Martin Scorsese’s The Departed: The Perfect Bait To Catch The ‘Oscar’ Shark

‘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.

Screenplay crafted in a well paced & witty manner by William Monahan, the film begins with the director playfully shooting Nicholson in the dark for few scenes as you can just glimpse his outsized silhouette while everyone else is in the clear view. Scorsese simply wants to symbolise through this that he is the driving force of all the mayhem & destruction; the monstrous devil. 20 minutes post the film starts, you get to know about the title of the film but by then you have already crafted a general picture of the film’s plot in your mind; An outstandingly clever move by an outstandingly brilliant director.

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.

After a failed sting operation in spite of Billy tipping the police off, the State Police Department grows quite suspicious of a rat in their own department. Thanks to Sullivan from State Police, even Costello is tad convinced that even he has a police informer in his gang. The entire movie is about how both the organizations make their best to find out the moles around them, finally leading to some shootouts, body counts and unsurpassed scene of carnage.  Matt Damon who appears to be a well behaved & a neat cop pertaining to his clean shaved look but sadly isn’t. He gets involved with the cop psychiatrist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga) and gets into a live-in relationship with her but finally the love tapers towards destruction in the end. The film however gets us the glimpses of some heart-warming intimacy between the couple.

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.