Movie of the Week: The Departed

   

    Movie of the Week (2/23/14-3/1/14): Well, it is Oscar week ladies and gentlemen, one of my favorite weeks of the year, and I figured we would jump back to a Best Picture winner in history this week. Now, we're not going that far back, but that's okay because this movie is pretty much a classic already. I haven't met one person who did not like this movie and I imagine it would be hard to find someone who does. I mean this has a fantastic cast, a wonderful director, amazing editing, and of course fun bloody shootouts to go with it. That's right, this is The Departed.
    The plot might be a little hard to follow because it has so many components going into it, but nevertheless let's give it a try. It centers around the police trying to take down the mob and in doing so they send in an undercover to try and catch them in the act of doing something. Now, the mob has their own plans, they have a mole in the police department who is telling them everything that the cops do to try and catch them. So, sometimes things get a little messy, and both of these cops are new to the force and have their own problems. Soon they become involved with the same girl and find out stuff about each other that could get each one of them killed in their own way.
    The cast in this movie is absolutely phenomenal and each one did such a great job that they could all have won an Oscar in my book, but only one got nominated. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, the undercover cop in the mob, Matt Damon is Collin Sullivan as the mob mole in the police department, Jack Nicholson is the main man here, Frank Castello, as the man the cops are after, Mark Wahlberg is Dignam, Martin Sheen is Queenan, Ray Winstone as Mr. French, Vera Farmiga is Madolyn, Alec Baldwin as Ellerby, and David O'Hara as Fitzy. As you can see, that is a great cast. Now, some of them are cops some of them are mob members and one of them is stuck in the middle. But, all of them probably do their best work here, although it is close for Leo. Mark Wahlberg is great as he was the only one nominated for an Oscar.
    First things first, this film was directed by the great Martin Scorsese and it is hard to say if this is his best work, but it is certainly up there. He gave us an absolutely wonderful movie and it was all because of him and his great direction. And, believe it or not, this is the only movie in which he won an Oscar for directing, but he no doubt deserved it. We also have great editing here, as we have with all of Scorsese's movies, the editing is pretty much a character itself because it controls the pace of the movie sometimes. There are several long dialogue scenes in this movie and the quick editing helps make those scenes fun to watch because it gives it tension.
    Whiles we are on that subject, the cinematography is also at its best here as Michael Ballhaus shot us a beautiful movie to look at with some fancy camera work in several scenes and some classic camera work mixed in. Some of the classic would be during the shootouts when we have a nice wide shot going and everything can be seen. The score is also very creative here as it is mostly electric guitars giving each scene its own tone. Everything in this film is put together so well, that I'm surprised that it didn't get nominated for more Oscar's. It only got nominated for five but won four, directing, adapted screenplay, editing, and Best Picture. But it should have gotten many more nominations. Nevertheless this is a new American Classic and will probably be the last good mob movie for a long while. Stay tuned for later this week when I post my Oscar predictions and who I want to win.
4/4 Stars