The Departed ***** (2006, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg) – Classic Movie Review 1996

Martin Scorsese‘s spectacular 2006 crime thriller epic boldly remakes the 2002 Hong Kong cult favourite Infernal Affairs and hit the jackpot at the box office and the Oscars. winning four, including Best Motion Picture of the Year and Best Achievement in Directing. Scorsese must have been very pleased with that and also with his Golden Globe for Best Director. It was Scorsese’s biggest hit to date with a US gross of $132 million. And, of course, it’s great to have Scorsese back in gangster territory again.

It retells with the greatest possible dynamism and style to spare Infernal Affairs’s brilliant and ultra-satisfying story about a mole in the police department and an undercover cop who have the same quest to find out who is the mole and who is the cop. The action and characters re-locate from Hong Kong to Boston effortlessly. Scorsese mixes black comedy and bloodshed effortlessly.

As the mole Colin Sullivan and the undercover cop Billy Costigan, Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are stupendous, but it was Mark Wahlberg’s scalding turn as zealous cop Dignam that came nearest an Oscar, with a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

Jack Nicholson must have been pleased with his MTV Movie Award as Best Villain for his gangland boss Frank Costello, who runs the mob syndicate that Costigan is assigned to infiltrate. It’s a grandstanding piece of quite rough acting, not exactly from his subtle closet, but it works, and above all, he’s scary.

The National Board of Review went with an interesting idea of awarding the ensemble cast, and Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin, Anthony Anderson and James Badge Dale all won their Best Acting by an Ensemble award.

William Monahan makes a grand job of adapting the 2002 Infernal Affairs (Mou gaan dou) movie screenplay by Alan Mak and Felix Chong, winning Best Adapted Screenplay, and Thelma Schoonmaker’s vital, ultra-nifty editing was honoured too with the Best Achievement in Film Editing Oscar, acknowledging her rare contribution.

Very noticeably, there were no Bafta wins, no Screen Actors Guild Awards and no London Critics Circle Film Awards. They all got that wrong, then, didn’t they?

RIP great cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, known for Scorsese‘s Goodfellas (1990), Gangs of New York (2002) and The Departed (2006). He died on 12 April 2017, aged 81.

http://derekwinnert.com/infernal-affairs-2002-andy-lau-tony-leung-classic-movie-review-1997/

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1996

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