The Departed: Revisiting Martin Scorsese's Crime Classic

Martin Scorsese is considered to be one of the greatest directors in cinema history so it makes sense that he has been nominated for the best director Oscar nine times over the years what's shocking is that he has only won the award once it wasn't for taxi driver he wasn't even nominated for that one it wasn't for Raging Bull or Goodfellas it was for The Departed a crime film set in Boston but based on a Chinese production featuring an incredible all-star cast The Departed was named the best picture of 2006 and we're looking back at it in this episode of Revisited unnecessary before there was The Departed there was infernal Affairs a 2002 movie that took place in Hong Kong directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mack from a screenplay Mac wrote with Felix Chong the basic concept was inspired by John Woo's Face-Off which shows a cop and a criminal swapping identities and faces inspired to do a more realistic version of that scenario the makers of infernal Affairs crafted the story about a corrupt cop who reports to a gangster the story also focuses on one of the gangsters lackeys who is actually an undercover cop the movie wasn't Award winner at home and abroad a critical success around the globe and such a financial success that has spawned a sequel a prequel in a TV series and of course it caught the attention of Hollywood Warner Brothers and Brad Pitt's production company Plan B secured the rights to make an English language version of infernal Affairs the idea was that Pitt would starring the Remake in addition to producing it it wasn't clear if Pitt would play the crooked cop or the undercover cop but there was some hope that after he chose one the other role would go to Tom Cruise Warner Brothers in Plan B then picked William Monahan to write the screenplay Monahan had written an adaptation of his novel Lighthouse sold a spec script about the Barbary Wars called Tripoli and wrote an early draft of Jurassic Park 4. none of those got made but around the time he was hired for the film that would become The Departed he was also working with Ridley Scott on Kingdom of Heaven his first produced screenplay when given the job to transplant a Hong Kong Crime Story to America many writers probably would have set the action in New York but Monahan was from Boston and chose to set his version of the story in his hometown which had plenty of crime of its own Monahan was specifically able to draw inspiration from the story of Boston Crime Boss and FBI informant Whitey Bulger Monahan chose not to watch infernal Affairs because he didn't want the film to influence his writing too much but he did read the translated script and stuck very closely to it for his English adaptation The Departed follows the story of infernal Affairs and keeps all the major scenes in intact it also spends more time setting up situations and digging into characters some of the things one hand added to the story seemed like they were inspired by elements of infernal Affairs 2 and 3 but he said he never read those until well after the Departed had been released once the script was complete it made its way into the hands of director Martin Scorsese the go-to guy at the studio wants to make a prestigious crime movie The Script was also sent to actor Leonardo DiCaprio whose Scorsese had recently made Gangs of New York and The Aviator with Scorsese and DiCaprio read the script the same day and called each other the next day to confirm that they were both in Scorsese hadn't seen infernal Affairs yet which is somewhat surprising given what a cinephile he is but he was drawn to the material because the setup of an undercover cop dealing with a mobster reminded him of the 1949 classic white heat DiCaprio wasn't sure which role he wanted to play so Scorsese decided he should be Billy Costigan the undercover cop this was the character DiCaprio was more nervous to play because Billy is constantly in fear for his life as he deals with the Mobsters his cover could be blown at any moment they could find out he's a cop and kill him DiCaprio described the character as experiencing a quote constant 24-hour panic attack now Scorsese had to fill out the cast around DiCaprio which proved to be more difficult than you might imagine since DiCaprio was on board Pitt decided to step away because he thought Billy's counterpart should be played by someone younger after all Pitt and DiCaprio are about 11 years apart in age so the role of crooked cop Colin Sullivan went to Matt Damon who is just four years older than DiCaprio Scorsese felt Damon had a cocky attitude and bravado that would be perfect for Colin Scorsese had Al Pacino in mind for mob boss Frank Costello but Pacino wasn't interested so the role was offered to Jack Nicholson Nicholson read the script and also turned it down he wanted to play a villain after working on a string of comedies but he felt that the Costello character was underwritten so Scorsese did the logical thing he promised Nicholson the character would be expanded much of what we see from Costello in the finished film was brought to the table by Nicholson who wanted to play the guy is the ultimate incarnation of evil Monahan had written Costello as a post-sexual old man Nicholson turned him into a lascivious slime ball he made his character so sexual Damon suggested going the opposite way with his they added moments where it's implied that colonists impotent since the cast was going to be packed with tough guy characters Damon also wanted to make sure his character would lose every fight he gets in Nicholson improvised many of his scenes which was fined by Monahan who said the actor may have changed some of the words that were written for him but he didn't change the good ones DiCaprio knew going into any scene with Nicholson that