The Departed

It’s against nature, but Marty is getting younger. This is the kind of fucking entertaining film that even a young kid in the director’s chair wouldn’t be ashamed of. Those almost two and a half hours passed by like water. In the case of the ensemble cast, it's pointless to comment on DiCaprio and Nicholson, they're chapters unto themselves, so I'll just single out the much-maligned Damon (that perfect smarmy crooked character, I can't imagine it could have been played any better) and especially Wahlberg (!!!), whose brilliantly written lines were a joy to listen to, and his banter with Baldwin made me laugh out loud. After the screening, I remembered Steven Spielberg's words that he "doesn't have to prove anything to anyone anymore and just wants to have fun with movies", I feel the same way about The Departed. I probably wouldn't give Scorcese an Oscar for it, in the context of his previous, albeit more notable work (if does get it, it will be mainly "for merit"), but it's gratifying that underneath the skin of the grey professor emeritus, there's still that old familiar rebel from the days of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver :) (19/11/2006)

When I decided to go see Hidden Identity, contrary to my original intention, I was firmly convinced that I would not try to compare it to the original. In a movie where the best moments are those that exactly copy it, I can't do otherwise. As for the star-studded cast, DiCaprio, Damon, and Sheen are great, Baldwin and Wahlberg are average, and Farmiga and, to my huge surprise, Nicholson are terrible. Especially in his role in The Departed, he proves why the remake should not have been made. Instead of a subtle gangster leader, Costello is a sleazy and unnecessarily vulgar arrogant, who doesn't care about anything or anyone, and the screenwriters added a stupidly behaving female character between the two main heroes, which further diminishes the credibility of their mutual duel. And above all, I won't forgive Scorsese for one fundamental thing: the suspenseful, emotionally charged, and, in my eyes, forever unforgettable final scene in the elevator, which was the highlight of the original, became a farce in the remake, cramming three twists into a few seconds, and the absurdly portrayed final shootout of the main characters provoked a deserved and almost incredulous mockery in the theater. Scorsese destroyed a film that could have redefined the gangster genre, but instead he only dissected the original and wildly twisted it - and that has earned him everything possible, except for the promised pinnacle of his career. (30/11/2006)

I was really looking forward to this. Power. But maybe too much. The Departed is certainly not a bad film, but from beginning to end I couldn’t get rid of the impression that it's primarily a film that drags on and is unnecessarily long. Yet the number of minutes (the great Casino is even longer, whilst the absolutely fantastic The Irishman is even longer than Casino) is not the problem, but rather what they are filled with. I don't know the original, but it's three quarters of an hour shorter, and I wouldn't be surprised if all that seemed boring or unnecessary here was the work of William Monahan and Martin Scorsese. (26/02/2021)

And this is an Oscar-winning movie? Marty’s weakest work? Ha ha. I haven’t yet seen Infernal Affairs yet, so I should avoid comparing them. The beginning is boring as hell. Plus, I have nothing against cussing and vulgarity, but too much of a good thing... The screenplay must have been awful for a start and the actors must have agreed to do it just because of Scorsese. And what does the Fox say? “You can’t build on wobbly foundations"? But not to be too critical. DiCaprio is really good and the end is quite interesting for an American movie (but not really, when I remember that the story originates from Asia). (07/08/2007)

I wanted to avoid comparisons with the Asian smash Infernal Affairs, of which The Departed is a remake. But if you know the original, in which the given story is filmed more briskly and more clearly, not a single character in it is a superficial poser (Jack Nicholson), and the Asian visuals are more exotic for a European than the worn-out “gritty America”, there is absolutely nothing stunning about the The Departed. Of course – Martin Scorsese and his court cinematographer are masters at what they do, so the film is never boring for even a second and we get to spend time in the company of the world’s acting elite, from whose characters the director gets maximum psychological enjoyment. But the film as a whole gives the impression that its makers didn’t approach it with as much love as they did The Aviator. Leonardo DiCaprio is the only one who gave his full commitment to the project and put his soul into it. With a few more roles in this vein, I will rank him among my personal top five actors. Otherwise, however, The Departed is merely a solid cops-and-mafia drama that leaves American audiences startled thanks to its ending, which is not what they’re used to from a Hollywood flick. The Departed deserves four stars in the context of current American productions, but definitely not in the context of the director’s filmography. I will gladly watch it again, but I can’t hide my slight disappointment. (27/10/2006)