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*** Official The Departed Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

Kirk Tsai

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More random thoughts.

I didn't miss the father and son angle as much. It never struck a big chord in IA because it felt somewhat like false sentiment. Also, casting younger actors as pre Leung and Lau was perhaps a necessary decision in IA (they are significantly older actors than Dicaprio and Damon), but it dilutes the power of the flashbacks the film does. This film doesn't have those problems.

In addition, Farmiga's role here is actually a human being. The psychiatrist in IA was a heavy handed way of the filmmakers getting at the already obvious dangerous mental states of the main characters. It was the worst aspect of IA.

Besides the longer survelliance scene, another scene I loved from IA that I would have liked to see here is the scene where the crime boss is brought to the police station.

Loved the initial aggressive flirtation by Damon to Farmiga. The one guy with food/drinks in his hands behind in the elevator is priceless. Loved the shot where Dicaprio looks into (eyes reflected) and through (to the other person) the wind chimes when chasing Damon. That sequence, along with the silent wait between Damon and Dicaprio's initial cellphone conversation were two very tense scenes, all without dialogue.

Besides Monahan for adapted screenplay, for awards, I would say Schoonmaker is guaranteed a nomination. Scorsese and her editing is incredible. I can understand why Dances With Wolves won best picture, but not understand how she didn't win for editing Goodfellas, or not getting nominated at all for Casino!

It also struck me that Damon and Dicaprio both had roles comparable to this movie. For Mr. Ripley, Damon was learning the initial steps of presenting a false identity. His role there was showier, but it also makes sense. When he was inhabitating Jude Law's character, he was more smug and outwardly aggressive. Here, he has taken on the role of supercop for so long that it is part of him. He is therefore much more inward and calm. For Gangs of NY, Dicaprio was also infiltrating to the boss for ulterior motives. He even has the same fist fight in a bar with one of the mob guys to get into the mob. His relationship to Daniel Day Lewis and Nichsolson were also somewhat similar. Thought Dicaprio was significantly more convincing here.
 

Robert Crawford

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There is no need for spoilers in this discussion thread and anybody reading it without seeing the film first does so at their own risk.

Question! Did Dignam kill Sullivan because he found out he was the mole or that it was strictly out of vengence for getting some good cops killed?



Crawdaddy
 

Chuck Mayer

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It was pre-meditated, planned, etc. I assume the envelope Costigan gave Maddy contained information proving that Sullivan was guilty. Not enough for a conviction. Perhaps he told her to contact Dignam so that Dignam could make sure Sullivan was arrested. I am assuming Dignam killed him because he knew he was the mole and got his boss killed, along with other good cops. I doubt it was merely revenge, hot-headed though Dignam was. He probably enjoyed it, though.
 

Patrick Sun

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In soap opera terms, Madolyn was probably carrying Costigan's baby (given the small scene with Madolyn and Sullivan and her referring to his difficulties in the bedroom), or maybe not...

Anthony Anderson is more convincing as a bad guy (on The Shield) than a cop (overweight, too).

Dignam's hotheadedness that led to him getting bouncing seemed somewhat uncharacteristic for someone working in an undercover department. Seems like you still needed to have some grace under pressure, regardless of how bad the situation is. It was much more of a screenplay conceit to move Sullivan into the role of running Costigan just to keep up with the momentum to the final act.
 

Kevin Grey

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That was exactly my take. Costigan even commented that he requested Dingham to be present at his fateful rooftop appointment, so it makes sense that the envelope to Maddy instructed her to give it to Dingham.

Fabulous film. I haven't seen Infernal Affairs yet, so it was all new to me and glued me to my seat throughout. Loved all of the performances and would really love to see Walberg get a supporting actor nom.

I'm glad that they opted not to play up the possibility that Costigan was the father of Maddie's child. A lesser film would have her telling Sullivan that he wasn't the child's father during the funeral scene.
 

