THE DEPARTED: Blu-ray (Warner Bros. 2006) Warner Home Video

I remember so well when Martin Scorsese, a true artiste of the movies, having made some of its finest contributions, and overlooked by Academy voters for virtually all of them, ascended the podium on Oscar night, 2007 to accept his one and only Best Director statuette for The Departed (2006) – a belated honor, in retrospect, likely given more to assuage the Academy’s own guilt, as well as offer back-handed respect for his ‘Lifetime Achievement, and not for this lumbering crime saga. Graciously coddling the little gold, bald guy, Scorsese turned to address his triumvirate of contemporaries/presenters, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, to inquire – jokingly - whether or not they had made a mistake. Indeed, the slap-down Scorsese generally received from the Academy over the years, despite his consistently high level of creativity for decades, was cause enough to give both his fans and the audience pause as to precisely why he should have taken home an Oscar for this – by far, his weakest and most pedestrian ‘mafia-themed’ flick. The Departed is not Scorsese’s high-water mark in this sub-genre, but a regurgitation of themes and plot elements from his better known, and more widely appreciated opus magnums; Goodfellas (1991) and Casino (1995) – the latter, for which he was not even nominated! Worse, The Departed would mark Scorsese’s first alliance with Leonardo DiCaprio, having inexplicably inherited the mantel from the director’s long-time friendship with Robert DeNiro, albeit, with none of DeNiro’s actor’s prowess or finesse or even an ounce of his ability to convey so much with just a momentary glance, seemingly cast aside as an afterthought.

The Departed ought to have been a much different, and far better movie. Indeed, Warner Bros.’s producer, Brad Grey, and actor/producer, Brad Pitt bought the rights to remake Infernal Affairs (2002) from Media Asia for a cool $1.75 million. Into this mix, came William Monahan as screenwriter, and then, Scorsese, who pronounced Monahan's efforts superb and immediately agreed to direct. Soon after, DiCaprio and Pitt’s names were attached to the project; the latter, tentatively to play Sullivan. But Pitt bowed out, claiming the role belonged to a younger actor, and electing to produce the picture instead, with Scorsese's associate, Kenneth Lonergan, recommending Matt Damon – a native of Boston – for the pivotal role. Meanwhile, Scorsese worked to persuade Jack Nicholson to play the ruthless puppet master, Costello, thinly based on Irish-American gangster, Whitey Bulger. For authenticity, the production also hired Tom Duffy as a technical consultant, having spent 30-years on the Boston police force as an undercover detective, investigating the Irish mafia. While some of The Departed was actually lensed in Boston, for budgetary and logistical reasons, New York City’s tax incentives made the prospect of shooting most of the picture there irresistible. Shaping the action set pieces around his age-old exploration of social identity and how one’s actions corrupt and break this down to bedrock, Scorsese endeavored to make a more introspective crime drama then perhaps some of his others that had preceded it. With such fine actors at the helm, this ought to have worked, except that the father/son relationship, between Nicholson’s Costello, Damon’s Sullivan and DiCaprio’s Costigan never quite gelled as it should; their scenes, framed in more mounting frustrations and animosity, than introspection.

Our story is set in the 1970’s, not surprising, given Scorsese’s affinity for the decade that had, in fact, made him a rising star in Hollywood. Herein, we arrive in South Boston where Colin Sullivan is introduced to a life of crime by Irish-American mob boss, Frank Costello. By 2006, Costello has groomed Sullivan as a mole inside the Massachusetts State Police’s Special Investigations Unit. Upon graduation from the academy, William ‘Billy’ Costigan is recruited by Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen) and Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) as his previous family ties to organized crime make him an ideal infiltrator. Costigan is presented as an academy dropout, having served time on an assault charge. As such, he joins Costello’s crew without much questioning. Meanwhile, Sullivan begins a sexual relationship with police psychiatrist, Madolyn Madden (Vera Farmiga) who, unbeknownst to him, is also diddling Costigan, whom she sees professionally as a condition of his probation.  After Costello narrowly slips through a sting operation, each mole becomes aware of the other. Sullivan is promoted to Internal Investigations and tasked with uncovering the stoolie. Costigan follows Costello into a porn theater, where he witnesses the crime boss give Sullivan an envelope containing personal information on his crew. Costigan then pursues Sullivan through Chinatown. Later, Sullivan has Queenan tailed to a meeting with Costigan on the roof of an abandoned building. Costello's men arrive and Queenan orders Costigan to disappear to preserve his cover. Alas, Queenan gets tossed to his death from the top of the building.