he should expect the unexpected which helped him play his own perpetually nervous character because he never knew what Nicholson was going to do he really was on edge only two people on the police force know the identity of the undercover cop they have embedded in Costello's organization they are captain cleanan and staff sergeant dignam Scorsese envisioned these roles as being a good fellow's reunion he wanted to cast Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta but DeNiro was gearing up to direct the good shot Shepherd and Leota had scheduling issues so they both had to decline Gerard mcsor week was cast as queenan and had even met with Boston police officers to research the part before he was notified that Scorsese was going in a different direction that direction was casting Martin Sheen in the role Dennis Leary was offered the role of dignam but couldn't do it so Scorsese offered the role to Mark Wahlberg who didn't want it Mike Nicholson with Costello Wahlberg didn't like how the dignam character was written in the script Scorsese had to talk him into accepting the role by assuring him that he'd be able to rework the character Scorsese asked Mel Gibson to play police captain ellerby but he was another actor who had to turn down an offer to be in The Departed he was busy working on Apocalypto so the role went to DiCaprio's The Aviator co-star Alec Baldwin in the original Chinese film The Crooked cot character is engaged to a woman named Mary the undercover cop has regular appointments with a therapist named Lee sungi who he is fallen for even though she's taken Monahan combined these two characters into one which was a really clever Choice Billy fall Salesforce therapist Dr Madeline Madden who also happens to be in a serious relationship with Colin Scorsese considered several actresses for Madeline Emily Blunt Hillary Swank Kate Winslet even producer Brad Pitt's then wife Jennifer Aniston he ended up casting the up-and-coming Vera Farmiga because he had been impressed by her work in the 2004 movie down to the bone while trying to figure out how to approach the character Farmiga showed the script to a real-life psychiatrist who thought the writing of Madeline was Preposterous there was no way a police psychiatrist would interact with the patient the way she does with Billy she wouldn't behave that way and she definitely wouldn't sleep with him when she realized how far outside the norm Madeline is Farmiga became even more interested in diving in and bringing her unusual behavior to the screen Pharmaca isn't the only one who met with a real world counterpart to her character DiCaprio went to Boston and met with people who were allegedly connected to the Irish mob the actors playing police officers met with real Boston cops and worked closely with technical advisor Thomas Duffy who had just for tired as a major in the Massachusetts State Police Damon even got to Ride Along on a police raid of a crack house although they took twice as many officers on the raid than they would usually take and they kept Damon who was wearing a bulletproof vest behind all of them they didn't let him enter the crack house until they made sure the place had been cleared but still he got to see how a crack house raid Works in person with the leads cast Ray Winstone was chosen to play Costello's right-hand man Frenchie and even though Costello and Frenchy are close Winstone felt like Nicholson didn't like him Anthony Anderson and James badgedale were cast as troopers Billy and Colin first meet during their training Kevin Corrigan as Billy's troubled cousin Sean and Kirsten Dalton as Costello's much younger girlfriend Gwen scorsesius said that quote infernal Affairs is a very good example of why I love the Hong Kong Cinema but the Departed is not a remake of that film he feels that Monahan did such a good job of immersing the story in its New Boston setting it no longer qualifies as a remake but the fact is that Andrew Alan Mack and Felix Chong provided the blueprint for Scorsese and Monahan to follow and we got two great movies out of it each with their own distinct personality and setting the Chinese movie already proved that the setup structure and sequences worked and of course Scorsese had no problem bringing these things to the screen effectively in his own way were the two movies most strongly stand apart are in the performances of the actors and the portrayal of the characters it may have been a struggle to fill the roles in The Departed at times but Scorsese ended up with the right cast for the film every actor in the movie Perfectly inhabits their character and makes their actions believable even when their actions are preposters according to the psychiatrist Pharma could talk to other than the white heat similarities Scorsese was also drawn to Monahan's script because of the way it dealt with trust and betrayal and the movie is a fascinating examination of those topics the lead characters are all betraying trust in some way Khan is betraying the police force to protect Costello a man he is known since he was a child Billy is betraying cost stello working for the police Madeleine betrays Colin by Sleeping with Billy and characters are also betraying their own personalities Khan is a criminal masquerading as a cop Billy is a good cop who has to play at being a criminal stress and fear Billy feels in most of his scenes is palpable and it makes sense because he has to endure some awful situations with Costello DiCaprio said Nicholson could quote go off the cuff and just say anything or do anything in character it instills this constant fear in you completely Unleashed Nicholson could be accused of going over the top at times but he still succeeds at what he wanted to do he wanted to play Costello as a monster that's how he comes off in the movie especially in moments like