Patrick Sun

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But what a kick in the balls it would have been. "What about the baby?" "It's not yours." Madolyn keeps walking off into the sunset. It'd go back to Sullivan's observation of Costello's legacy of murdering and screwing with no true heir.
 

Claire Panke

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It's implied that Costigan might be the father by Madolyn's coldness to Sullivan during the funeral scene,that homage to the Third Man. (There's also the reference to Colins ED, thought that also shows the stress level - Maddy had reason to believe Colin was the father.)

I like ambiguity. (And yes, I did see IA.) I like not knowing for certain (although it was certain in IA.) I HATE it when filmmakers have to underline things with dialogue that they could tell us more effectively in cinematic terms. I'm glad there was no scene of a Maddy/Colin confrontation capped with "it's not your baby". Not that I was in any real fears with Monahan and Scorsese but still...relief is spelled t*h*e d*e*p*a*r*t*e*d.

Kirk, we coud have fun with a thread titled "spot the homages to other film greats in the movies of Marty Scorsese".
 

Kevin Grey

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Yep, that's exactly what I liked about it. It's an obvious possibility to the audience members so no need to belabor the point. Plus, it works from a plot standpoint too- If Sullivan found out that it wasn't his kid then it puts Maddie in danger since, at that point, she's the only one left alive that he knows of that knows the truth. But the fact that she's carrying his child probably protects her.
 

ThomasC

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Another similarity between the two films: the bad guys acting as cops (Damon and Lau) both enjoy investing in hi-end audio equipment. :) Silly Maddie, she put the Sennheisers on the wrong way!
 

Patrick Sun

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When did Sullivan suffer bruises on the right side of face and lip? Towards the end, it looks like he had these bluish-looking bruises, and a cut on the lip, and then later in the final bits, they were cleared up. Was I imagining these facial markings?
 

MikeRS

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Yep, when Dingham freaks out on Sullivan in the office (his exit/aftermath of Sheen's death).
 

Robert Anthony

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"I'm gonna go smoke, you wanna go smoke? You don't smoke? What are you, one of those fitness freaks? Huh? Go fuck yourself."
 

Robert Anthony

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Dignam I think caught him with a fist and even gave him a forearm shiver. If I remember right.

I know I winced/cheered at the same time when Costigan punctuated every word of "Shut The Fuck Up" with a forearm shot to Sullivan's face. And the coatrack to the face at the beginning was hard to watch, too. it's like Scorsese was TRYING to see if he could one-up the driveway pistol-whipping from Goodfellas.

I don't think he did, but he came DAMN close a couple times.
 

Tino

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KyleD

I hadn't seen Infernal Affairs when I ran across this post of yours, Please spoilerize it for others who may not want that plot point spoiled, as it was for me.:frowning:

Mark Wahlberg's character doesn't exist in the original Infernal Affairs, so nobody comes back to kill the Damon character. He survives, and if I remember right, he's awarded some sort of medal or promotion, though I could be wrong on that.
 

Tino

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I liked the film alot. Not great and nowhere near Goodfellas but very good nonetheless.

Amid all the great performances (save the female actress who was very weak imo,) Mark Wahlberg impressed me the most. He deserves an Oscar for his performance.

Scorsese may win the Oscar for this one, but his other films were more deserving I think.
 

Chris

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I thought it was great. I didn't care for the ending as much. I have not seen Infernal Affairs, so no comparison here, but I was waiting for Damon's character to off his "wife" and get away scott free after the big showdown w/DiCaprio. I figured that would be the uber-dark kind of ending. To be honest, the ending as it was just seemed to "happy" in the sense that the bad guy gets it in the end. I didn't care for that nearly as much. If there was anything I would change about the film, that would be it.

But otherwise, I liked it. And I didn't find the women nearly as annoying as some here, I thought the doctors role was at least different.

Damn entertaining though. Whoever above said they thought DiCaprio was the strong suit... I don't know, I thought he was the weak link in the film. His accent wasn't very good and his character at times seemed to be just there. I thought Martin Sheen was very good; Damon was very good.. and Jack just owned his role.
 

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