The Departed

Sitting down to watch a movie with your girlfriend’s parents, what should one pick to watch? Being the fact that both parents are cops the obvious choice is The Departed. As for the rest of you who don’t have that luxury The Departed is still the movie to choose. The Departed is a cop and mob movie with ties to each side and who finds the rat first is the winner.

Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas) directs The Departed with his style that is second to none in bringing a script to life and making it stay with you. Scorsese takes this star-studded cast and blends them together and makes The Departed a masterpiece of a movie. All ego’s aside is how this cast seemed to come together with Jack Nicholson (Batman) taking the lead role as mobster Frank Costello. Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), Leonardo DiCaprio (What’s Eating Gilbert Grape), Mark Wahlberg (The Italian Job), Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now), Alec Baldwin (The Hunt For Red October), Anthony Anderson (Malibu’s Most Wanted) and James Badge Dale (24: Day 3) round out the cast of heavy hitters.

The story takes place in South Boston where Costello (Nicholson) befriends young Colin Sullivan and proceeds to take care of the young boy. Sullivan (Damon) grows up to become a trooper for the state of Massachusetts, but still has ties to mobster Costello. At the same time Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) is going through the academy to become a trooper as well, although he is given the option by Queenan (Sheen) and Dignam (Wahlberg) to become an undercover agent and try and infiltrate Costello’s operation. Sullivan has no idea that this is happening since his captain Ellerby (Baldwin) is not part of the undercover operatives names. What ensues next is see which side can do their job without getting smoked out as a rat.
The Departed has a lot of action that would make Goodfellas jealous. With the mind games and shady unhanding corruption of police forces makes The Departed a movie worth getting into. Unlike Donnie Brasco, which only a select few knew about the situation, The Departed shows how the police force has rats all through it and not just in front of your face. When a movie makes someone “Oh My God I Did Not See That Coming” that is the declaration of a landmark movie.

The Departed gets a 4.60 out of 5.

It won the Oscar for Best Picture 2007 and Best Director 2007 so it must be worth something…. Right?

The Departed is a must own.