Meanwhile, crew member, Timothy Delahunt (Mark Rolston) is gunned down in the police shootout that follows, but only after telling Costigan he knew he was the informant. To preserve Costigan’s cover, news is leaked to the press Delahunt was the real undercover cop. As Costello recognizes this to be a smoke screen, Dignam is ordered to take a leave of absence, choosing instead to resign. Using Queenan's phone, Sullivan contacts Costigan, hoping to reveal what he has learned: that Costello is an FBI informant. This causes Costello concern – perhaps, his cover has been blown too. Meanwhile, Costigan also discovers this sobering truth. With Costigan's aid, Costello is traced to cocaine smuggling. A gunfight at the drop-off location ensues. Most of Costello’s crew are gunned down by the police. Confronted by Sullivan, Costello admits to being an FBI informant and Sullivan coldly executes him. However, even as Costigan goes to Sullivan to restore his true identity, he takes notice of an envelope from Costello on Sullivan's desk and realizes Sullivan is Costello's mole. Hence, Sullivan erases all evidence from the police computer database.

Costigan forwards Madolyn confidential recordings of conversations incriminating Sullivan as the mole. She abandons her affair with Sullivan. Now, Costigan arranges to meet Sullivan on the rooftop, holding him at gunpoint and waiting for Trooper Brown (Anthony Anderson), a friend from academy days, to back him up. Alas, Brown has not brought Dignam with him as Costigan requested. Now, Trooper Barrigan (James Badge Dale) from Special Investigations arrives and kills Costigan and Brown, revealing himself to be yet another mole working for Costello. Determined to maintain his cover, Sullivan murders Barrigan, framing him as the mole. At Costigan's funeral, Sullivan approaches a tearful Madolyn, who bitterly ignores him, even as he tries to speak to her. Arriving home sometime later, Sullivan is confronted by Dignam, who shoots him dead.

The Departed is a senselessly contrived, too-too clever for its own good, and, cliché-riddled mishmash of snippets more fully exorcised in Scorsese’s other mafia-themed movies. The picture’s last act is a complete mangle of these lives intertwined into a bizarre roller coaster ride of false starts and misdirection. Thanks to Monahan’s fast-moving screenplay, much of this confusion is obfuscated, with Scorsese doing his level-best to build and rebuild the action to the point of its super-charged, though absurd ‘gotcha’ finale. The reoccurring bloodbaths and ever-rising body count parceled off throughout The Departed is so readily gruesome it effectively desensitizes the audience long before the picture has reached its climax. And anyway, the characterizations here are so one-dimensional and unfulfilling, one sincerely wonders why Scorsese even bothered; his harbingers of death and destruction, discounted on a certain dispensation for the niceties. What this picture could have immensely benefited from is another round of fine-tuned performance from the likes of a Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro. Instead, we get DiCaprio, Damon and Walberg – all of whom neither look or act the part of seasoned/hardcore cops and/or moles; the trio, sulking and skulking in an emotionless purgatory, built upon vial diatribes and verbal garbage none of them seems to sell as anything better than crudely hewn dialogue, written by someone else. Worse, is the overriding lack of mood for which Scorsese movies generally excel, but this one decidedly forgets to include as an integral building block to its set pieces, e.g. Queenan’s murder, Costello’s assassination, Colin’s comeuppance. In its absence, we get a lot of exploding guts, and bullets raining down from every conceivable angle to mangle these boy’s, playing hard and loose at being ‘real’ men. The action reverts to a sort of sick and twisted homage of the loony-land graphic novel ilk, without the artistry to define its moments within the ever-ratcheting up of American gangland violence. In the last analysis, The Departed ‘departs’ as unexpectedly as it arrived, with only a bloody awful mess of contradictions to reconsider; chiefly, how could anyone of Scorsese’s caliber have made such an egregiously awful motion picture as this?

Warner Home Video's Blu-ray shows off Michael Ballhaus' stylized cinematography to its best advantage. Difficult to assess color accuracy, what with Ballhaus’ artificially blown-out contrast, uber-exaggerated to extol some very gritty textures. The 1080p transfer exhibits a lot of grain - as originally intended - and accurately reproduces the dirty 'grainy' feel. The audio is 5.1 DTS and very bombastic. I have to say, I found the extras - all imported from Warner’s 2-disc DVD - more fascinating than the movie. We get TCM’s exceptional documentary on Martin Scorsese’s career; 9-additional scenes with director commentary, a detailed back story on the Boston mob, and another on Scorsese’s fascination with crime at the movies. Bottom line: The Departed is not a particularly engaging crime/drama.  It covers a lot of ground already familiar to fans of Scorsese’s métier, but in a way that makes it all seem forgettable at best. Odd. And disappointing too.

FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)

2

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

3.5