'The Departed' Movie Review

Martin Scorsese's Oscar winner is a tale of a rat and 

a mole.

(Spoiler Alert!)

Scorsese has always had an irresistible love for the crime/drama genre with iconic movies such as Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Casino, and Gangs of New York already among the notable works of the past, with ‘The Departed’ he takes a slightly unfamiliar approach to portray the ultimate ‘Battle of Wits’ involving two police officers Billy Costigan and Collin Sullivan about an uncanny battle of survival of who gets on the top.

Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon), groomed by the Irish Mob Boss Frank Castello (Jack Nicholson) as a child, is now a Staff Sergeant 20 years later and a mole working for him in the Massachusetts State Police. Meanwhile, Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a State Trooper recruited by Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), and Staff Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) with the sole purpose to go undercover and infiltrate Costello’s gang. The only ones aware of this inside operation were Captain Queenan, Staff Sergeant Dignam, and Captain George Ellerby (Alec Baldwin), the head of Massachusetts State Police. This information was strictly kept confidential for obvious reasons. Frank Costello has had an upper hand against the police up till now, thus this operation was instilled with the critical objective to take down the mafia boss selling stolen computer microprocessors, by gaining an upper hand with compromised information. When both sides learn about the ‘rats’ in their organization, Sullivan and Costigan fight it out to reveal each other’s identity.

The Departed is a poetic brilliance, and in literary terms, a brilliant composition of irony and justice. Adapted as a remake of the Hong Kon movie ‘Infernal Affairs’, and loosely based on true events, the writing is truly magnificent. The adapted screenplay is undoubtedly the best thing about this piece of art, which chaotically crumbles into the beauty of secrets. The sheer confusion that formulates because of speculation from both sides as they move forward with their plans in motion is a relentless competition that draws one step closer to the truth, almost raising the curtain to the whole is a rewarding conjecture which keeps up with the height of uncertainty of future, yet the certainty of the actions of the present. This truly felt like a game of chess with two competitors in a close contest testing the waters, strategizing, and striking with each move. This will always be the story about ‘two rats’ who fight themselves off to be the ‘last rat standing’. The sheerness in disparity of their situation is also something that cannot be overlooked in this frenzy of warfare. While Billy Costigan is in the depths of hell, mentally drained with a declining mental state and with no real connections due to the complexity of his job, Staff Sergeant Collin Sullivan is living his best life, moving away the pieces of chess, and turning the game in favour of him and Frank Costello by feeding off vital information, and keeping himself at bay from all the suspicions. The Departed constantly keeps itself at edge at all the right times, and never reveals itself to where it is heading next. This could have easily been suspect of being repetitive, but Director Martin Scorsese just knows how to grab your attention, and keep you invested.

The effect of the strong screenplay is intensified by the brilliant performances of the cast all along which rightfully earned their place at the very core of the story. Leonardo DiCaprio as Billy Costigan is executed to perfection, and time-to-time we are well reminded of what he is capable of in this domain. He can be exemplified as a ‘wounded soldier’ in this head-on combat of intelligence, where Billy’s mental state inevitably declines, yet he is forced to fight in the face of the enemies by pretending to be one of them. His love interest is Vera Farmiga as Dr. Madolyn Madden, who is a police psychiatrist treating Billy. As it turns out she later moves in with Sullivan unaware of his scheming and wrongdoing with Frank Costello. She is a great addition to the supporting cast whose character shows the unprecedented coincidental link between the ‘two rats’. Matt Damon as Collin Sullivan is notoriously devious, yet he conceals it well in social settings. Damon as an antagonist presents his performance in his own interpretation and naturally bodes in the role without trying too hard. He is surprisingly brilliant and rivals Leonardo DiCaprio on screen with an equal sentiment presenting impromptu intelligence that takes Sullivan out of trouble without making it questionable, and that is an underrated asset. One thing Scorsese always gets right is the representation of the mafia to an interesting scale, and to match that ambition he has always cast the right figures to emit the aura of unspoken prominence, and mafia mannerism which in this case is played by the great Jack Nicholson as Frank Costello. He is great as always and is the centerpiece of the conflict between Billy and Sullivan (in which both of them are unaware of each other identities). What came as a surprise to me is the performance by Mark Wahlberg, I enjoyed it more than I thought. He is witty, fun, and direct, and it can be confidently said it is one of his better roles throughout his career.

Scorsese retains his directorial charm, and you can expect just about everything from a traditional Scorsese flick. The movie is shot with a culmination of retro and modern stylization with colour-contrasting shots, and a great deal of balance between the yellow, black, and blue colour pigment for a variety of shots. Scorsese cleverly enables the story to work its way and supplements the acting performances using his superior directorial prowess. 

The Departed is sharp from its onset, right towards the end. The ironical state of the dialect of the dialogues provides a great deal of comic relief in this tense affair. In all, the legend of Martin Scorsese has produced yet another classic to be remembered in the years to come. The Departed is truly a ‘literary’ masterpiece.