The Departed

The Departed is a 2006 American crime thriller film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, with Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson and Alec Baldwin in supporting roles.
The film takes place in Boston. Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello (Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police; simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William "Billy" Costigan (DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello's crew. When both sides realize the situation, Sullivan and Costigan each attempt to discover the other's identity before they are found out. The character of Colin Sullivan is loosely based on corrupt FBI agent John Connolly while the character of Frank Costello is based on gangster Whitey Bulger.
The Departed was a critical and commercial success and won several awards, including four Oscars at the 79th Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing; Mark Wahlberg was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
==Plot==
In the 1980s in Boston, Irish Mob boss Frank Costello introduces himself to a young Colin Sullivan.
Many years later, Sullivan has been groomed as a spy inside the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and joins the Special Investigation Unit (SIU). Another police academy recruit, Billy Costigan, is selected by Captain Queenan and Sergeant Dignam to go undercover as a criminal.
Costigan serves a term in prison to set up his cover and further commits a series of crimes. Sullivan begins dating Madolyn Madden, a psychiatrist. Costigan catches Costello's attention, and Costello later recruits Costigan into his organization. Over the next year, Costigan becomes increasingly involved in the organization. His mental state declines but Queenan and Dignam convince him to continue. Costigan begins having appointments with Madolyn.
The MSP and Costello both realize that there is a mole in their respective organizations and task Costigan and Sullivan to find the moles. Meanwhile, Costigan learns that Costello is a protected FBI informant. Costigan shares his discovery with Queenan. Costigan and Madolyn have an affair.
One night, Costigan follows Costello into an adult theater and witnesses him giving Sullivan an envelope containing information of his crew. Costigan is instructed to get a visual ID of Sullivan but he is unable to get a good look at his face. When Sullivan realizes that he is being followed, he accidentally stabs a man, mistaking him for Costigan, and flees. Queenan advises Sullivan to follow Costello to find the MSP mole. Costigan calls Queenan and sets up a meeting to end the undercover operation, but Sullivan has Queenan followed, lying to the other officers that Queenan may be the spy. Sullivan also calls in Costello's gang to the meeting location.
When Costello's men arrive, Queenan helps Costigan escape before being thrown from the building to his death. This causes a firefight between police and Costello's men. Angered by Queenan's murder, Dignam attacks Sullivan and is suspended. Timothy Delahunt, one of Costello's henchmen who was wounded in the gunfight, tells Costigan that he knows he is the rat before he succumbs to his wounds. Sullivan looks through Queenan's belongings and learns that Costello is an FBI informant after reading Queenan's notebook. A news report reveals that Delahunt was an undercover officer for the Boston Police Department, but Costello suspects the police department made up the claim so he would stop looking for the mole. Deciding to turn on him, Sullivan directs the MSP to tail Costello, and a gunfight erupts, killing most of Costello's crew. Sullivan confronts a wounded Costello, who admits to being an FBI informant. They exchange gunfire, and Sullivan kills him.
His assignment finished, Costigan goes to Sullivan to reveal his undercover status, still unaware of the other's true identity. After Sullivan goes to another room, Costigan notices the same envelope from the theater on his desk. Costigan realizes that Sullivan was Costello's mole, and escapes. Shortly after, Sullivan returns to find Costigan gone, and realizes that he now knows his true identity. He deletes Costigan's records from police computers. Costigan visits Madolyn, who has revealed that she's pregnant to Sullivan but not to Costigan knowing that Sullivan may not be the father, and hands her an envelope, instructing her to open it if something happens to him. She finds an envelope in the mail from Costigan addressed to Sullivan. Inside is a CD of Costello's recorded conversations with Sullivan. Scared that Costigan has revealed their affair, she listens to the taped conversations and leaves Sullivan. Costigan arranges to meet Sullivan on the rooftop of the building where Queenan was killed, then arrests him. Costigan calls Trooper Brown, an acquaintance from the police academy, but Brown pulls a gun on Costigan when he arrives, unsure who is telling the truth.
