When I first saw this movie I absolutely loved it; I thought it was going to be one of the all time greats – a classic.  Over the last year or so, my opinion of this movie has tempered a bit.  Because of this, I ranked the movie 100 which plainly means that the next great movie I see (maybe There Will Be Blood, which I have not yet seen but plan to asap) will probably knock it off the list.  With that said, as of now The Departed is on the list and deservedly so.

 

Martin Scorsese was up to his old tricks in this one.  Violent gangster movies are nothing new for him.  I do think he did a great job in capturing the streets of South Boston.  New York has been his turf when doing this genre in the past, or at least his gangster characters were always New Yorkers; but there is obviously a different element in Boston.  I guess it’s the Irish rather than Italian thing.  I’m not from Boston and don’t claim to know much about that area, I just sense that Scorsese got it right. 

 

What really made this movie great though were the performances.  The acting down the line was first rate.  Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for the best actor Oscar the same year for his role in Blood Diamond.  He was solid in that movie, but his performance in The Departed was stronger; maybe the strongest in his adult career.  Matt Damon matches Leo tit for tat in his performance.  They play somewhat dueling roles, DiCaprio as cop going undercover into the mob and Damon as a mobster going undercover as a cop.  They are both trying to figure out who the other one is.  The pressures of being someone who they are not is eating them both up from the inside out, while they slowly take on traits of that person they are pretending to be.  Jack Nicholson is the mob boss, Frank Costello.  He plays the role more as a sociopath than your typical cool mob boss.  Usually Jack dominates any movie that he’s in, but that’s not the case here.  For me the best performance in the movie came from one of the smaller roles.  Marky Mark otherwise known as Mark Walhberg steals practically every scene he’s in as Sergeant Dignam.  He’s fiery, funny and the movie could have used more of him.  He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for the role.  When Walhberg picks the right movie, he’s one of the better actors out there.  I think he excels is supporting roles too.  He just keeps choosing too many stupid action movies to be consistent.  Alec Baldwin is hilarious and Martin Sheen brings morality as Captain Ellerby and Captain Queenan respectively. 

 

Scorsese won his first Oscar for this film and while it’s not his best or maybe not even fifth best, there is no denying it has a right to be on any top 100 list.  That says something for his resume.  Some critics said that Scorsese got this Oscar because of his career and not because of this particular movie.  I think he deserved every inch of that golden, naked little man.  He was able to find the evil, blood and meanness out of every block of South Boston and every character, crook or cop.  It’s a popcorn flick in the sense that it’s got action, blood, guts and is flat out a blast to watch and a thinking man’s film in the sense that Martin Scorsese is in the driver’s seat of all of the twists and turns.  If you haven’t seen it you should.  Just keep in mind that if violence isn’t your thing there is plenty of it.

 

By the way, feel free to let me know what you think.  Email me at kduce23@yahoo.com or submit a post.