Scorsese's THE DEPARTED

[Guest Vitamin X]

The love for Children of Men on here is a little overboard. In both style and substance The Departed was worlds better. And I can't wait to get the DVD and see it on the huge screen again in my school's theater.

 

I agree. While Children of Men was a good, albeit horribly depressing, film, it's nowhere near the OMFG BEST MOVIE OF THE DECADE some people on here are declaring it to be. Although it was better than half the field of Best Picture nominees, not because Children of Men was that good, but because Babel was that bad, and I don't know about Little Miss Sunshine being up there also. Good movie, but best picture? Please.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I love The Departed but Children of Men is the absolute best thing I've seen in a long long time. Rarely do I see a movie that hits every note so perfectly.

 

Speaking of the DVD, I watched some of the special features yesterday. The piece on South Boston and Whitey Bulger is way good.

[Just John 0]

I missed this in theaters, but I bought the DVD. Much like everyone else, I loved the movie. It's right up there with Inside Man for my top picture of 2006, though I know not as many people like IM as much as me.

 

One thing that came up in this thread that confused me...

Where was the reference to Matt Damon not being able to get it up?

I thought I understood everything, but then I hear people talking about this, and I guess it went right over my head.

[KingPK 0]

One thing that came up in this thread that confused me...

Where was the reference to Matt Damon not being able to get it up?

I thought I understood everything, but then I hear people talking about this, and I guess it went right over my head.

 

It was during a breakfast scene. His girlfriend asks him if he wants to talk about "last night", but he gets defensive. I think it was the scene right before she meets William for the first time in her office.

Edited February 16, 2007 by KingPK

[Failed Bridge 0]

I didn't like the ending too much. Too many people get whacked...although I was all for Anthony Anderson getting one between the eyes. He should have never had a career beyond the TeeNBC series Hoop Dreams.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I thought the impotence thing was pretty obvious what with her breaking off a piece of a banana as she mentioned it.

 

Saw it for the second time in the theater. Still fucking incredible.

[Failed Bridge 0]

I'm hoping that The Good Sheppard will be out on DVD by the time I get back from bootcamp. I heard it was even better than this.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

And what a fucking soundtrack, huh? The abrupt cutting of the songs was a little annoying, but besides that, "Gimme Shelter," "Let It Loose," "Sweet Dreams," an awesome Van Morrison cover of "Comfortably Numb," and the adrenaline pumping "I'm Shipping Up to Boston." I love Scorsese.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm not going to say that the ending was a bad one exactly, but I suggested earlier in the thread what I would have done instead. It was perhaps even better viewing it a 2nd time, but I still think this should have happened:

 

Upon Queenan's death, Sullivan basically takes control of the dept. and Dignam either ends up resigning in disgrace over attacking Sullivan, or ends up in prison himself. Sullivan of course ends up erasing Costigan's files, so he now has no way of proving who he is. Now that Costello is dead Costigan ends up taking over the mob and is now a very, very bitter man bent on fucking everyone over. In the end you'd have a much more corrupt police department, a much more vicious crime boss who doesn't give a shit, and the town is worse off than if they'd just left Costello alone. As far as the shrink chick subplot goes, I figure she just stays with Sullivan but never really tells him about who the father of the baby actually is.

 

This might not have produced the OMG reaction that the last 10 minutes of the actual movie did, but I think it'd produce a fascinating end result that would leave things open for a sequel.

[NYU 0]

I'm hoping that The Good Sheppard will be out on DVD by the time I get back from bootcamp. I heard it was even better than this.

 

No, I hated The Good Shepherd. And this is coming from someone who's a major DeNiro fan and thinks Damon can be very good in the right type of role. Sure, it's a good movie to see if you want to find out how DeNiro does with directing...but the movie just seemed to lack any solid direction to it.

 

The Departed was immensely better.

[Ravenbomb 0]

The 2-disc version at Target comes with a little book of the screenplay, it's pretty cool.

[bob_barron 0]

I'm hoping that The Good Sheppard will be out on DVD by the time I get back from bootcamp. I heard it was even better than this.

 

 

No.

 

The Good Shepard was okay, but WAY too long, with nothing happening for long periods of time.

[CBright7831 0]

In 2005, when I heard Jack was hooking up w/ Marty along with Leo, Damon, Wahlberg, Sheen, and Baldwin - I knew this movie was going to be excellent. When I saw it in theaters, it was everything I had hoped for and more. According to the trivia, De Niro was almost in the movie. Imagine it - Nicholson and De Niro. Would have been a great moment in cinema. Best movie of the year for me. Everything is top notch from the direction to the acting to score (God I love the score). It will be a crime if it doesn't win at least one Oscar.