Costigan says that he has evidence tying Sullivan to Costello, and Brown lets him go down the elevator. Upon reaching the lobby, Costigan and Brown are killed by Trooper Barrigan, a friend of Sullivan's who reveals himself to be another spy working for Costello. Sullivan shoots Barrigan dead, allowing him to denounce Barrigan as the mole while removing suspicion from himself.
At Costigan's funeral, Sullivan and Madolyn stand by his grave. As Madolyn silently cries, Sullivan realizes that they were involved. He attempts to talk to her, but she ignores him. Later, when Sullivan arrives home, Dignam is waiting for him inside and, after Sullivan indifferently accepts his fate, Dignam shoots him in the head, avenging Queenan's and Costigan's deaths, before he leaves. The final shot shows a rat crawling on the rail of the patio with the Massachusetts State House in the distance.
==Cast==
* Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan
* Matt Damon as Colin Sullivan
** Conor Donovan as young Colin
* Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello
* Mark Wahlberg as Sgt. Sean Dignam
* Martin Sheen as Capt. Oliver Queenan
* Ray Winstone as Arnold French
* Vera Farmiga as Dr. Madolyn Madden
* Anthony Anderson as Trooper Brown
* Alec Baldwin as Capt. George Ellerby
* Kevin Corrigan as Cousin Sean
* James Badge Dale as Trooper Barrigan
* David O'Hara as Patrick "Fitzy" Fitzgibbons
* Mark Rolston as Timothy Delahunt
* Robert Wahlberg as FBI Special Agent Frank Lazio
* Kristen Dalton as Gwen
* Amanda Lynch as Carmen
* Shay Duffin as Phil
* Richard Hughes as Ed Costigan
==Production==
In January 2003, Warner Bros., producer Brad Grey, and actor/producer Brad Pitt bought the rights to remake the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs (2002) from Media Asia for $1.75 million. William Monahan was secured as screenwriter, and later Martin Scorsese, who admired Monahan's script, came on board as director.
In March 2004, United Press International announced that Scorsese would be remaking Infernal Affairs and setting it in Boston, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt were slated to star. Pitt, tentatively scheduled to play Sullivan, later declined to play the role, saying a younger actor should play the part; he decided to produce the film instead. Scorsese's associate Kenneth Lonergan suggested Matt Damon, who grew up in Boston, for the part of Sullivan, and Scorsese asked Jack Nicholson to play Costello.
Nicholson, however, wanted the film to have "something a little more" than the usual gangster film, and screenwriter Monahan came up with the idea of basing the Costello character on Irish-American gangster Whitey Bulger. This gave the screenplay an element of realism – and also an element of dangerous uncertainty, because of the wide-ranging carte blanche the FBI gave Bulger in exchange for revealing information about fellow gangsters. A technical consultant on the film was Tom Duffy, who had served three decades on the Boston Police Department, particularly as an undercover detective investigating the Irish mob.
The film got the official greenlight from Warners in early 2005, and began shooting in the spring of 2005. Although some of the film was shot on location in Boston, for budgetary and logistical reasons many scenes, interiors in particular, were shot in locations and sets in New York City, which had tax incentives for filmmakers that Boston at the time did not.
==Themes==
Film critic Stanley Kauffmann describes a major theme of The Departed as one of the oldest in drama – the concept of identity – and how it "affects one's actions, emotions, self-assurance and even dreams."
The father-son relationship is a motif throughout the film. Costello acts as a father figure to both Sullivan and Costigan, while Queenan acts as Costello's foil in the role of father figure. Sullivan refers to Costello as "Dad" whenever he calls to inform him of police activities.
In the final scene, a rat is seen on Sullivan's window ledge. Scorsese acknowledges that while it is not meant to be taken literally, it somewhat symbolizes the "quest for the rat" in the film and the strong sense of distrust among the characters, much like post-9/11 America. The window view behind the rat is a nod to gangster films like Scarface (1932), White Heat (1949), and Little Caesar (1931).
==Homages==
Throughout the film, Scorsese uses an "X" motif to foreshadow death in a manner similar to Howard Hawks' classic film Scarface (1932). Examples include (but are not limited to) shots of cross-beam supports in an airport walkway when Costigan is phoning Sgt. Dignam, the taped windows of the building Queenan enters before being thrown to his death, behind Costigan's head in the elevator before he's shot, and the carpeted hallway floor when Sullivan returns to his apartment at the film's end.
