Ive long professed my love for Martin Scorsese’s body of work, and his title as the greatest living director of our time. Its a shame he hasnt gotten the the respect he deserves from the powers that be (IE, the Academy). His last street drama was 1995’s Casino, and since then hes been making various period pieces and bio-pics (Gangs of New York, The Aviator) but he has come back to the genre that hes made famous with the remake of the Hong Kong action flick “Infernal Affairs” called “The Departed”, which has been nominated for 5 academy awards this year including Best Picture and Best Director. And we got the review for your reading enjoyment.
Set in South Boston, where the state police force is waging war on organized crime. Young undercover cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is assigned to infiltrate the mob syndicate run by gangland chief Costello (Jack Nicholson). While Billy is quickly gaining Costellos confidence, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon), a hardened young criminal who has infiltrated the police department as an informer for the syndicate, is rising to a position of power in the Special Investigation Unit. Each man becomes deeply consumed by his double life, gathering information about the plans and counter-plans of the operations he has penetrated. But when it becomes clear to both the gangsters and the police that there is a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin are suddenly in danger of being caught and exposed to the enemy and each must race to uncover the identity of the other man in time to save himself. The Departed is a terriffic cat-and-mouse chase, that is not only exciting but darkly funny at times and much of that is due to the script by William Monahan and Jack Nicholson’s improvisation of his lines. Like I said earlier, The Departed is a remake of Andrew Lau’s Infernal Affiars, but dont worry if you’ve seen Infernal Affiars you will appreciate The Departed even more, for the most part its the same film with many of the same scenes but there are plenty of changes here and there to please those who think they know all that will happen.
Available in both Single Disc and Double Disc Special Editions, we will be reviewing the 2-Disc Special Edition. Disc 1 is solely devoted to the film, all the special features reside on disc 2 they included:
• Nine additional scenes with introductions by Martin Scorsese
• Feature-length documentary: “Scorsese on Scorsese”
• Featurette: “The Story of the Boston Mob”
• Featurette: “Crossing Criminal Cultures”
• Theatrical trailer
strangely left off is an Audio Commentary by Martin Scorsese, he’s a great listen and its sad to see that he didnt record one for this disc but its not enough to hold back the score.
- Rating: 5 out of 5
Presented in its original 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio (the single disc version is available in Wide & Full-Screen editions), The Departed is a great looking film the transfer does a great job of maintaining color intensity and the overall image integrity is terrific. It is also in High Definition on both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray Disc so if you got a HD-DVD player or a PS3 (or seperate Blu-Ray Disc player) by all means take full advantage of that!
Three audio options are available for home-theater presentation of The Departed: English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. Even based on the menu music, this disc more than gets the job done.
- Rating: 5 out of 5
My favorite film on my Top 10 of 2006 gets the treatment it so rightfully deserves. I still wish it had a commentary track by Martin Scorsese the man is a master of his craft and he is really entertaining to listen to.
- Overall Rating: 5 out of 5
Film and Features: 5
Technical Specs: 5
Overall Review: 5
Studio: Warner Bros.
Genre: Crime Drama/Action
Aspect: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
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