The Departed

The Gentle Art of Making Enemies

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Martin Scorsese's 2006 effort The Departed combines rampant fiction power with an actor lineup that leaves no place for rookie canvas claimers, instead delivers statements via a staff even the cameramen are hardcore celebrities in.

The fiction is intact and subtle: Scorsese gives you an adaptation of the 2002 movie Mou gaan dou of Chinese origins, a highly successful piece the dream factory decided to offer it's own variant of. While such deliveries have a tendency to end up flabbergastedly weak, let alone redundant when compared to their originators - See For Yourself - fortunately The Scorsese knows how to tell this cunning narrative on a land that does not belong to the American Dream, yet reigns steadily as a massive rendition of an American Nightmare.

The movie revolves around one particular focal idea that gains beauty and potential through the elegant simplicity it seeks out the conflict with. There is the very bad dude, who is not just a bad dude, but, mind you I, herein: a very bad dude indeed, personified by timeless canvas phenomena Jack Nicholson. His character, Costello is somewhat of a Godfather figurine - definite oxymoron here - in the neighborhood he currently reigns at, thus it is evident that he holds major interest in rat nourishment, as creating the rat usually results in the rat's implementation . Little if any is revealed whether Costello deliberately created the informant we will witness during the output or just happened to pick one from many nourished candidates, yet it is pretty sure that the film hastily reveals a boss-informant connection between Nicholson's and Matt Damon's character, the latter being yet another staggering celebrity addition to the impressive roster The Departed delivers. Costello gains continuous information feed about the momentary focal interests of the state police which Matt Damon's character is fresh, brand new investigator of, notice therefore, how nice (?) and clean (?) things do flow so far.

Primal conflict is formed and offered via the introduction of Leonardo DiCaprio, who, fortunately, now that he is a bit over thirteen, ended up as a serious, even better: as a quite decent actor as opposed to petrifying into the hideous heartlicker direction/archetype he was trademark representative of. His Departed character, - sic! - Billy Costigan hopes to join the state police yet he has to face rejection as his background and temper do not exactly impress the decision makers.



The output gives us significant supportive roles as these cited decision makers: Mark Wahlberg brings you the classic, bitter, yet passionate cop character whom "F*CK!s" and "SHIT!s" actually manage to remain funny during the whole time, while the elder Sheen - the Martin - renders a solid, trusty, calm personification of the local police captain. Alec Baldwin is included, too. He has one, I repeat: one funny line and a couple of mildly interesting breakdowns during the movie, as for him as an actor though, I do not think he is half as good as he probably thinks he is, yet, amazingly, I don't think he is as bad as I think he is, either. See how consensus reality is an ideal thing to be baffled by?

Back to the conflict though: Costigan - DiCaprio - just got turned down, but, as opposed letting him grow frustrated through years and years of compulsive desperation leading to a highly successful suicide attempt eventually, he will be asked to go undercover instead! The agenda is this: to find the mole Costello is keeping at the department, of whom identity we are already aware of, yet this kind of narrative usually manages to build and solidify quality tension. Take Columbo for example: you always know who the killer is, - regardless how it is always a DIFERENT person, amazingly! - yet your amusement develops nice and steady as Columbo and his balloon coat do get closer and closer on the suspect. The Departed is no exception. Roles are given, clear and nicely operated, while entertainment unravels raw and naked through the collision and interaction between the precisely drawn character archetypes the story plays around with.

The basic premise therefore gives us a Godfather character - Nicholson - who has a rat at the police to inform him - among other things - if there is a rat in the first place among Nicholson's own men, giving information to the police. Such an informant exists indeed in the form of Costigan - DiCaprio - whom though is convincing enough to gain the trust of the Godfather, so he - Leo - has chances both to gain information about the workings of Costello, let alone unraveling the identity of the rat Costello keeps at the police. It seems a bit more complicated in the written form than it actually is, yet, to put it in a simper form: Matt Damon and DiCaprio do chase each other around Nicholson's focal character for a period of 150 minutes, and all this proves to be a source of quite integral entertainment with but a tiny hint of redundancy present in the fabric here and there.



Let us deal with those pretty much insignificant shortcomings a bit later, though, and let us deal with them only because those are the little traits that do separate this here robust output from yet another integral statement that would score five! Opinion Onions.

Fortunately The Departed recognizes that such a "men-packed" delivery always would and will tolerate feminine presence with an amazing degree of gratefulness, surely, this motion picture can not be an exception: Scorcese gives you a very stable Vera Farmiga, personifier of the shrink you need to see in case 1. you are a cop, 2. and had to fire your weapon to kill, 3. and you broke down because of this. The Departed surely takes the liberty and cunningness to collide Farmiga both with Damon and DiCaprio with easily calculable results. It is truly not about the loose moral of the girl, though: emotional involvements will be way too "sober" and way too "stripped" to make up arguments about who kissed whom, who slept with whom - though I failed to notice a layout in which Matt Damon and Leo would do any of these latter pastimes with each other. Well, not all scenes do make it to the big screen, you know.



Jack and Martin have the Tony Montana going on

A little side note here: Scorcese's output gives quite strong and significant social commentaries by the moments you would least expect them, such is my personal favorite from this movie when Leo tells Vera how there is absolutely NO ONE more full of sh*t than a cop who is crying about how he HAD to use his weapon to kill. Leo informs Vera about his view that a cop effectively SIGNED ON for this responsibility and the related duty. Nothing is more wrong than a crying cop, maybe a TV cop, he states. And, if you think about it, it is a nice subject matter to do some pondering with, relating the subtle, little field that connects, serves media to and with society via the consciousness that recognize media at the first place - thus giving it a reason to manifest. Imagine a media no one would interact, no one would connect with. Would that be still a media? Notice therefore how one might end up little more than glue, solidifying the belief that the world is such as the TV shows it to be indeed, as THAT is the world I do watch with keen readyness and intact confirmation.

Let me ask you this: what exactly are you supposed to feel when you witness a crying cop on TV? "Oh, poor man! Blew a killer's brains out!" or "Don't be a killer or a cop like this one here will cry about your sorry ass next week after successfully toasting it!" You decide, me just writes here. Now let us go back to The Departed.



Vera Farmiga's role and presence certainly does give nice supportive vibes to this here double crossed, intense testosterone marathon, my only criticism of her performance would concern her viewtiful, big eyes that are so viewtiful and big that Farmiga has momentary troubles forgetting about this and commits overkill of this precious tool. If you always keep your eyes open wide, you never keep your eyes open wide. Other than that: she is very pleasant on the canvas.

Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon are simply: perfect. Leo would be perfect, too, at least probably: his role however concerns too much of being angry, and being veeeery angry. Leo exhibits anger with a funny look on his face which gets a little bit, really: JUST a little bit old when you witness it for the 512371273rd time, an occasion you will have chance to greet, trust me. I would like to see some psycho-ass Leo next time with no anger being hidden behind lips pressed superhard. Now we know you are Master at this, Leo. Please show other and show different next time.

At the end of the day, The Departed runs a little bit longer than I personally think it should run for, yet the great performances do make this an effort which remains easily recommendable to multiple sittings. The output does not exactly deliver surprises or particular twists in it's fabric due to the strict initial (let alone eventual) depiction of the focal elements it relies on, weighs in as one of the most appealing and memorable MOB installments the 2006 Hollywood delivered nevertheless.



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