This Friday, Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” opens in theaters nationwide.
It starts with a gruff voice growling, “I don’t want to become a product of my environment. I want my environment to become a product of me.” Pretty badass, right?
That gruff voice is Jack Nicholson’s, who plays the mob boss in the film, and definitely helps set the tone for this hard edge crime drama.
During that opening soliloquy, The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” plays. For a second, you might be thinking, ‘Please don’t reuse every song from “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” and “Mean Streets” in this one too.’ Thankfully, it never happens. Instead, the film includes a couple of other great, well-placed songs including a rendition of “Comfortably Numb” by Van Morrison and The Band.
William Monoghan (“Kingdom of Heaven”) pens this remake of the Hong Kong film “Infernal Affairs,” which marks Scorsese’s return to the “gangster film,” a genre that he has helped make infamous.
Even though there are some waning moments in the middle, he and his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker keep you riveted in your seat in the second half.
The story is set in South Boston where the police are waging war on organized crime. A young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), in his best role of his three with Scorsese, is assigned to infiltrate the mob run by gangland chief Frank Costello (Nicholson).
Costigan is pulled from the ranks of State Police troopers and erased as a cop. Because of his father and his family’s ties to small crime he’s able to gain access into Costello’s gang.
His only connection to his true identity rests in the hands of the Special Investigations Unit’s Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg).
While Billy is quickly gaining ground in Costello’s network, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for Costello, is rising to a position of power in the SIU.
Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated.
But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that there’s a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy – and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself.
In a recent phone interview with Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, they were asked a few questions regarding this film as a remake.
Compared to the original, Damon thought that “the hook and some of the plot that came from the original are the same, but the film itself and the background that fills it out came from Bill Monaghan’s script and from Marty.”
They also talked about the research they undertook to prepare for their roles. DiCaprio spent a lot of time with people that were in Whitey Bulger’s gang and immersed himself in the local dialects.
Damon, on the other hand, spent a lot of time with Boston State Police going on ride-alongs and drug raids. Their hard work definitely pays off onscreen, but it’s Jack Nicholson that really unloads his toolbox on this one.
He adds a layer of complete obscenity to his character that isn’t anything like the characters in the comedies he has played in the last decade. This is the Nicholson we all like to see, the Nicholson we all want to see. We can handle that truth.
Matt Damon made a joke on that phone interview regarding the Oscar buzz of this film.
He said that according to the Hollywood way of thinking, there was Oscar buzz even about the phone call we were all on with him.
Basically, he felt that Oscar buzz is a joke. Well, after seeing the film it definitely wasn’t a joke, but rather intelligent and well-made cinema.
And as much as Martin Scorsese should win an Oscar, “The Departed” won’t be the film that finally nabs it for him. Moviegoers can always hope that someday he’ll be able to take home that well deserved little gold statuette.
