The Departed (2006) Review

https://youtu.be/iQpb1LoeVUc?si=cstZ8r4SSZTNOE6d

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

At one point or another, lies and deceit will catch up to the shameless. You don’t think so? Look at The Departed. 


PLOT


Inspired by Alan Mak & Andrew Lau’s 2002 film Infernal Affairs or Mou gahn doh, this 2006 adaptation follows two sides of the coin in terms of law & order. Colin Sullivan is groomed by Irish mob boss Francis Costello to be his spy for the Special Investigation Unit, whereas William Costigan Junior is recruited by Captain Charlie Queenan and Staff Sergeant Dignam to go undercover to infiltrate Costello’s organization. Costigan is given this opportunity due to not qualifying to join the Massachusetts State Police, not having enough grades to pass. Billy gets recruited after serving a sentence for assault and does drug related crimes with his cousin Sean (Kevin Corrigan) once released. The longer Billy stays undercover does his mental state decline and he starts seeing a therapist, Madolyn Madden who is currently dating Colin to the point of moving in with him, but after early sessions does she transfer him to another counselor. Enough time passes that it’s in the air that there is a rat in the SIU. Dignam & Queenan tell this to Billy, but Colin announces this to his team to leave the suspicion off of him. Off of this does this lead to both sides trying to find opposing moles before the other does. Colin stays ahead by posing as an attorney to Costello’s henchman Fitzy (David O’Hara) in order to help him tip the rest of the crew of in the midst of cleaning weapons & destroying evidence. He even thwarts a sting operation via cellphone text to ensure Costello sells stolen microprocessors to Chinese mobsters. Around the time Billy finds out Costello is an FBI informant while taken under the wing of Costello’s right hand man, Arnold aka Mr French, does he start having an affair with Madolyn. Costigan then later follows Costello at a porno theater to see him exchange his social information to Colin, but he doesn’t get a visual ID on the latter after almost getting caught following him, especially when the opposing side accidentally stabs a passerby before fleeing. Billy even assures to Frank that he is not the rat after being confronted by him that there is one in the crew. When Queenan gives advice to Colin that finding Costello could lead to finding the rat does this inspire him to follow the captain instead in order to find Billy. The day he has fellow officers follow him, Costigan pleads with Queenan to abort. Certain the rat is there, Colin quickly calls Costello where he is. Queenan would quickly sacrifice himself to protect Billy because by the time Fitz & Delahunt track them down, they throw the captain from the top of the building and miss Billy until his body hits the floor.  Colin’s officers would shoot at Frank’s crew on the spot and shoot fellow henchman Delahunt (Mark Rolston). Before succumbing to his wounds, he confronts Billy of his secret since he deduced it off of realizing he came to the right address after giving the wrong one on accident. After checking out, Madolyn decides to end their affair after discovering she is pregnant and plans to raise her baby with Colin. Dignam gets suspended by the new captain, George Ellerby, when he attacks Colin for getting Queenan killed and refusing to explain why he was following him. When looking at Queenan’s notes, he not only reads his notes to confirm Frank’s an informant, but also calls Billy hoping to bring him in. Around the time Costello proceeds to pick up some drugs when not buying in on the rise Delahunt was undercover as well. Billy tips Colin through Queenan’s phone and Colin leads a raid against him. This wipes out the remaining mob crew including Fitz & French, but Colin personally shoots down Frank as he couldn’t stand how he never told him of being an informant. Sullivan takes the credit of stopping the mob boss without anyone knowing their connections, and finally meets Billy. Billy gives the latter his birth name as the password to access Queenan’s files and when he does so privately, the former confirms who he is by spotting the same envelope containing his social information. Rather than confront him immediately, he leaves and this gives Colin a chance to delete his police file. Before he even knows what he did, he gives Madolyn an envelope of evidence of what Colin has done, which leaves her in shock after all the months he’s been dishonest towards her. Apparently, Costello recorded everything and he left the evidence to Billy. Costigan demands to meet Sullivan to have his life back and they meet at the same building where Queenan died, hoping to arrest him then and there. Simultaneously, he calls in his police academy classmate Trooper Brown to tell him what he knows. When they agree to meet downstairs, Billy gets shot in the elevator by the second mole Costello had all along, Colin’s police academy classmate Trooper Barrigan (James Badge Dale). He shoots Brown before he can deduce anything and just when he tries staging the incident, Colin shoots and frames him to be sole rat. He also chooses to recommend Billy to be posthumously commended for the Medal of Merit as he already intended to before he died. Around the time of Billy & Brown’s funeral does Madolyn choose to leave Colin and raise the baby without him. The film officially ends with Dignam shooting him in his home after all the damage he’s caused


