Product Description
Departed, The (DVD) (WS)
Martin Scorsese directs an all-star cast in this action-packed thriller set in Boston, where a long-simmering hostility between the police department and an Irish-American gang led by Costello (Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson--About Schmidt, Something's Gotta Give) is primed to explode. The fuse is lit when a gangster (Matt Damon--The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy) is chosen to infiltrate the police force--and a young cop (Leonardo DiCaprio--The Aviator, Titanic) goes undercover within the gang. Now, when the two moles uncover each other's identity, the battle begins.
Amazon.com Martin Scorsese makes a welcome return to the mean streets (of Boston, in this case) with The Departed, hailed by many as Scorsese's best film since Casino. Since this crackling crime thriller is essentially a Scorsese-stamped remake of the acclaimed 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, the film was intensely scrutinized by devoted critics and cinephiles, and while Scorsese's intense filmmaking and all-star cast deserve ample acclaim, The Departed is also worthy of serious re-assessment, especially with regard to what some attentive viewers described as sloppy craftsmanship (!), notably in terms of mismatched shots and jagged continuity. But no matter where you fall on the Scorsese appreciation scale, there's no denying that The Departed is a signature piece of work from one of America's finest directors, designed for maximum impact with a breathtaking series of twists, turns, and violent surprises. It's an intricate cat-and-mouse game, but this time the cat and mouse are both moles: Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is an ambitious cop on the rise, planted in the Boston police force by criminal kingpin Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a hot-tempered police cadet who's been artificially disgraced and then planted into Costello's crime operation as a seemingly trustworthy soldier. As the multilayered plot unfolds (courtesy of a scorching adaptation by Kingdom of Heaven screenwriter William Monahan), Costigan and Sullivan conduct a volatile search for each other (they're essentially looking for "themselves") while simultaneously wooing the psychiatrist (Vera Farmiga) assigned to treat their crime-driven anxieties. Such convenient coincidences might sink a lesser film, but T