==Reception==
===Box office===
The Departed grossed $132.4 million in the United States and Canada and $159 million in other territories for a total gross of $291.5 million, against a production budget of $90 million.
The film grossed $26.9 million in its opening weekend, becoming the third Scorsese film to debut at number one. In the following three weeks the film grossed $19 million, $13.5 million and $9.8 million, finishing second at the box office each time, before grossing $7.7 million and dropping to 5th in its fifth week.
===Critical response===
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 272 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Featuring outstanding work from an excellent cast, The Departed is a thoroughly engrossing gangster drama with the gritty authenticity and soupy morality we come to expect from Martin Scorsese." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 85 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.
Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade "best of" list, saying: "If they're lucky, directors make one classic film in their career. Martin Scorsese has one per decade (Taxi Driver in the '70s, Raging Bull in the '80s, Goodfellas in the '90s). His 2006 Irish Mafia masterpiece kept the streak alive."
Online critic James Berardinelli awarded the film four stars out of four, praising it as "an American epic tragedy." He went on to claim that the film deserves to be ranked alongside Scorsese's past successes, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull and Goodfellas.
Andrew Lau, the co-director of Infernal Affairs, who was interviewed by Hong Kong newspaper Apple Daily, said: "Of course I think the version I made is better, but the Hollywood version is pretty good too. [Scorsese] made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture." Andy Lau, one of the main actors in Infernal Affairs, when asked how the movie compares to the original, said: "The Departed was too long and it felt as if Hollywood had combined all three Infernal Affairs movies together." Lau pointed out that the remake featured some of the "golden quotes" of the original but had much more profanity. He ultimately rated The Departed 8/10 and said that the Hollywood remake is worth a view, though according to Lau's spokeswoman Alice Tam, he felt that the combination of the two female characters into one in The Departed was not as good as the original storyline.
A few critics were disappointed in the film, including J. Hoberman of the Village Voice, who wrote: "Overwrought as The Departed may be, it's nothing that wouldn't have been cured by losing Jack [Nicholson] (and maybe half an hour). Too bad the bottom line meant Scorsese had to sell that hambone Mephistopheles his soul."
===Top ten lists===
The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006. Carrie Rickey of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal, Ruthe Stein of the San Francisco Chronicle, and Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer named it one of the top ten films of 2006. Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times named it the best film of the 2000s.
* 1st – Richard Roeper, Ebert and Roeper
* 1st – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
* 1st – Rene Rodriguez, The Miami Herald
* 1st – Scott Tobias, The A.V. Club
* 1st – Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York
* 1st – Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
* 1st – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
* 2nd – Chris Kaltenbach, The Baltimore Sun
* 2nd – Adam Kempenaar, Filmspotting
* 2nd – Keith Phipps, The A.V. Club
* 2nd – Kyle Smith, New York Post
* 2nd – Mike Russell, The Oregonian
* 2nd – Richard James Havis, The Hollywood Reporter
* 2nd – Richard Schickel, TIME
* 3rd – Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter
* 4th – Glenn Kenny, Premiere
* 4th – Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
* 4th – Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
* 4th – Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
* 5th – Empire
* 5th – David Ansen, Newsweek
* 5th – Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times
* 5th – Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
* 5th – Stephen Hunter, The Washington Post
* 6th – Ann Hornaday, The Washington Post
* 6th – Jack Mathews, Daily News
* 6th – Nathan Rabin, The A.V. Club
* 6th – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe
* 7th – Nathan Lee, The Village Voice
* 7th – Noel Murray, The A.V. Club
* 7th – Peter Hartlaub, San Francisco Chronicle
* 8th – Michael Sragow, The Baltimore Sun
* 9th – Claudia Puig, USA Today
* 9th – Desson Thomson, The Washington Post
* 9th – Lou Lumenick, New York Post
* 9th – Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter
===Accolades===
At the 64th Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007, The Departed won one award for Best Director (Martin Scorsese), while being nominated for five other awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio), Best Supporting Actor (Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg), and Best Screenplay (William Monahan).
