Oct 08 2006
The Departed (2006)
A Mindboggling Masterpiece!
Martin Scorcese was on his familiar turf. Gangsters. Just take into account all the movies, this New Yorker has directed. You would agree and Scorcese excels in this genre. Yes, this ain’t the ‘Goodfellas’. And this is an Hong Kong Chinese remake.
Martin Scorsece, Jack Nicholson, Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin & Ray Winstone.
There must be something in the story to attract all these people. The story in barebones.
The turf is Boston. South Boston to be exact. Jack Nicholson is Frank Castello, the Boss. Matt Damon is a Southie on Castello’s payroll. He had been groomed by Castello. Damon joins the Police force and becomes Castello’s mole. Leonardo Di Caprio, meanwhile joins Castello’s gang as the police mole. As the movie proceeds, each side becomes aware of the rats in the ship and tries to flush them out. What happens is what keeps all our attention glued to the screen for about 2.5 hours.
I will safely say that this is the best movie, I’ve seen this year.
There’s something about Jack Nicholson that puts me off. Yes! I agree, that he is this great actor. But, I just cannot stand him. So much so I’ve only seen a handfull of his movies and that’s not by choice either. But, I’m going to source out the rest of his movies over the winter. That’s the sort of the effect Nicholson’s acting on ‘The Departed’ had on me.
Di Caprio. What can I say? It’s claimed that he is the best actor of his generation. And it is so true. Lets forget Titanic, which damaged his career more than helping him. He showed his talent early in his career against Robert Di Niro in ‘This Boy’s Life and against Johny Depp in ‘What’s Eating Gilbert Grape’ and he was in his teens at that time. He was also memorable in the ‘The Quick and the Dead’. Then came Titanic, which could have sunk Di Caprio’s career. It almost did. But, he pulled up after a few mishaps. The movies he has done since 2002 could all be classified under ‘modern epics’. There’s ‘Gangs of New York’ with Martin Scorcese, first in a series of collaboration. ‘Catch me if you can’ with Steven Spielberg, ‘The Aviator’ again with Martin Scorcese co-starring the talented Cate Blanchett. And there’s the ‘The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt’ again with Scorcese. You would be blown by Leonardo Di Caprio, in ‘The Departed’.
The rest, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin & Ray Winstone are no slouches with it comes to acting. That’s a fine ensemble brought together by Martin Scorcese.
Do see the movie. If you liked any of Scorcese’s movies. You would LOVE this.
Got to say I loved the movie too! I had seen the Hong Kong movie earlier but enjoyed this a lot more.