Martin Scorsese: The Departed

I think we can all agree that Martin Scorsese is responsible for three of the best gang films of all time. After explorations into the genre with 1972's Boxcar Bertha and 1973's tragically unrecognized Mean Streets, he released his first truly great crime masterpiece in 1990 with Goodfellas, the violent, profane portrait of mob informer Henry Hill. And after further explorations into his motifs of guilt/redemption and mock-machismo in films like the hyper-violent Casino (1995) and almost amusing Bringing Out the Dead (1999), he released 2000's Gangs of New York, a high-budget, high-risk film about Civil War era New York and the gang violence occurring in the Five Points. And now we have The Departed, a modern gang masterpiece chronicling the rise and fall of (fictional) Irish mob boss Jack Costello.

The Departed opens with Jack Nicholson (brilliant in the role of the deranged Costello) explaining, in a think Boston accent, his mantra to the audience. "Nobody's ever gonna give it to ya. You have to take it." And it is this philosophy, this belief, that the film follows to the letter. The film follows the story of two "rats", one of whom (Matt Damon) is a protege of Costello that has infiltrated the State Police Special Investigations Unit, and the other of whom (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a ex-police cadet and undercover agent raised poor and desperate in Boston who rises in the ranks of the local mob. On the surface, the stories are strictly parallel-- opposite stories of good and evil. But it is more complex than that. As we watch DiCaprio savagely beat and mutilate "Mafia guineas" from Rhode Island while at the same time observing Damon meeting his future finance, the lines between good and evil, law and crime, become blurred, until what the film is left with is a wonderful tension, a sense of overwhelming desperation that slowly overcomes both the characters of Damon and DiCaprio, until it ceases to matter what is right or what is wrong. It only matters that they survive.

As the film progresses, the stories of the two characters become more intertwined and less parallel. Damon's finance becomes first DiCaprio's shrink and then his lover, DiCaprio's only contact at police headquarters becomes an obstacle to Damon's work inside the organization, and finally, it becomes clear that they are really hunting each other. DiCaprio is assigned to find the rat in the Special Investigations Unit and Damon is assigned to find the rat in Jack Costello's crew. As the scenes become more climactic and the sets darker and more menacing, one profoundly frightening thing becomes clear. The two charecters are, in essence, searching for themselves. Just on opposite ends of the scale.

Tension is everywhere in this film. Whether during a profoundly terrifying scene in which mob-boss Nicholson confronts DiCaprio about the suspected informer or during Damon's first date with his finance, the sense of tension is beautifully conveyed in the the gifted camera work, in the screenplay, and in the actors' inspired portrayals of their characters. And it is this, this terrifying tension that sucks a viewer in until they feel the fear of the characters on screen. And it is this, this expression of pure, animal fear, that makes a gang movie. Not car chases, not gun-fights, not scenes of drug use and debauchery, but the subtle, constant feeling of fear. And in this, the film succeeds.