At the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007, The Departed won four Academy Awards: Best Picture (Graham King), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Film Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), and Best Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan). Mark Wahlberg was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actor award for his performance, but he lost to Alan Arkin for his role in Little Miss Sunshine.
The film marked the first time Scorsese won an Oscar after six previous losses. Many felt that he deserved it years earlier for prior efforts. Some have even gone further, calling it a Lifetime Achievement Award for a lesser film. Scorsese himself joked that he won because: "This is the first movie I've done with a plot." While accepting the award, Scorsese stated that "I just want to say, too, that so many people over the years have been wishing this for me, strangers, you know. I go walking in the street people say something to me, I go in a doctor's office, I go in a...whatever...elevators, people are saying, "You should win one, you should win one." I go for an x-ray, "You should win one." And I'm saying, "Thank you." And then friends of mine over the years and friends who are here tonight are wishing this for me and my family. I thank you. This is for you."
At the 11th Satellite Awards on December 18, 2006, The Departed won awards for Best Ensemble, Motion Picture, Best Motion Picture, Drama, Best Screenplay – Adapted (William Monahan), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Leonardo DiCaprio).
In 2008, the American Film Institute nominated this film for its Top 10 Gangster Films list.
==Home media==
The Departed was released by Warner Brothers on DVD in 2007. The film is available in a single-disc full screen (1.33:1), single-disc widescreen (2.40:1) edition, and 2-disc special edition. The second disc contains deleted scenes; a feature about the influence of New York’s Little Italy on Scorsese; a Turner Classic Movies profile; and a 21-minute documentary titled Stranger Than Fiction: The True Story of Whitey Bulger, Southie and The Departed about the crimes that influenced Scorsese in creating the film, including the story of James "Whitey" Bulger, upon whom Jack Nicholson's character is based.
The Region 1 version has three available audio tracks: English, Spanish, and French (all of which are in Dolby Digital 5.1), and three subtitle tracks (English, Spanish, French). The film was released on HD DVD and Blu-ray at the same time as the standard-definition DVD. The 2-Disc Special Edition was packaged in a Limited Edition Steelbook. It marked the first time that an Oscar-winning Best Picture was released to the home video market in DVD format only, as VHS was phased out by the start of 2006.
==Music==
There were two albums released for The Departed, one presenting the original score composed for the film by Howard Shore, and the other featuring earlier recordings, mostly pop/rock songs, which were used on the soundtrack.
===Soundtrack===
As with previous Scorsese films, Robbie Robertson had a hand in picking the music. The film opens with "Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones ("Let It Loose" also appears later on), and prominently plays "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" by Dropkick Murphys with lyrics written by Woody Guthrie, which gained the band some popularity and their first and only platinum selling single. The film features the live version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" from the 1990 Berlin Wall concert performed by Roger Waters, Van Morrison, and Rick Danko, Levon Helm, and Garth Hudson of The Band.
Although "Gimme Shelter" is featured twice in the film, the song does not appear on the album soundtrack. Also heard in the movie but not featured on the soundtrack is "Thief's Theme" by Nas, "Well Well Well" by John Lennon, "Bang Bang" by Joe Cuba, and the Act II Sextet from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor.
The film closes with a cover of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams", by Roy Buchanan.
===Score===
The film score for The Departed was written by Howard Shore and performed by guitarists Sharon Isbin, G. E. Smith, Larry Saltzman and Marc Ribot. The score was recorded in Shore's own studio in New York State. The album, The Departed: Original Score, was released December 5, 2006 by New Line, and produced by Jason Cienkus.
Scorsese described the music as "a very dangerous and lethal tango" and cited the guitar-based score of Murder by Contract and the zither in The Third Man as inspiration.
==Canceled sequel==
Although many of the key characters in the film are deceased by the movie's end, there was a script written for a sequel. This was ultimately shelved due to financial considerations.
==See also==
* List of American films of 2006
* "The Debarted", an episode of The Simpsons that parodies the film.
==Notes==
==Further reading==
* 
==External links==
* 
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