The Departed vs Infernal Affairs

Rating: Null/10 (21 February 2007)

The Departed is one of the best cop moves in years. I hadn't heard of Infernal Affairs before watching The Departed, and had only a vague inkling that The Departed was based on some Hong Kong film. For the first 90% of its length The Departed promises to be a classic, an all time great. It's a film of restrained violence that serves the plot. A cop (DiCaprio) is planted as a mole in a crime gang headed by Jack Nichoson. His task to report on the gang's activities with the eventual object of nabbing the whole bunch including Nicholson.
The ingenious touch is that Nicholson too has a mole (Damon) in the police. Damon's task is to report to Nicholson on the police investigations on his gang, so that Nicholson knows when to go ahead with a deal, when to keep low or in some cases Damon would clear the way of police so that Nicholson can go ahead with his plans.
Both these moles have been operating in their respective roles for years. So much so that Damon is actually becoming quite a good cop with a moral dilemma, while DiCaprio is becoming quite a bad ass with an equally desperate dilemma - he knows if he plays gangster too long he might actually be one for the rest of his life.
DiCaprio is desperate to get out of his predicament and begs the only two cops who know of his identity as a mole (Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg) to let him back into the police. Before his career as a mole began his records with the police were all deleted. Without Sheen and Wahlberg no one could identify Dicaprio as a cop.
This already tense situation is compounded no end when each side discovers at around the same time that each has a mole in the other's ranks. To ensure their own survival Damon and Dicaprio work feverishly to find out each other's identity, and the tension grips you.
We are taken through several set piece sequences to what seems likely to be an unbearably tense finale but at this point the move lets us down. There is one too many killings at the end, and I was left wondering whether the serious film-making I had witnessed approaching the end was meant to be taken seriously as the end sequences are almost comic.
Nevertheless the ingenious plot device, the powerhouse performances by the leading cast led by DiCaprio make this a very good, highly watchable film. But I was a little disappointed by the ending.
Not long after I found out that this was based on the Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs (made in 2002) and proceeded to get my hands on it. My main motive was to find out if the ending was handled any better.
Since this is a review of The Departed I'll keep my comments on Infernal Affairs very brief. Suffice to say that the latter is much the better film. It's 50 mins shorter, but in no way loses out in terms of character development. As far as I can see The Departed was 50 mins longer only for the sake of character development. The ending of Infernal Affais is more restrained, and far more effective. Indeed Infernal Affairs is one of the great cop movies in history in any language. The Departed cannot be considered as anything other than a remake. All the key set pieces are copied wholesale from Infernal Affairs as of course is the plot.
Martin Scorcese is long overdue for an Oscar, and as everyone knows is nominated this year for The Departed. For a Director who has made such original classics as Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to win for this would be almost an insult. No doubt he feels differently.