[Guest A.BUTCHER'S HOUSE OF RIBS]

Great film the only changes I would've made is playing The Pouges instead of The Dropkick Murphy's. I don't think I've ever laughed at a scene like I did during Baldwin's speech on the golf course. It boggles my mind that Walberg got the Oscar nod.

[cabbageboy 0]

What role was De Niro up for I wonder? Maybe the Baldwin role? Can't see him in any other role aside from maybe the Capt., but he doesn't seem quite right for that.

[AmericanDragon 0]

What role was De Niro up for I wonder? Maybe the Baldwin role? Can't see him in any other role aside from maybe the Capt., but he doesn't seem quite right for that.

 

That's who he was up for.

[iggymcfly 0]

Just saw this movie tonight. Maybe my expectations were too high or something, but I really was kinda disappointed. It was just the basic good snitch/bad snitch story and that was about it. The whole crew was pretty stupid not to figure out DiCaprio was the rat in the first place as he screwed up in about ten different places. And then the ending was terrible. Ooh, everybody kills everybody including two characters who just seemed to be thrown in at random. Just seemed more like a basic by-the-numbers action flick with a good cast than it did some kind of masterpiece. This movie isn't even remotely near the quality of Goodfellas or Casino.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Saw it on DVD last night, just as awesome as when I watched it for the first time in the theatre. GREAT movie, but I still stand on my stance about the ending seen in my previous post in this thread.

 

I predict it will happen just like last year with Ang Lee. Scorsese doesn't win Best Picture, but will get Best Director to make up for it.

[Hank Kingsley 0]

I would prefer he get Best Director of the two anyway. If The Departed won Best Picture, the only guy on stage would be Graham King.

[NoCalMike 0]

Just saw this movie tonight. Maybe my expectations were too high or something, but I really was kinda disappointed. It was just the basic good snitch/bad snitch story and that was about it. The whole crew was pretty stupid not to figure out DiCaprio was the rat in the first place as he screwed up in about ten different places. And then the ending was terrible. Ooh, everybody kills everybody including two characters who just seemed to be thrown in at random. Just seemed more like a basic by-the-numbers action flick with a good cast than it did some kind of masterpiece. This movie isn't even remotely near the quality of Goodfellas or Casino.

 

I just saw it for the first time too, on DVD. I kind of agree. The movie was GOOD, but I think after all the gushyness over it in this thread, I went into it with too high of expectations. The movie was way more "by-the-numbers" then I thought it was going to be, and the ending sequence kind of felt like it was done for shock value. I enjoyed the flick for the most part, I just didn't get the "epic" feel from it like I went in expecting. The Departed almost feels like it was remade from another superior film, and that because they cast this film with superior actors, that it would make the overall movie better. I haven't seen "Internal Affairs" yet, but I have heard that while the basic plot is the same, there are a lot of differences in who gets killed and the end. Whenever a movie is "based off" another flick, I generally like to see both movies before making my final judgement, because sometimes the adaptions are better, but most of the time the original pieces are superior.

[goldengreek 0]

One question....Go ahead and laugh at me... At the end of the movie did Digam ( walburg ) kill Damon because Damon was a rat, OR was Digam always a rat like Damon???

[Ravenbomb 0]

Dignam wasn't a rat

[Lord of The Curry 0]

He killed him because he was the rat.

[Big Ol' Smitty 0]

Dignam could never be a rat.

[Black Lushus 0]

I saw it for the first time myself just recently...great flick, but I liked Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York and the Aviator better. Basically Marty got the "sorry for not giving this to you sooner" Oscar.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I found Aviator to be pretty damn slow at parts whilst Departed moved along at a better clip. Still wouldn't put either above Gangs of the ones you also listed, though.

[Black Lushus 0]

Honest to god, I was drawn into the Aviator simply because of DiCaprio's performance. He does so well playing guys with mental deficiencies (Arnie, Howard Hughes).

[Hank Kingsley 0]

Yeah, I just watched The Aviator again recently and was totally blown away by DiCaprio's performance. He definitely deserved the Oscar. Ray was just...eh.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

He killed him because he was the rat.

 

What I never understood is why he did it in such a way it indicated a hit rather than a cop killing a rat.

[Black Lushus 0]

Was he still a cop? That's what I missed...he was just on a leave of absence, correct? I figured yeah, he killed Damon because he was a rat, but he also killed him because of the shitstorm he caused. Like, he woulda killed him whether he was a rat or not.