Venus Rising

Film & BooksIssue: Scorpio 06

The Departed

Although “The Departed” does not have the have the emotional depth of other Martin Scorsese films, such as “Taxi Driver” or “Raging Bull,” it is an entertaining two-hour journey into the underworld with high-speed action, superb acting, and delicious dialogue.

“The Departed” is a remake of the Hong Kong thriller, “Infernal Affairs,” and it has a similar frenzy. It also has many vicious yet eloquent speeches that include quotes from Sigmund Freud and James Joyce. Scorsese’s version of this “double-mole” story sets Irish cops against career robbers in South Boston who infiltrate each other’s organizations.

Matt Damon plays Colin Sullivan, a fatherless boy who becomes a state detective, but is secretly loyal to the paternal crime lord Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Leonardo DiCaprio plays Billy Costigan, a straight cop with no family and perhaps nothing to lose, who goes undercover to become part of Frank’s gang of thugs. The two men have similar backgrounds, yet deeply different morals, which keeps them both locked on the wrong side of violent worlds. Throughout the film, they cross each other’s paths daily – and they even fall in love with the same police psychiatrist, played by Vera Farmiga. However, instead of focusing on the ties that bind similar minds to police work and criminal activity, the film works merely to create suspense as both men narrowly escape being exposed time and time again.

Since Martin Scorsese is clearly capable of digging deeply into the souls of his characters as he has done in past films, one could surmise that the shallowness of “The Departed” is a product of Scorsese’s affinity for Asian cinema and his homage to a certain genre of film from a culture not so steeped in individualism. Nevertheless, Leonardo DiCaprio gives a deeply convincing performance and provides the only emotionally captivating character in the film. Perhaps DeCaprio’s acting is too emotionally revealing for this style of film, which could be why so many moviegoers found the ending so shocking and too unsatisfying to accept. Or perhaps American audiences are just too emotional and spiritual to enjoy such blatant nihilism.