the scene where he nonchalantly handles someone's severed hand while having a conversation with Billy he is Despicable and is violent unpredictable nature makes us concerned for Billy's safety while Billy is falling apart out in the field Colin is living a good life he has a nice apartment a comfortable job and a special investigations unit and he proves to be quite monstrous himself at times he will destroy the lives of innocent people get them killed and laugh about it we want to see Colin get his comeuppance but he always seems to come out of things unscathed usually with the promotion we can only hope is lucky luck is to run out most of the characters in The Departed aren't quite as lucky as Colin a lot of people die over the course of this movie and if you want to know ahead of time who's not going to make it there's a game you can play while watching the movie watch for the X Scorsese had fun putting in subtle foreshadowing of deaths by putting an X in the frame at some point with characters that are going to die it's an idea he lifted from director Howard hawks's 1932 version of Scarface The Departed is so vile violent and dark and actually got to its own director scorsesia said that the post-production process on this one was highly unpleasant because he had to spend so much time focused on these characters and the subject material he said quote I don't care how much I'm being paid it'll kill me I'll die very simply he took to calling the movie moral Ground Zero and didn't do much press for it when it was released he was proud of the movie but he was also tired of it he found it maddening he told associate producer Emma Challenger that they wouldn't have to worry about going through the award season routines there was no way a movie like this was going to receive any nominations but of course it did receive many awards nominations and won awards from several different organizations Leonardo DiCaprio Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg earned Golden Globe nominations for their performances the movie was also up for best dramatic motion picture and best screenplay but the soul Golden Globe at 1 went to Scorsese for best director shockingly Wahlberg was the only actor to receive in an Academy Award domination for this movie DiCaprio was in the running for best lead actor that year but not for The Departed he was nominated for blood diamond Warner Brothers had tried to get him a supporting actor nomination alongside Wahlberg but it didn't work out the academy was content to just acknowledge his work in Blood Diamond while the academy large overlooked the cast they made sure to show their appreciation for the film in other categories while Scorsese figured the biggest awards were going to go to the movie Babel it turned out to be the departed's night Monahan won the best adapted screenplay Oscar Thelma Shoemaker won for the editing for the first and to date only time or Scorsese movie won Best Picture and Scorsese finally won his best director Oscar it was his sixth time being nominated fittingly the Oscar was presented to him by his old friends Steven Spielberg Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas as for what the makers of infernal Affairs thought of The Departed well they preferred their version of The Story actor Andy Lau who played the crooked cop character in the Chinese film thought that departed was too long and at 151 minutes it is 50 minutes longer than infernal Affairs the film's director Andrew Lau not to be confused with Andy Lau gave the Departed an 8 out of 10 score and said quote of course I think the version I made is better but the Hollywood version is pretty good too Scorsese made the Hollywood version more attuned to American culture he thought the Remake had some great dialogue in it but also too much profanity it has been said that there are over 230 f-bombs in the claims he didn't script that many it's just that as he said actors come to the set of a Scorsese movie prepared to swear their heads off clearly the academy can't be put off by swearing The Departed wasn't just a success with critics and awards organizations it was also a financial hit made on a budget of 90 million dollars it earned close to 300 million at the global box office that makes it one of the biggest hits of scorsese's career surpassed only by Shutter Island and the Wolf of Wall Street movies that also starred Leonardo DiCaprio it's no surprise that there was talk of a sequel being made especially since infernal Affairs became a franchise Monahan had the complete story for a follow-up in mind one that would have left the infernal Affairs connections behind to show what was going on with dignam before during and after the events of The Departed Han Wahlberg pitched it to Warner Brothers together and were hoping to get Brad Pitt and Robert De Niro into the cast of this one but it never got off the ground as Scorsese had no interest in returning to the world of The Departed anyway one trip to Morrow Ground Zero had been enough for him so all this time later The Departed remains a standalone move and it works perfectly as one it's highly respected and a bright spot in the careers of Scorsese and the actors involved there's just one dangling unanswered question what is in that envelope Billy gave to Madeline near the end of the movie it looks like we're never going to know thank you for watching our show if you like what you see please subscribe to our Joe Blow Originals YouTube channel tell your friends who like this sort of content and turn on the Bell to receive notifications for all of our latest videos we're an independent company and we appreciate all of your support [Music] thank you

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Id: 67FJKuSl-mA

Length: 16min 7sec (967 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 17 2022