Vintage

The Departed, which finally won the acclaimed director an Oscar is not his best work but is hands down heads above most movies one will find in the gangster genre and rightfully deserving of a heralded place in that rarefied canon called the CoolFilmz Gangster Genre.

The film gets rolling in South Boston and Charlestown, where upon opening credits we get a montage of riot footage with voice-over narration by Irish mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello (Nicholson), who expresses his belief that "a man makes his own way" in the world, and that "no one gives it to you... you have to take it." In a little flashback, Costello is able to charm a young neighborhood roustabout named Colin Sullivan, who buys into Costello's criminal network at a tender age.

ears later, Colin Sullivan (now played by Damon) is finishing his training for the Massachusetts State Police. In a separate class, is William "Billy" Costigan, Jr. (DiCaprio). Both eventually graduate to become state troopers and this is where the fun begins.

Sullivan, who quickly distinguishes himself, is assigned to the Special Investigations Unit ("SIU") of the State Police by SIU's Captain Queenan (Sheen) and Staff Sergeant Dignam (Wahlberg).

Queenan and Dignam also interview Costigan, but are convinced that Costigan's family ties with the Boston underworld make Costigan an ideal undercover agent.

The Departed is not as unique and as personally engaging as Good Fellas or maybe even Casino for that matter but is a fascinating film in regards to the entertainment value of this plot versus the heavy-handedness and finality of Goodfellas, even Casino — add to that Raging Bull, Taxi Driver and Mean Streets.

My feeling is The Departed is as close to Scorsese will come to making a traditional Hollywood style caper. Wait, I forgot about The Aviator, a movie designed to grab an Oscar but a film alas that never arrived at the airport.

The Departed takes flight for sure, right from the beginning we are drawn into the world of Boston cops and robbers and it is hard to tell the difference.
The Departed pits Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Constigan against Matt Damon as Collin Sullivan, two very similar characters in that they are both undercover for an organization, one legally legit as in the case of Costigan and one for the Irish mob in Boston as the case for Sullivan.

Masterminding the coattails of the cops is Sullivan who is masterminded himself by Jack Nicholson too easily cast in the role of Frank Costello, the head of the Irish Mob.
The Departed is really a fun movie at heart and the choice to throw this picture, which is a remake of an Asian film, into Boston added a unique flavor to what otherwise could be construed as a standard thriller mob picture with an interesting twist. It is just we have the addition of an interesting canvass called Boston to paint it on.

You have a plant for the mob looking for a plant for the cops and vice versus. It is a like a spy thriller in that regards only a smaller scale.
There is one signature quote from Nicholson earlier on in the film as he is rearing Sullivan from a boy to a would-be plant in the Boston police force. He says something to the effect, “When you have a gun pointed at you… what’s the difference…. “The difference being if you are a good guy or a bad guy.
He has a point.

In some sense, when you consider the inner workings of the Boston police, the only difference seems rather superficial from a logistical career standpoint. It almost seems natural in some sense. You have cops that are like lions and you have mafia runners that are like hyenas more like. You slaughter them and they slaughter you and that is all there is to it. The world goes on functioning as it does in its amoral way. The only immoral act in this amoral world is to do something disloyal to your crew, be they cops or robbers and that is how true punishment is meted out in this unforgiving crime world created by Scorsese.

But somewhere in that natural order of things it is hard to forget that the bad guys, the Boston mafia, are at heart trying to undermine our Country by selling computer chips to the Chinese (You would think we should be buying them from China would be more like it). So, ultimately, there is more than a difference between the cops and robbers in some sense. The cops are at least tax-payer sanctioned lions going after the hyenas that don’t have the mirage of a people’s sanction or mandate to screw us over. So, there goes the natural order of things.

The Departed is a fairly strong movie on all points: acting, cinematography, the score, the writing, the plot. It features a Whos-Who cast of Hollywood heavies. I rather liked Alec Baldwin as the bloated beer-bellied captain of the Boston police force as well as Martin Sheen resurfacing as a caring captain Queenan. Mark Wahlberg was highly believable as a hot-headed obsessed Lieutenant out to ruin the mob at every chance, highly distrustful of the pieces of shit in the rank and file of the police. Sounds like some jobs I have had.

DiCaprio was understated and on mark, delivering a consummate performance. Damon was coldly efficient as the mob plant in the ranks and has a knack for playing highly intelligent conniving roles, which play on his sharply cut All-American appeal. Jack Nicholson did his Jack Nicholson, which is deserving of much praise as you might think Nicholson playing a mob boss would order up. He deserves some credit, however, for pulling back from putting on what has got to be a powerful venue to stage a one-upmanship of Brando. Thankfully, that never happened and is another reason why Nicholson is a CoolFilmz legend.

Wait a second. There is a broad in this movie too. I almost forgot. She was hot too.

Vera Farmiga was quite effective as a police psychiatrist who gets to council both Costigan and Sullivan in her office and in the sack. I suppose she is not one much for the doctor-patient discretion stuff or whatever. Not that this was this hot broad’s fault, but it seems all too easy to shoehorn in the line of duty nowadays a physiatrist to whom any and all main characters can confess their inner crimes and misdemeanors of the soul too. Is that a good or bad thing?

I am not sure. So, long as the physiatrist is hot, it seems to fly with me. But, is it a short cut to explication of a higher sort. I don’t k now. I don’t even know what I meant by that statement. Let’s move on.

As fun as I found this flick, it is not without its flaws.
Notably, the ending I didn’t care for so much. It was one of those endings where it seems we have to wrap up these things somehow so let’s just kill everybody we came to like during the film from the beginning. I call this a Tarantino ending, which is sort of his trademark.

Okay, not everybody got killed but most of the big names did in an “I shoot you and you shoot the next guy” round robin to roll the closing credits to roll the credits and consider The Departed for an Oscar. Moreover, I didn’t buy the symbolic final frame of the rat scurrying along the window with the view of the church or whatever – seemed rather too posturing. To me the rat was simply looking for a piece of cheese. Maybe that is what everybody in the film summed up to in the end. Maybe that was my cheese.

But, alas, the movie had to end somehow. It must be noted The Departed left the hot psychiatrist out on a limb to do nothing but cry at a funeral at the end of the film, so no soup for Scorsese on that point either. All in all, The Departed is surely an alpha movie worthy of a King because I am mostly comparing this film to all other Scorsese efforts. Not his best, but, why depart on a down note. This is a film I can and will watch over again. Oscar? No. King on CoolFilmz no problem.

Matthew J. DeReno is a writer living in Pittsburgh.