The Departed

When I decided to go see Hidden Identity, contrary to my original intention, I was firmly convinced that I would not try to compare it to the original. In a movie where the best moments are those that exactly copy it, I can't do otherwise. As for the star-studded cast, DiCaprio, Damon, and Sheen are great, Baldwin and Wahlberg are average, and Farmiga and, to my huge surprise, Nicholson are terrible. Especially in his role in The Departed, he proves why the remake should not have been made. Instead of a subtle gangster leader, Costello is a sleazy and unnecessarily vulgar arrogant, who doesn't care about anything or anyone, and the screenwriters added a stupidly behaving female character between the two main heroes, which further diminishes the credibility of their mutual duel. And above all, I won't forgive Scorsese for one fundamental thing: the suspenseful, emotionally charged, and, in my eyes, forever unforgettable final scene in the elevator, which was the highlight of the original, became a farce in the remake, cramming three twists into a few seconds, and the absurdly portrayed final shootout of the main characters provoked a deserved and almost incredulous mockery in the theater. Scorsese destroyed a film that could have redefined the gangster genre, but instead he only dissected the original and wildly twisted it - and that has earned him everything possible, except for the promised pinnacle of his career. (11/30/2006)

I was really looking forward to this. Power. But maybe too much. The Departed is certainly not a bad film, but from beginning to end I couldn’t get rid of the impression that it's primarily a film that drags on and is unnecessarily long. Yet the number of minutes (the great Casino is even longer, whilst the absolutely fantastic The Irishman is even longer than Casino) is not the problem, but rather what they are filled with. I don't know the original, but it's three quarters of an hour shorter, and I wouldn't be surprised if all that seemed boring or unnecessary here was the work of William Monahan and Martin Scorsese. (02/26/2021)

At the blessed age of sixty-four, Martin Scorsese delivers a gangster flick so precise that his colleagues a generation younger can only be quietly envious. The 150-minute trip amongst the highest police and mafia brass is told with incredible ease, the utmost sense of the perversity of both worlds (conveyed through the fatal love of one woman), and an absolutely divine dose of chilling black humor. You won't find an unnecessary movie window in this work, let alone a scene. Scorsese once again stylizes violence as a normal routine aspect of life, which he breaks at the very end only to play lightly with the viewer and show that even he doesn't have to take himself deadly seriously. The cast of the greatest actors is interspersed here, from the riveting DiCaprio to the relaxed Damon (any talk of overacting is bullshit!), the diabolical Nicholson, and to the absolutely brilliant Mark Wahlberg. Everything is underlined by stylish musical accompaniment, starting with Pink Floyd and ending with the thrilling punk blast of Dropkick Murphys. After finishing the film, I had only one desire: to watch this concentration of perfection again! (11/12/2006)

It’s against nature, but Marty is getting younger. This is the kind of fucking entertaining film that even a young kid in the director’s chair wouldn’t be ashamed of. Those almost two and a half hours passed by like water. In the case of the ensemble cast, it's pointless to comment on DiCaprio and Nicholson, they're chapters unto themselves, so I'll just single out the much-maligned Damon (that perfect smarmy crooked character, I can't imagine it could have been played any better) and especially Wahlberg (!!!), whose brilliantly written lines were a joy to listen to, and his banter with Baldwin made me laugh out loud. After the screening, I remembered Steven Spielberg's words that he "doesn't have to prove anything to anyone anymore and just wants to have fun with movies", I feel the same way about The Departed. I probably wouldn't give Scorcese an Oscar for it, in the context of his previous, albeit more notable work (if does get it, it will be mainly "for merit"), but it's gratifying that underneath the skin of the grey professor emeritus, there's still that old familiar rebel from the days of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver :) (11/19/2006)

Four stars for that beautifully dry ending, but as a whole it didn’t really thrill me. There are a lot of big names, but the best is DiCaprio, he’s really unlikeable, but his performance is great. His antagonist, Matt Damon, in contrast, is a jerk at times, not because he’s bad, but because I didn’t find him believable in the role. The story moves along quite slowly, there aren’t any proper turns until about the middle and before that, you have to put up with a lot of dialogues that are supposed to be vulgar, dirty and tough, but they are clearly fake and forced. For me, The Departed deserves 75%. (08/27/2008)