heavy lies the crown

[intertribal]

"I don't want to be a product of my environment."

THE DEPARTED:  *spoilers*  When I told my mother I had seen The Departed, she responded, "What's that movie about?"  I said, "It won the Oscar."  She looked at me as if that told her nothing - and indeed, given every year's oscar picks, it really doesn't.  I elaborated, "It's a mob movie.  There's the mob and the police and they each have informants."  She added, "Yeah, and it had a lot of big names in it?"  I nodded.  "Jack Nicholson is the mob boss, Leonardo diCaprio is the informant for the police, Brad Pitt is the informant for the mob, and they're in each other's corners, so it's like cat and mouse."  "Tense?" my mother asked.  "Yeah.  And lots of... bang bang."  "Shoot 'em up."  "Yeah." 

This of course is an extremely simplistic explanation of The Departed.  However, there are a few things I must get across before I get any further with this review.  I don't believe that The Departed has a message.  There's no parable, no moral to the story, no allegory, no step toward greater understanding of the state and purpose of humanity.  It's just a damn good movie, and that's all.  It's not a popcorn movie either.  It's too suspenseful, too nervous, too jumpy, too anxious, too in need of the Valium that DiCaprio's character craves, for that.  This is much more along the lines of the old movies that Scorcese never won the Oscar for - Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, The Aviator (not so much The Last Temptation of Christ).  The only message in this movie, if any, is that as Nicholson says, you can be cops or robbers, but when you're staring at a barrel of a gun, it doesn't matter.  A better one, actually, comes from the Pakistani proprietor who watches a Bostonian mobster beat up two Providence mobsters in his store for insulting Irishmen - "What's wrong with this fucking country?  Everybody hates everybody!"

The theme is lying.  Everyone lies.  And you must always, always assume - if survival is your goal - that whoever you're talking to is lying, and further, that they have something planned.  I won't go into the plot of the movie, which is too long and which you can look up on wikipedia.  I'll just say a few things.  First, all the acting is excellent.  The most likable character is hands down Leonardo DiCaprio's (listed first on the credits, this is first and foremost his movie, and he is excellent... after this and Blood Diamond, he's steadily rising on my list of favorite actors), and the most dislikable character is hands down Matt Damon's - ironic since they are foils for each other, and DiCaprio is the one living the shady life as the undercover officer, having to participate in mass murders and all, whereas Damon is living the life of Mr. Perfect - except that of course he's actually a rat for the mob - and plays a role very similar to the one he played in The Good Shepherd - the pinstriped prick.  The twisted allegiances make it extremely hard to root for either the corrupt, uncommunicative, and yet determined, police or the immoral, backstabbing, and yet sympathetic mob.  And I think it's supposed to be that way - I think if we ended up taking sides and making proclamations about good and evil (except that they're blurred), the movie would fail, and that serves as evidence of the actors' aptitude in their roles, even the ones I couldn't stand. 

Which brings me to the second thing I have to say - Jack Nicholson is absolutely excellent as the evil mob boss.  He's king of political incorrectness, speaking of "Guineas" and "cunts" and threatening horrendous deeds without flinching, but of course Nicholson has a way of being charming even when he's being sadistic.  He is also the father figure for both DiCaprio and Damon.  And what a twisted father he is.  But so, then, are they twisted sons.  This is sort of a Hobbesian movie in that sense - these men are savage men, living without commitments or real relationships, to even each other.  The most important thing is the ego - not only in the sense of macho, cock-wielding bravado, but in the sense of ego = I am.  As in, I have a sense, a self, an identity, inalienable rights that come with my soul.  Sometimes it seems they really just spend the whole movie trying to reach that.  As DiCaprio keeps demanding, "I just want my identity back." 

Finally, I lied.   I did take sides.  I hoped Damon would die, and I hoped DiCaprio would live.  There, I said it.  And yes, I'm telling the truth.  I said it was fucking true.  Let's just say that I was compromised, but that in a movie like this, you couldn't expect anything less, or more, than compromise - because the way the world works, it's like a business deal.  You win some, you lose some.  Good people die, and bad people die.  Everything dies.  Oh yeah, I lied again.  This movie does have something to say, and that's what it is - everything dies.  As Nicholson says in all his wisdom, we're all on our way out: act accordingly.  Somehow this message doesn't end up being all that depressing - it just makes you feel like karma has won out, with a bullet.  The balance between good and evil, with neither side winning, continues.  The slate is wiped clean.  Both boys wish that they could start over, because they see that they can't have their selves back: they may as well just get a new self entirely, not a muddled, puzzled self stuck between two or three existences.  They realize this when they're about to die, when they've lost everything: please, let me start over.  But well, they don't get to in life.  Hopefully they believe in reincarnation.  It's still a damn good movie.  Will it change your life?  Probably not.  But it's a hell of a good way to spend two and a half hours. - Highly Recommended.

"You have an immaculate record.  Some guys don't trust an immaculate record.  I do.  I have an immaculate record."


"You're nobody.  You signed the papers, remember?"


"I'm the guy who does his job.  You must be the other guy."


"What?  So you can get the parade?  The bagpipes and bullshit?  Fuck you!"


"You pressure me to fear for my life and I will put a fucking bullet in your head as if you were anybody else."

nota bene:  I'm slightly disturbed that KM, head of our department, disliked this movie so much because it was so mindlessly violent.  I wonder if AC felt the same way... and perhaps I should just avoid KM, who is apparently also a republican.

Comments

[novascarlette.livejournal.com]

i highly highly recommend you check out the Infernal Affairs trilogy. Although the Departed is a remake of mostly the first Infernal Affairs, part 2 is a prequel and 3 is a sequel and makes for some solid, solid entertainment. The Departed went for the forced China ending, instead of the more morally ambigous route.

I felt the Departed was OK but didn't have much to say in comparison.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

I know, and I mean to see it (originally we were going to watch both of them back to back to compare first-hand) - but it's hard to find foreign films in my part of the woods. I do think the Departed was well-executed and acted, even if it was a remake/rip-off.