ven 30 years after the debut of his iconic film Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese still reigns as the undisputed king of crime drama.
With The Departed, Scorcese returns to the streets in a cinematic explosion of Shakespearean proportions. The camera darts in and out of shadowy, suspense-filled alleys, the dialogue snaps like a whip and the blood splatters into the back rows of the theater.
In an conference call with The Diamondback, Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon talk about their roles in The Departed and their experiences working with Scorcese.
Scorsese had a “much clearer plan of attack” when going into the film, DiCaprio says, who’s starred in two of Scorsese’s previous feature films, 2004’s The Aviator and 2002’s Gangs of New York.
Loosely based on the Hong Kong thriller Internal Affairs, The Departed could easily be filed away as a wonderful bloodbath of pulp-proportions (Quentin Tarantino, anyone?) if it weren’t for Scorsese’s auteur sensibilities.
Working with a script by Boston native William Monahan, Scorcese visits themes of environment and identity with a hard hitting, no-holds-barred approach.
DiCaprio stars as Billy Costigan, a troubled young cop in the Massachusetts State Police who is picked to go undercover and infiltrate the Irish mob. Costigan’s assignment: Bring down infamous gangster Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson, Something’s Gotta Give) from the inside.
But Frank has his own inside with the state police – Sgt. Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon, The Bourne series). Damon lends an impressive range of emotions to Sullivan, just one of many characters in the film teetering between good and evil.
Not to be outdone by Damon, DiCaprio is electric in the role of Costigan. He channels the same level of intensity audiences have come to expect from actors who work with Scorcese, an intensity on par with Robert DeNiro’s performances in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.
From the start of the film, Scorsese lays down both men’s stories in parallel action, establishing Costigan and Sullivan as two sides of the same coin. Oscar-wining editor (and longtime Scorsese collaborator) Thelma Schoonmaker splices the intersecting storylines and maximizes the action without sacrificing one frame of film aesthetic.
But the focus ofThe Departed is on its ensemble of actors, with Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg shining darkly.
Sinking his teeth into a deceptive, villainous role – as he did in his turn as the Joker in Batman, but now he’s actually evil – Nicholson animates Costello with a murderous grin that only the devil could pull off. A man as sickly violent as he is comical, Costello comes from the darkest, sleaziest threads of Goodfellas.
Damon says Nicholson “infused the character with a level of obscenity” not present in the script, referring specifically to a scene in which Nicholson improvised (with Scorsese’s permission) by bringing a rubber phallus to the set. The bit actually made it into the final cut of the film.
“Working next to him is a bit of a high-wire act,” Damon adds.
Costello takes Sullivan in as a child, raising him to be a natural liar under the guise of a respected police officer. Scorsese challenges conventional notions of family within the mob and the police force, where loyalties often get lost in the line of fire.
Nicholson could have stolen Departed with his commanding performance, if not for his fellow actors. In fact, some of the best one-liners come from Wahlberg (Invincible). As Dignam, one of Costigan’s superior officers on the force, Wahlberg delivers his dialogue with unassailable flair. Veterans Alec Baldwin (The Aviator), Martin Sheen (Bobby) and Ray Winstone (The Proposition) also deliver the goods in crucial supporting roles.
For the role of police psychiatrist Madolyn, Scorsese relies on a relative unknown, Vera Farmiga (Breaking and Entering). Farmiga proves to be believable as Sullivan’s distressed love interest, despite the slightly absurd plot conventions surrounding her character.
With no real family or friends, Costigan seeks out Madolyn shortly after she becomes romantically involved with Sullivan. Scorsese and Monahan ask a lot of their audience to accept such a coincidence, but the plot point successfully contributes to the duality existing between Costigan and Sullivan.
And what would The Departed be without stunning production values to complement its stunning actors? Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus ups the ante on his revered camera work from Goodfellas, using an impressive array of angles and zooms to make the film a visual knockout.
The booming rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack appropriately follows the pattern of excess. The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” frames The Departed’s hostile environment and hopeless paranoia. The constant assault of music coupled with the vivid cinematography creates a claustrophobic atmosphere from which the audience cannot escape.
Unfortunately, the film lapses into several instances of over-the-top violence while the script takes some questionable turns, nearly capsizing The Departed at its most pivotal moments. Ambition, even in hands as trusted as Scorsese’s, can be dangerous.
However, Scorsese finds the idiosyncratic community in Boston well-suited to his inspired filmmaking.
“The stories in the cobble-stones of those streets are amazing,” DiCaprio says. Boston, he adds, is “a microcosm for storytelling.”
At the heart of The Departed, Scorsese spins a compelling story of people struggling with their identities, contemplating the sins they have committed in their lives and what awaits them in their deaths. He injects skeptical irony and existential musings, adding brains to the brawn of his latest film.
“Marty wanted to make the movie his,” Damon says.
Overcoming its bloated symbolism and other apparent faults, The Departed is violently entertaining and unmistakably Scorsese – an appropriate bang to open the long road to the awards season.
Contact reporter Zachary Herrmann at herrmanndbk@gmail.com.
