The Departed

October 9, 2006

Jays Rating:
Actors: / /
Director:

Martin Scorsese directs The Departed, a great film modeled after the 2002 Hong Kong film entitled, Internal Affairs. Boston police are frustrated because Boston’s head gangster, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) keeps slipping through their fingers. State police Captain Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) recruit a young officer named Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) to spend a year in prison and remain under cover as a member of Costello’s organization. Captain Queenan and Sergeant Dignam are the only cops in the department who know that Billy’s working undercover. Ironically, Costello is pulling strings to get a hardened criminal, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrated into the police department and assigned to the Special Investigations Unit. (I really hope it’s not that easy for a criminal to penetrate the police department.) In a very short time, the race is on to find out the identity of the mole in the police department and also the syndicate and the loser may lose his life. This film is exciting, thrilling and tragic. It’s a complex story that mixes genres between a character drama and a thriller and the so-so script evolved into a fabulous movie because of the superb cast. Some of them will definitely receive a nod from the Academy Awards this winter. The one weak link in the movie is the slight twist at the ending that falls flat. (Kind of like my big toe after I stood too close to my wife’s car when she backed out of the garage.) This film is not only very well made, but also entertaining and I’m giving it an A- rating.

This movie has been given a R rating by the MPAA

Although I am blind, I can appreciate a good movie as well as sighted individuals.
I rely more on a good story line than special effects.