He's Done It Again
by T. Holmes
Martin Scorsese. Crime Drama. This is all the description one needs to explain the critical success behind Scorsese’s latest gangster epic, The Departed. From the man who is responsible for timeless films such as Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Casino, and arguably the greatest portrayal of the mafia lifestyle ever depicted on film, Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese returns to the gangster film genre in Muhammad Ali-esque fashion to remind the world that although several years have passed by, he remains "The Greatest." Crime classics are his trademark and no director has yet been able to duplicate his formula regardless of the ongoing attempts ever since Scorsese unleashed Mean Streets upon the American public in 1973. Rather than venturing away from what has defined his career thus far, Scorsese understands his strengths and once again has created a film that captivates the world of cinema.
Despite an impressive list of directorial endeavors, Martin Scorsese’s complete body of work has been embodied by only a handful of films. The Departed, an adaptation of the Hong Kong cult classic Infernal Affairs with striking similarities to the life of South Boston Irish Mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger, surely will be a fine addition to that list. The film is a gritty tale depicting the corruption and betrayal that one potentially faces regardless of what side of the law one chooses to walk. Cops and criminals; within a society where both have power and influence, there is no fine line to differentiate the two.
As is the case with all of his noteworthy films, The Departed would not be a consummate Scorsese film without his essential trademark, star-studded ensembles; which only serve to further accentuate the power of the film. The cast reads as a who’s who of multiple generation cinematic characters. Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon nail their roles as informants, each for a different side of the law, and Jack Nicholson continues to display his freakish ability to adopt a psychopathic killer’s mentality as real life "Whitey" Bulger’s character, Francis Costello. In supporting, but just as vital, roles Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin provide perfectly placed comic relief while Martin Sheen exemplifies the stirring consistency he has shown throughout his career.
Before one writes The Departed off as a formulaic mob film with an Irish theme, one needs to understand Scorsese’s subtle but effective directorial tendencies in addition to the film’s overall relevance to modern culture. The film is much more than your average crime drama with a twist at the end, like we so often see from current Hollywood productions. The Departed depicts a time, place, era, and most of all, attitude that the general public isn’t regularly exposed to. One will notice in all of Scorsese’s hit mafia films they are all mob oriented—he shows each story from a unique viewpoint capturing a different culture from an angle we have never seen before. The Departed fits this formula. One does not simply view this film to be entertained; they are witnessing an underground Irish lifestyle come to the forefront, exposing the viewer to South Boston, known as "Southie", the Irish, deeply religious, tight-knit neighborhood that is unlike any in America.
Watching The Departed is an experience. The viewer is introduced to one of the last neighborhoods in America where concrete and cartels are more prevalent than picket fences; a neighborhood which reminds us of the gritty urban jungles where race, culture, religion and violence are woven together in a complex story of ethics and survival. The viewer experiences the life and times of the second most wanted man in America (trailing only Osama Bin Laden), James "Whitey" Bulger. The film captures the iron-fisted manner in which Bulger terrorized Boston, until his disappearance in 1998. This film is clearly another of Scorsese’s classic pieces; a film that makes the old timers say "They just don’t make films like this anymore." In the case of Martin Scorsese and The Departed, we can only sit back and revel at how one man and one film have provided us with memories of days that now may only exist in our imaginations.
