The Departed

Martin Scorsese is a national treasure. Hopefully a week from now he will no longer be known as "the greatest director without an Oscar." He's the greatest American Director alive, regarless of the fact that the Academy makes horrible decisions sometimes. But enough about Marty's greatness, and on with his latest masterpiece: The Departed.

The phenomenal cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. The script is perfect, the story intriguing, the cinematography striking, and the direction perfect. This movie is just flat-out enjoyable. It is brutally violent and profane, but fun (is that bad?). It's like a chocolate covered punch in the mouth.

The story, a remake of a Chinese film, is a classic story of deception and double-dealing. Billy Costigan (Leo) plays an undercover cop infiltrating the mob world of Frank Costello (Jack). At the same time Costello has one of his guys, pretty boy Colin Sullivan (Damon) placed in the police department. Who will be found out first?

Can someone "good" be in a "bad" environment non-stop and not be changed? How much are we influenced by our environment? And how much can we be set apart, holy? Costigan is an undercover cop pretending to be a brutal mobster. Will he become what he is trying to destroy? Paul says "I have become all things to all people" to preach the gospel, but does that apply here? We must be careful always, that we are not changed into what we are trying to help save others from. The metaphor of an undercover cop is such a great picture for becoming "in the world but not of it." We are called to do right, to help all, to be righteous. We are also called to be holy, which means set apart/different/other than. There is a delicate balance. We must always strive to do good, but be humble enough to know that we are weak and can be easily changed by our environment. The film also puts a Utilitarian twist to the idea. Costigan is willing to do some evil things in order to bring about a greater good. Is that consistent with the Bible? At first glance it appears that sometimes the answer is yes, and sometimes no. I think this question bears further study. But back to the film.

Another aspect that fascinates me about The Departed is the background of its director. Scorsese grew up in Little Italy around mobsters. He also grew up in the Catholic Church. It was a constant struggle for him to live amongst this violence and deception but not be changed by it. You can see this struggle in the characters of the film, some trying their best to resist evil and others being totally consumed by it.

The violence in the film is brutally honest for a reason. We see a whole lot of death/killing, etc. on tv or in movies, but a lot of it is unrealistic. I would go as far as to say that the vast majority of entertainment makes killing look fun, cool, and overall not that big of a deal. The Departed isn't trying to make us aware of a social issue, Scorsese just wants us to know that this is really what "cops and robbers" looks like: it's not a game. Although it's hard to take, I believe this is vital to see because it (hopefully) makes us appalled at violence. Marty pulls no punches. There are no drawn-out death scenes with sad music in the background. This is what it looks like. He calls it honesty.

Gareth Higgins, author of How Movies Helped Save My Soul, first introduced me to the "myth of redemptive violence." This idea is perpetuated in hollywood over and over again. The myth believes that violence can bring about redemption, violence solves problems and makes everything right again, and makes us want to take up arms against the bad guys (think Braveheart, Gladiator, Die Hard, Rambo, Man on Fire, etc. etc.). Does The Departed promote this lie? It is important for us to ask this question whenever we see violence. I think it could go either way/both ways. But one thing the film does is prove Jesus' words when he says "Those who live by the sword die by the sword." Violence begets violence. I welcome comments/debate on this topic especially. It is always important to discuss.

And now back to the acting. Mark Wahlberg gets an Oscar nod for his role as Dingham, the foul-mouthed cop who ignites the film every time he appears on-screen. Jack is Jack, fantastic and maniacal. Damon was great, he got us to hate him. And Leo was fantastic, he is really becoming a great actor.

There are so many other aspects of the film worth talking about, but many of them involve spoilers, so I will refrain. But Martin Scorsese continues to make great films, gangster and non-gangster alike. This film is all about reality, what "cops and robbers" really looks like, what it really sounds like, what it really is: brutal.