The Departed (Martin Scorsese, 2006) - The perception of a film has a full life cycle. First, there is the theatrical premiere, and all the trappings that come with it. Critics and bloggers write all their reviews, and an initial consensus is formed as to the quality of the film. This is complicated by whether or not the film has met viewers' preconceptions, which are susceptible to all sorts of manipulation before the fact. The studios churn out publicity campaigns, selling an image crafted through trailers, commercials, TV spots, and merchandising. Further, people bring their own opinions about the director, or the actors, or the genre. Its hard to break through this and just see the film for what it is, which is why it is valuable to take another look after some time has passed, to gain some perspective separated from the first theatrical run or the subsequent awards season campaigning.
Films don't gain "classic" status until at least 10 or 15 years after their premiere, and sometimes it takes several decades to wipe off the dust and recognize quality (Touch of Evil, for one example). But does it have to take this long? After not yet 4 years, I took another look at The Departed, the film that finally won Marty his Oscar, to see if my perception had changed. The Departed was a film that I personally had difficulty separating from my own expectations. I am a self-confessed Scorsese fanatic, and on top of that I was already a fan of Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong film upon which The Departed is based. So I was anticipating the premiere for quite awhile. I've had time to let it breathe, let its subtext seep into my subconscious, free from the perceptual cloud that is a publicity campaign, and free also from my own gleefully heightened expectations.
My initial reaction was that there were competing impulses in the film and that the whole thing doesn't quite fit together as a piece. I still feel that way, only now I have changed my thinking on which scenes and actors are the strongest and which let the film down. At first I enjoyed Matt Damon's sly, dark-comic turn as the impotent, family-less, cold-and-calculating goody-two-shoes. I also thought Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin were highlights. I liked DiCaprio but I didn't understand what all the fuss was about; after all, I thought he was better in The Aviator. And Jack Nicholson turned me off entirely. In the run-up to the premiere, I read how Scorsese scheduled added shooting days to work with Jack as the insanity of his performance evolved, and after seeing the end result I felt he was too bizarre and self-consciously over-the-top in a way that distracted from the exciting thriller that was taking place.
This time around, instead of Jack and his mania being a problem, I felt this is where the film should have spent more time. Ray Winstone works scarily well off of Jack to infuse their scenes of sick violence and intimidation with a desperate and existentially lost quality. Yes, Wahlberg and Baldwin have a lot of fun with their scenes, but it is DiCaprio's experience deep undercover that really resonates. The problem is that Matt Damon is working on an entirely different plane. He plays his role as if he's the only one who's seen Infernal Affairs and is trying to make a genuine remake. (It's been reported neither Scorsese nor screenwriter William Monahan ever saw the original film). He's cerebral and ruthless to be sure, but not sick. Not twisted. Not unhinged.
What I didn't get the first time around was that, at its heart, The Departed is NOT a thriller. This is not Infernal Affairs: The Remake. The heart of the movie is the sentiment that something is just not right in the world, expressed by DiCaprio's character in the back of a police vehicle, spoken to his boss, played by Martin Sheen. Upon recent viewing, DiCaprio indeed does stand out, and delivers a committed and troubling performance. His scenes with Vera Farmiga are mature and sexy, and the reason her character is attracted to his vulnerability is plainly evident, as he wears the scars of his experiences all over his face. The film should be judged on whether Scorsese succeeds in combining the turn-the-plot, thriller aspects of the film's conception with the dark, character-based themes that Jack, Leo, and Winstone are developing. I'm still not entirely convinced that he does. That being said, I recognize that, with films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas to compare it to, The Departed may never escape the unreasonable expectations Scorsese has set up for himself, no matter how many years have passed.
Maxwell Anderson is an avid film watcher and blogger. He is also a freelance assistant video editor in New York City. You can contact him through his blog Ecstatic Text: http://ecstatictext.blogspot.com
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