THOUGHTS


I know I’m not the only one that has though it but considering what a legend Martin Scorsese is going into the 21st century, yet this is the one true time he got glory at the Academy Awards? Respectfully, he won Best Director for the first time whereas writer William Monahan for Adapted Screenplay and producer Graham King was the Best Picture recipient. I am not saying at all this movie is horrible because I enjoyed every bit of it. What I am trying to say is that he should’ve won way sooner with his preceding classics like Goodfellas or Raging Bull. Having said that, this was a goddamn blast of a crime film. The idea of two rats trying to find one another to save their own skin is a cat/mouse chase for the ages because there is no guarantee on who will be the one to stand tall. Howard Shore’s score does leave the whole experience full of appropriate suspense and the cinematography by Michael Ballhaus helps bring the intensity that defines opposing lifestyles of life & crime. What this film does differently from the past is that it lays out the only truth of how deception can make or break one’s personal identity. You can either hold out until you’ve no longer use of it or relish it to the point of alienation from who are supposed to be peers. This is the dynamic that comes from what feels like Scorsese’s best ensemble ever assembled from the 2000s. The role of Billy Costigan is a personal favorite of mine when thinking about Leonardo DiCaprio because he’s a cop whose life becomes full of torment as he uses his family’s criminal past to take out the biggest threat in Boston. All he wanted to do is be a good person and break apart from that, but needed to play fire with fire in order to get closer to success. Since it took so long for him to get there, it makes sense for him to find solace with the unexpected. He may not get along with Dignam being brutally honest which was done flawlessly by Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen makes a way better mentor as Queenan compared to Costello since he came off more stoic and chose to sacrifice himself to protect himself in shocking fashion. What’s more iconic is for him to find comfort with one who is unknowingly sleeping with the enemy. Vera Farmiga was interesting as Madolyn because while she had a solid vibe with Colin originally because she’s impressed of his ambition, but she has a stronger connection to Billy off of how he is honest with his vulnerability. She doesn’t report what she found out about Colin because she knows it’s too big of a risk, thus breaking it off quietly by ignoring him at the funeral. Sullivan is arguably Matt Damon’s best go at being an antagonist because he makes the same decisions that makes Frank despicable; He is so arrogant upon opportunity that you hate how good he is at keeping his cover until he couldn’t. The only reason he has this mindset is due to having the wrong mentor. I kinda wish he took a liking to Ellerby since Alec Baldwin makes him just a cynical, but Jack Nicholson is undoubtedly the enigma of a leader as Costello because like past mob bosses, he is driven by power and is just as sadistic about it. French was definitely his only friend at that point since Ray Winstone came off right behind as menacing. In separate cases, he takes Billy & Colin under his wings because he sees parts of himself within them both. It may be one mistake for him to trust Billy more than necessary, but he messed up most not telling Colin of his informant side hustle. If he wanted to be at the top of the world, he should’ve given more trust to the one person he groomed to be where he wanted to be. Ironically, leaving his belongings to Billy does prove he saw him as the true surrogate son after all that had happened. It was fitting for Colin to kill Costello in return since he was doing what he taught him, to save himself. That does become his grand mistake however because that motive gets him killed too. Had he given more thought with trusting Barrigan, even if that’s just as much of a gamble, he probably would’ve saved himself from Dignam’s wrath. We can go and on with saying how much of an unsung hero Dignam is since he took justice in his own hands, but that credit can still go to Billy because even when it seemed the world turned against him, he stuck to the morals no one else had left in the world he was surrounded with. I mean if he can give Brown second thoughts as Anthony Anderson showed him to have his own when standing against him, that just comes to show some forms of determination pay off even when some results don’t go as planned. Despite the true martyrs dying, one fraud eliminated still does make Boston a little safe even if that means no one will ever really know it. I stand by loving this movie a whole lot, but even great stuff like this has questionable moments that could’ve been done differently. For starters, if Queenan & Dignam knew who Billy was given his family past, they should’ve offered him the undercover gig the moment he applied for the academy. It’s partially manipulative to tell him his low SAT scores prevent him from being an average cop he was hoping for, only to still offer him going undercover. And whatever happened during his assault sentence? I don’t believe nothing interesting happened considering that is supposed to help him impress Frank. It’s even pretty crazy how no one at the office overhears Colin’s calls when he passes by such as when he tells Frank about being tailed. He may call him dad to keep his cover, but it’s very surprising no one is observant enough to listen. I’m also on Billy’s side when he clocks Jimmy Bags going for the cigarettes. The guy is a fellow undercover and although doesn’t know Costigan’s secret, should at the very least alert what he’s doing if he doesn’t want to be struck in the middle of French’s shakedown. I’m then surprised how Billy doesn’t even tell Madolyn his secret since therapists are sworn to secrecy. The only thing she knows when they meet is his assault sentence, so anything is up for game if he wants to get proper mental health before he asks her out. Simultaneously I can point out how it is cool to see a cellphone advance the plot when Colin texts blindly in his pocket, I’m more annoyed Queenan trusts him to run the sting if he didn’t even know of it until the day of due to the trust issues in the department. Then there is two different continuity errors that bother me deeply: One where Billy does and doesn’t have a cigarette when Frank confronts his suspicions and another Ellerby is in two different spots as he pulls Dignam away from Colin. Back to the story though, it’s still crazy other officers didn’t even tell Ellerby that Colin was suspicious of Queen being the rat even when that’s not true. Had they done that, Ellerby would’ve questioned him more and would’ve not been as mad at Dignam for attacking him. Also, I don’t understand why Brown doesn’t point out to Colin that he and Billy were police academy classmates until after Costello dies. Yeah he can assume he went bad as that’s the point of him being undercover, but if even that were true, telling Colin sooner would’ve solved everything sooner whether or not it’d favor the right side. I can still admit it’s a great full circle moment when Billy spots the envelope, but it’s totally on Colin to not put it away sooner like before he goes to kill Frank. I can excuse him leaving it out before Queenan dies because he knows nobody is gonna snoop at his office. Hell, Billy should’ve grabbed that envelope immediately and go straight to Brown or Ellerby on the evidence he found. That would’ve prevented Colin from erasing his file and no one else would have died. Lastly, how did Barrigan know where Colin & Billy were gonna meet at the climax? If Brown told him to be his backup, that should be implied but it doesn’t and it’s so weird that it makes it hard for me to enjoy the second twist. Ignore all these flaws however, then you can still claim The Departed as a great remake and an amazing crime epic all around for being a true edge of your seat narrative that’ll leave you stunned throughout. If the crime genre is your preference, see this now.