Once I realized The Departed was merely two and a half hours, not three, I mustered up the time to give it a viewing. I was glad I did. It was an impressive movie. The acting is fantastic. It’s very grim and violent, so it’s certainly not for everyone. I was talking to my mom about it and she said she couldn’t sleep after watching it. So beware if you’re susceptible to such a reaction.
A few years ago I saw the Hong Kong movie it’s based on, Infernal Affairs. It was very good, and so I wasn’t really sure why Americans really needed to remake it. But with such a cast - Jack Nicholson, Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Martin Sheen, etc - I figured it was going to be impressive. Plus it won all those awards.
Spoilers ahead, don’t continue if you want to avoid any details!
One of the more interesting differences between the two movies was who I was rooting for. We’re following a cop who’s deep undercover infiltrating a gang of the baddest bad guys, and one of those same bad guys who’s gotten onto the police force. The morals of the two movies were actually quite different. Infernal Affairs was in a lot of ways about how it isn’t why you do something but what you do that matters. You know what they say, if you do evil in the name of good, it’s still evil. If you do good in the name of evil, it’s still good. The bad guy pretending to be a cop did a lot of good. He gets promoted to detective because he’s very effective. He still does things that aren’t good - he tips off his bad guy boss, but he does mostly good.
The good guy gone undercover does terrible things. He sees murder done and does nothing to stop it. He’s brutal and violent. He doesn’t want to be doing these things but the cops who’ve sent him under won’t let him out. And the more he does these things, the more us viewers are left to wonder when it’s stopped becoming an act.
I found that while watching Infernal Affairs, my sympathies rested most strongly with the fake cop. He was brought into this to help the bad guys, but he ends up wanting to be good. Wanting to be what he’s been pretending to be. This same thing is true of the fake cop (Matt Damon) in The Departed. But somehow I found my sympathies lay with the undercover cop. Leonardo Dicaprio seemed so desperate to get out. He was so phenomenal. Filled with rage, unable to change his circumstance, I couldn’t help but hope that things would improve for him. But Matt Damon’s character had it all - he had the beautiful apartment, the solid job, and the beautiful woman, of course.
I watched The Departed and hoped without hope that the end would be different than Infernal Affairs. SPOILERS! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! Well, it was actually worse in terms of death toll. The end reflected the different main message. The Departed didn’t feel like it was about the same thing. It was more about the desperation of lying and the inevitability of truth coming out. Lying begets more lies and results in the same painful circumstance as actual violence. Which is why the fake cop survives in Infernal Affairs but has to die in The Departed.
An impressive movie, highly recommended, though if you’ve gotten to here and haven’t seen the movie yet, it’s a bit ruined for you. Sorry for that.
5 Responses to “Movie Impressions: The Departed”
I think what resonated with me was the sense of place and personality. They got the Boston vibe exactly right, and they didn’t glorify mobster nobility (Nicholson was a prick, and so was Damon).
I also enjoyed the struggle both characters had with their situations. Neither one was particularly happy to be where he was, and was forced to do things they didn’t want to.
It’s rare that you see morally conflicted characters portrayed with compassion: you feel for DiCaprio because you identify with his sense of impending doom and his realization that there’s little or nothing he can do about it.
I also thought that Mark Wahlberg was dead on with his Southie accent. That was amusing and a nice touch.
I think there were quite a few great films in 2006. Pan’s Labrynth for one. But is The Departed that I keep wanting to see over and over again. And it gets better each time I see it (I have it on DVD now). Everyone is at the top of their game, but I thought Dicaprio in particular, lent his character such soul and feeling, and that is what made this movie so compelling. You really felt what he was going through even though his character is not the usual heroic person, not black and white, which makes him 1000x more interesting. I thought Scorsese’s take on the story was also about loss, family, loyalty, and the Boston angle was something that made this movie separate and unique from the original . I ultimately found that The Departed left more of an impact emotionally than Infernal Affairs.
I really liked The Departed as well.
I was also rooting for Leo’s character (I love him as an actor anyway). He was absolutely amazing in this film.
I haven’t seen Infernal Affairs. I’m going to put it in my Netflix queue now.
Infernal Affairs was fantastic, perfect, gripping, original.
I can’t bring myself to see the “Americanized” remake. I think Scorsese is sort of coasting, using the same people again and again, and telling basically the same story.
He also thinks that long movies = serious/better now. 2.5 hours? Really? Ugh.
Anu, don’t let your ideas of what you think this movie will be stop you from seeing it! The Departed is great. The actors are terrific. And I agree with Diane, I actually felt more of an emotional impact from the “Americanized” version than the original. Of course, I’m sure a lot of that is because I found the characters much more familiar and relate-able as Nord says, the Boston setting rocked it out.