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THE DEPARTED
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “Evermore in this world is this marvelous balance of beauty and disgust, magnificence and rats.” This film is a testament to just how infested human societies can become with rats, both large and small, old and young.
Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) is an Irish-American crime boss in Boston. He grooms Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) to become his man in the Massachusetts State Police. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), another young cadet, is sent to infiltrate Costello’s mob. Everyone seems to be after Costello, and trust comes at a very high price because no one ever knows who is going to rat you out.
William Monahan’s (Kingdom of Heaven) script is fast-paced. Between him and director Martin Scorsese, the vision of humanity is disgusting, pessimistic and infested with rodents. Rats are a gangland metaphor everyone understands and abhors.
Catholicism is not integrated into the lives of the Catholic mobsters, although some go through the motions. Instead, religion runs parallel to the Irish gangs so that God seems very distant as the characters kill off one another. And for what?
Scorsese films written by Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Bringing Out the Dead) deal with guilt this one is concerned with conscience. I wouldn’t be surprised if The Departed (of which there are many in the film) doesn’t gain an Oscar for Scorsese, at last, and another nod for DiCaprio, who is brilliant as the conflicted good cop. Crude language and brutal violence.
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