The Departed (DVD)

After watching the Oscars the other night I stumbled across a film called The Departed. I had seen this film in the video store a few times but never really thought that much of it as I hadn't heard a great deal about it, plus I never really liked Leonardo DiCaprio. Then when it won the Oscar for best motion picture I thought maybe it was worth toddling off down the video store and buying it. So off I went paying £12.99 for this DVD.

...the screenplay called infernal affairs. Then the screenplay was credited to William Monohan. The Excellent Oscar Winning Martin Scorsese, who has directed many brilliant films, such as Gangs of New York and The Aviator, directs the film.

The film is about crime lords in Boston, at the beginning of the film you meet Colin Sullivan played by Matt Damon, as a young child were he meets Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson. The small ... more

After watching the Oscars the other night I stumbled across a film called The Departed. I had seen this film in the video store a few times but never really thought that much of it as I hadn't heard a great deal about it, plus I never really liked Leonardo DiCaprio. Then when it won the Oscar for best motion picture I thought maybe it was worth toddling off down the video store and buying it. So off I went paying £12.99 for this DVD.

A Japanese director called Sui Fai Mak originally wrote the screenplay called infernal affairs. Then the screenplay was credited to William Monohan. The Excellent Oscar Winning Martin Scorsese, who has directed many brilliant films, such as Gangs of New York and The Aviator, directs the film.

The film is about crime lords in Boston, at the beginning of the film you meet Colin Sullivan played by Matt Damon, as a young child were he meets Frank Costello, played by Jack Nicholson. The small child that plays Colin looks more like Mark Walhberg who appears in the film rather than a young Matt Damon. Frank takes Colin under his wing, as his family life is not brilliant. He tells Colin that in this life you can be whatever you want to be, you can become cops or criminals. When you're facing a loaded gun what's the difference. The film then switches to the men, as they have grown older. You see Colin in the police Academy; there we meet Billy Costigan played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Although Colin and Billy Never actually meet up in the police Academy there lives cross paths dramatically later on in the film.

Once the boys have Graduated from the police academy, They go to the FBI were they both have to meet the staff sergeants of the special investigation unit Dignam played by Mark Walhberg and Oliver Queenam played by Martin Sheen. Colin gets placed in the Special Investigation unit in the FBI headed by Ellerby played by Alec Baldwin. Billy goes for his meeting and gets told that because he has a family background of criminals he doesn't belong in the unit. They tell him that the only way he will get into the police force is by going undercover in Frank Costello's gang, nobody in the unit will ever know that he was a policeman as they fire him for fraudulently getting into the police force. They then throw him in jail for GBH. When he comes out he joins franks gang.

So we have Billy as the police's Mole inside Frank's gang and we find out that Colin is still working for Frank as his Mole inside the Police force. What will happen as the two boys try to piece together who is who's Mole. What will Frank do if he finds out who is giving the police his dealing information? What will the Police do if they find out who is giving Frank information about police movements?

The film is set in south Boston but most of the film was actually filmed in New York City because the producers were concerned about the production and politics side, so they chose New York because of Boston's 15% tax credit. Brad Pitt was asked to play the part of Colin Sullivan originally but turned down the part, however he continued to produce the film under his then production company, Plan B.

The Film has an all-star cast with some excellent actors. Leonardo DiCaprio although I have never really liked him that much plays the part of Billy well, even with the dodgy Irish Accent. He gets too far into the underground gang world and becomes mentally unstable even though he has been brought up with his whole family being criminals. Matt Damon is one Actor I do like I loved him in The Bourne films and in The Ocean films. He makes a really good cop and he actually worked with the Boston state police to review his role as Colin Sullivan. Jack Nicholson always portrays the bad guy well that's why he always plays them. His part as Frank Costello is based on the Notorious South Boston gangster Whitey Bulger. Mark Wahlberg who stared in the remake of the Italian Job does a great job as the tough sergeant Dignam. Scorsese actually wanted Ray Liotta to play the part originally but turned it down. There are some other Well-known actors who play supporting parts in the film, these include, Anthony Anderson who is stars in the Scary Movie Films, Ray Winston from the TV series Vincent, martin Sheen from the West Wing and Alec Baldwin from The Aviator. Scorsese wanted a well-known actress to play the part of Madolyn who is matt Damon's Shrink Girlfriend, but instead he chose a relatively unknown actress called Vera Farmiga who is a great actress.

I really enjoyed this film apart from a few dodgy accents and a hell of a lot of swearing (the f word is said 237 times, and the word c**t is said 22 times) the film is rated 18 because of the strong language and the violence. The film runs for 151 minutes and is not at all too long; if it weren't this long then half of the plot would be missing like there is in so many good films I've seen. The whole film from start to finish keeps you guessing about what is going to happen, nothing is predictable. It keeps you on the edge of your seat, as you don't want to miss a thing. You can clearly see the Scorsese touch ranging from the cinematography to the music, it's great to hear, "Comfortably Numb" played in so well. It's another gangster flick from Scorsese, yet this one stands alone because it feels so fresh and most would agree Scorsese does gangster films the best.

The DVD comes as a two-disc set on disc one as usual includes the feature presentation. Disc two has some great special features. Firstly it has some additional scenes which has commentary by Scorsese before each one to tell you about the scene and why it wasn't included in the end production. These scenes include

●Colin and the Ballistics instructor
●Billy and the Drill Instructor
●Flashbacks of Billy's Father
●Billy smokes and thinks
●Ellerby's press Conference
●Ellerby Questions Colin
●Billy at shoreline
●Delahunt and Billy
●Colin debriefed about Costello

The disc also includes the story behind the real life mobster Whitley Bulger who Jack Nicholson's character portrays. There is also a part of the disc about crossing criminal culture in which they discuss how little Italy's crime and violence influences Martin Scorsese's work. The disc also contains the Theatrical Trailer.

Overall I absolutely loved this film and everything about it, I couldn't take my eyes off it. The concept I don't think has been done before which is why I liked it. I'm fed up of films where we see the same plots over and over again and they become predictable. This film was if anything defiantly not predictable. I would recommend the film to anyone who enjoys a good gangster film and who doesn't mind a lot of violence and a hell of a lot of swearing.
Thanks for reading

Lynz x  

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