The Departed is a REAL movie!!

Rating: 10/10 (19 October 2006)

I almost never see movies twice (there are too many out there I've missed the first time), but I saw The Departed twice in 2 days and might see it a third time. First of all, I'm a retired cop; did undercover work; investigated racketeers (most dead now, some still masquerading as fine citizens). DiCaprio blew me away (missed his other movies, now I'll go back and see them including Gangs of New York; missed The Aviator, too.)Okay, I saw the Titanic; didn't want to in the first place, hope he got a lot of money for it b/c it's something he's probably been trying to shake for a long time. But I digress....Good Will Hunting is one of my favorite movies, so I've bonded with Matt Damon from that and enjoyed him since. Obviously, Di Caprio had the better role but I cannot imagine anyone playing it better (I'm sure that excellent directing helped). What got me was how inner anger drove that character. Even when he engaged with Madolyn, he didn't go soft (okay, that sounds like a reference to Madolyn's problem with Sullivan). In watching the movie the second time, I thought what drove Sullivan was his inner child/core was good and the fact that he took the bait from Costello as a child and was groomed to be bad really did not come easily to his sense of himself, thus his "problem" with Madolyn. Of course, someone I saw the movie with didn't catch that "problem" at all. As Sullivan lay on the bed and told Madolyn he thought they could start fresh in a new city, I saw that all the deceit had just about broken Sullivan, unlike Costello who would not live any other way. There definitely was a theme of virility running through the 3 major characters: Costello had only the appearance of it/had lost it; Sullivan lacked it and only Costigan had it (I choose to believe the baby was his). I really appreciated Scorcese's movement from one character/action to the next; I heard some comments that it was choppy (not here) but it brought the "two boys" in sharp contrast. I saw Sullivan's quiet desperation and Costigan's explosive desperation more acutely. The lack of gore and lack of explicit sex was also appreciated; this brought a crispness to the pace of the movie. While I could never get away from Nicholson the actor and think of Costello as Costello, I do appreciate that it wasn't De Niro (one of my least favorite major actors) and it wasn't Pacino (one of my favorite major actors who plays this type of role too often). The one thing lacking for me was why Costello adored Costigan to the point of having his lawyer send the tapes to him as well as keeping him in his crew because he had plenty of crew without taking in a possible rat. (The cutting room floor could probably help me on that one). But then a lot of the movie had cop and bad guy incongruities and one has to give fictional movies poetic license... I hope the Academy will recognize DiCaprio and Scorcese. Kudos to Baldwin,Wahlberg and Sheen and Vera F. She was mesmerizing. Baldwin has great delivery (loved him in The Cooler).