especially) Mark Walberg and Alec Baldwin play great roles as two men who work in different positions at the Boston Police Department. Sheen and Walberg are the captains who are in charge of the undercovers, Sheen being the mentor of Billy, and Walberg giving him the 'tough love' a rookie like Billy needs to get ahead. And Baldwin is the head of the Special Investigations Unit, and the boss of Sullivan. The two sides of this brilliant film is one rough exploration of the Irish Mob and the other more smooth, discrete look at the pain and suffering that rats, moles, leaks and snitches experiences on both sides of the law. And after all, cops or criminals, when facing a loaded gun, what is the difference?
Winner of Best Picture, Director, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay. Also in my opinion Scorsese's best mob film ever. Just viewing the emotion, fantastic acting (fitting the bill for a genuine look at the depraved forces driving our cities into epochal chaos) and brilliant acting. A great sigh of relief for fans of Scorsese, when he finally got his well deserved Oscar. Funny.