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Rating: 4.5 out of 5
If you are ever looking for a good mobster movie, then look no further than Martin Scorsese. The homeboy made Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, Casino, and now he is back at it with The Departed. A movie that has a unique feel to it as it isn’t any classic mobster/gangster film. First, The Departed is set in good ole Boston, and it plays heavily on the Irish background. So, you know you are in for some treats with that Boston accent. Secondly, this isn’t your usual mobster film as it focuses on two cops that are having some massive identity issues.
Before we get into the review on why this film is excellent, it is actually a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. It seems like Scorsese copied and paste that movie, changed the names, location, and had a movie. I ain’t mad at you because Scarface is like that. Changing the location to Boston actually made it more entertaining.
The Departed is a tale of two cops who are on opposite ends of the law. The film starts off with Irish-American mobster Frank Costello (Nicholson) explaining in a voiceover that he doesn’t want to be the product of his environment; he wants his environment to be a product of him. Costello’s belief is you have to do whatever possible to take what you want. During this time, the film shows Costello taking a young Colin Sullivan under his wing. As time goes on, we are introduced to Colin Sullivan (Damon) and Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), who has just graduated and become part of the Massachusetts State police force. Even with graduation, both paths are different. Sullivan rises through the ranks to head up a special department. The only thing is that he is a paid informant for Costello, giving him tip-offs on police raids and other useful information. The police department’s main target is Costello, and person that must be brought to justice.
On the other hand, Costigan works for Costello because he flunked out of the academy and went to prison for assault. In reality, he is an undercover policeman, spying on Costello and relaying information to Captain Oliver ‘Charlie’ Queenan (Sheen), the man tasked with bringing Costello to justice. As the two go deeper in their roles, they soon discover a rat in their organization but don’t know their identity. A game of cat-and-mouse begins to find out who the other one is.
I must say that the cast and acting of this film are excellent. Each member did their job and made this film really enjoyable to watch. Matt Damon, as Colin Sullivan, was decent. I mean, he was a cop that wasn’t a cop. I don’t know the reason, but he was kinda meh to me. It wasn’t fantastic work, but it wasn’t bad. On the other side, Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan Jr. was one of the best. You can tell why he was the lead person in this role. He didn’t want to be chopped into pieces and fed to the poor. Oh, that line brings back memories. Besides that, Leo knows how to act, and you see the descent that his character goes down as the job becomes more challenging.
Yo! Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello was freakin awesome. I like a lot of Nicholson’s work, and it is hard to believe that this is his first time working with Scorsese after such an illustrious career. Nicholson was a crazy fool in this film. Sometimes when he got that look in his eye, you knew someone was about to die.
Another actor that stood out was Mark Wahlberg, as Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam. Wahlberg DOMINATED this role and seemed to be in his element. Some of the lines he gave were priceless and seemed to just come out of his mouth naturally. The film should’ve had a lot more of him in it. He was nominated for an Academy Award for this role, and it seemed like he was hardly in it, but it sure as hell made an impression.
Now, this isn’t your typical gangster film. Like I stated before, it is set in Boston, which is actually a nice change. A city that is profound in American History but hardly ever seen. Who can’t love those Boston accents sometimes? Also, the whole Irish aspect is unique. I have never seen anything like that in a film, and it actually added to the film’s entire feel.
Actually, the soundtrack is really good. When the film started off with a Rolling Stones song, I was like, here we go again, but then it switched it up on you with that hard Irish music. The type of music makes you want to drink massive amounts of beer and then punch someone in the face.
What makes the Departed work is this whole cat and mouse game. The two main characters in Sullivan and Costigan try to figure each other out because their lives are on the line. The story revolves around who is telling the other side secrets while they track each other, and yet they can’t fully catch each other even when they met each other for a split second at the beginning of the film. Both Sullivan and Costigan work for the police force, yet they rat on each other’s respective sides. One scene that shows this is when they tell their bosses how to find the rat. Costigan suggests that he pass information through the police department to smoke out who the rat is. Sullivan also does this by passing on information to Costello and giving tests to his men. Each one comes close to figuring out the other but ultimately fails in the end. It is crazy to see that even though everyone works in the same department and with each other, they have NO idea what is going on with certain people.
A major symbolism/theme of this film is the idea of being a snitch, aka a rat. We all know that you should NEVER snitch on your people. As the old saying or maybe new saying goes, “Snitches get stitches.” Well, in this film, everyone is almost a rat. The two main characters, Sullivan and Costigan, are rats. Costigan is a rat because he works for the police department and is deep undercover. He leaks secrets to one of the police captains, who in turn tries to catch Costello’s rat, who is Sullivan. Sullivan tells Costello everything from when he is tailed to keeping him out of handcuffs. Costello might be a mob boss, but he is a rat for the FBI. Once again, everyone is a freakin rat in this film.
The film also goes into the sense of identity. Both characters, Sullivan and Costigan, deal with significant identity issues. The reason for this is that they are playing roles that they shouldn’t be in. That their lives are a lie and fake, but they try to keep up the appearance of being what they are not. First, Sullivan was introduced to Costello at a young age. He grows up to be a cop but tries his hardest to give tips to Costello. Homeboy is extremely loyal to Costello by calling him dad and working his way up the police force ladder to know what is going on. He is literally the mole that is planted in the police department. Rather than being a police officer, homeboy should’ve been a lawyer.
On the other hand, Costigan is a person you would want to be in the police force. Has a great work ethic, wants to catch the criminals and is smart, but his father had ties to the criminal life, and that one thing completely derails his career as a police officer. The only way that he can keep being a cop is going deep undercover in Costello’s crew. You can see the mental toll it takes on him because he really doesn’t want to do it, but the shit he has seen is getting to him.
The Departed is definitely a Martin Scorsese film. If you are looking for a different type of mobster film that is not set in New York City along with the Italian backgrounds of the characters, then this is your film. The film has a great storyline that deals with the police and trying to figure out the person who is a rat. Have fun watching this film in a new world of violence.
