MasterChugs Theater: 'The Departed'

There are people who dismiss Martin Scorsese’s non-gangster films. Sometimes it feels like they don’t even acknowledge the existence of movies like or Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore or The Last Temptation of Christ or The Age of Innocence. These people are going to be more entrenched in their beliefs after the release of The Departed, Scorsese’s balls-to-the-wall return to the world of crime. As much as I appreciate the films he has made over the last decade, there is no denying that The Departed is Scorsese’s best film since Goodfellas. It’s just an awesome movie.

This astonishing picture is being heralded as something of a comeback for director Martin Scorsese, whose last two fiction films, 2002's Gangs of New York and 2004's The Aviator, were grandiose, ambitious, and somewhat compromised films. Scorsese's last film proper, however, the Bob Dylan documentary No Direction Home, is one of the finest things the director has ever done. So comeback this is not, really. It is, however, a triumphant revisiting of territory in which Scorsese is an unchallenged master--the crime drama. An Americanized adaptation of Andrew Lau's electrifying Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, The Departed, scripted by William Monaghan, depicts a double game within the Boston mob and the undercover echelons of that city's police. Just as the undercover unit has planted an agent (Gangs and Aviator's DiCaprio, in his best work with Scorsese yet) in the gang of mobsters led by Frank Costello (a ripely dissolute and menacing Nicholson), so has Costello planted one of his own (a disarming Damon) inside the department.

As each mole's machinations are mooted by the other's, they, Costello, and DiCaprio's putative protectors within the department find themselves caught up in an increasingly tense and brutal chess match. Making matters worse is that the "rats" on each side have found themselves in love with the same woman.

On-screen talent pools don't get much deeper than this one, with A-list actors like Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin accepting supporting roles. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon prove two crucial things: they are not interchangeable and, when pushed by someone who can direct actors, they can give riveting performances. DiCaprio has displayed growth in each of his appearances for Scorsese, and this is by far the best work he has done in his career. Jack Nicholson is in top form, providing a diabolical villain who can deliver a monologue with unparalleled verve. His part is showy enough that it will be virtually impossible for him to be ignored at Oscar time. Up-and-coming actress Vera Farmiga and British tough guy Ray Winstone round out a cast that, if not perfect, is close to it.

People like to talk about Martin Scorsese in the past tense. Yet here is a man demanding to be discussed in modern terms: his Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and now his newest work, The Departed, make up a string of masterworks. Add in his recent documentary fare (The Blues, Bob Dylan: No Direction Home), and you have an artist who, like his fellow filmmakers Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg, is smack dab in the middle of a career renaissance, delivering what will most certainly be remembered as some of the very best work of a most important career.

The Departed is a perfect example of why remakes shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have taken a thoroughly foreign film and re-imagined it as an American epic tragedy. The original film was gritty and entertaining; the new version is a masterpiece--the best effort Scorsese has brought to the screen since Goodfellas (ending a decade-long drought of disappointments and near-misses). In making the film, Scorsese has retained the essential plot structure of Infernal Affairs but has transformed the movie into something truly his own. Characters are better defined and situations are given an opportunity to breathe. None of this is done at the cost of pacing; The Departed is as suspenseful as anything the director has previously achieved. This movie deserves mention alongside Scorsese's most celebrated movies: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence.