‘Lies, Betrayal & Sacrifice.
How far will you take it?’ the quote clearly describes Martin Scorsese’s
exceptional cop thriller ‘The Departed’. Martin Scorsese voted as one of the
best directors ever to be gifted to the film industry, returns back to the
gangster genre after a span of 11 years. Goodfellas (1990), Mean Streets (1973),
Casino (1995) are few of the illustrations of his master hand in this genre.
Inspired from 2002, Hong Kong movie ‘Internal Affairs ‘ The Departed makes the
viewers witness assembling of an astral cast altogether. I mean who won’t give
a nod to the movie which has Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson
& Mark Walberg in decisive roles.

Frank Costello (Nicholson), the Irish-American Mafioso is the only
powerful man holding the reigns of organized crime in Irish neighbourhood in
South Boston. He influences Collin Sullivan
(Damon) by seducing altar boy by few gallons of milk & comic books & Sullivan
is trained to be his very own secret agent in the Massachusetts State Police department;
the department run by Queenan (Martin Sheen). On the other hand, Leonardo plays Billy
Costigan, an honest person from a dishonest family who cannot make it to being
a cop owing to his austere family background finally agrees to Queenan’s urge for
him to be his undercover informer in Costello’s gang.

The Departed is a complex story of a paralleled infiltration of organized
crime and the police department narrated rather simply as it showcases the idiosyncratic
performances of the lead actors & the strong masterstroke of the director. It makes a complicated and potentially
convoluted story and delivers it to the audience with sterile clarity. It has
the same violence & tension from Goodfellas & Casino minus the
narration. However as expected Scorsese has managed to explore the gangster
world ahead of the vision & delivered a kaleidoscopic masterpiece. Needless to say, in my view this happens to be
Scorsese’s best gangster movie till date.