The Departed vs Infernal Affairs... Which Is Better?

a cop goes undercover within a notorious crime bosses gang at the same time the gangsters man has infiltrated the police to protect and serve his master [Music] and when both sides learned there's a mole in their ranks a deadly cat-and-mouse game in sewers 2002's Infernal Affairs Andrew Lau and Alan Max Hong Kong crime epic spun an irresistible double twist to the popular undercover cop genre hit Asian movies predominantly high-concept horror were regularly remade by Hollywood though none had snagged as high-profile an American director as Martin Scorsese if only a handful of his filmography dealt with Goodfellas bad fellows and worse fellas these movies garnered disproportionate attention and acclaim so despite the remake relocating from Chinese triads to the Irish mob in Boston rather than Scorsese's more typical italian-american crime families you're a cop what this felt like an almost too perfect fit both films deliver as tough thrillers with a twist Infernal Affairs is indebted to the institution of Hong Kong action films and their kinetic dynamism and turbocharged editing it's also deeply and traditionally sentimental to the extent that leading men and allow an tony leung duet on a plaintive title song [Music] these are not Scorsese trademarks he doesn't tug on heartstrings so much as sever them his reputation as a bravura visceral stylist is well-deserved and his rendering of the story is as one might expect far more brutal more graphic and if you want to see Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio direct on-screen this might be the closest to get that said by his own standards Scorsese's overall approach here despite a few flourishes feels more grounded thank you fewer sequences seemed crafted with showy camerawork or cutting at times it even goes minimalist compared to its Hong Kong predecessor here stripping out external sound and music for the key cellphone confrontation which paradoxically seems to dial up the tension entire Infernal Affairs though is far from slick or superficial and emphasizes character psychology over shootouts the ramifications emotional and spiritual on leading a life of deception these are complex roles and the film cast mega stars Lao and lore as its dueling double agents along with other renowned Hong Kong actors like Anthony Wong is the Honorable police captain and erekt saying is the crafty gang boss The Departed likewise landed to us a listers Damon and Scorsese's then regular leading man DiCaprio supported by an all-star cast but the coup de Grasse was Scorsese's long-awaited first collaboration with Jack Nicholson as rockstar villain Frank Costello future period karma lewd venal and genuinely dangerous in truth Nicholson's enhanced role throws off-balance the Damon DiCaprio faceoff and he's clearly encouraged to give a larger-than-life perform as a brings up questions but there's no doubt he adds a level of energy menace and prestige that infernal affair simply can't manage then again the departed box up on its source material in other ways too as befitting film that runs some fifty minutes longer Infernal Affairs is lean and to the point its script is evocative but economical the departed by contrast leads with its quotable language I don't want to be a product of my environment I want my environment to be a product of me put the [ __ ] cameras in this place oh what the [ __ ] are you I'm the guy who does his job he must be the other guy I know your father writer William Monahan aims for a kind of profane street poetry he's dead all the better to probe its characters backstories and poor choices how do you go yeah that was his problem who said he had a problem I just said he had a [ __ ] problem do you lie in that vein Vera Farmiga psychiatrist Madeleine effectively combines the roles of Lau's wife Jung's ex and his therapist it's a smart amalgam since none of the Infernal Affairs women make a huge impression Lau's novelist wife meri basically only exists to given on-the-nose meta commentary about his actions Madeleine also serves to connect and contrast DiCaprio and daemon through her parallel relationships with them since unlike Andy Lau Antonio they only fleetingly cross paths before the final act there's also a key motif in Infernal Affairs that presumably attracted Scorsese to spiritual guilt and suffering Western audiences may enjoy the punning english-language name riffing on the police forces internal investigations Department but the original Chinese title is moganda roughly translated as the neverending way or unceasing path it's a reference to Avicii the lowest level of Hell in Buddhism this religious theme is highlighted from the outset cop turned criminal and criminal turned cop into your spiritual anguish trying to reconcile their chosen paths and when the film ends with Leone's noble death and allows survivors shame it's clear who's really lost in continuous emotional help possum the very first words in Scorsese's early breakthrough mean streets incidentally spoken by the director himself and not leading man Harvey Keitel ah you don't make up for your sins in the church you do it in the streets you do it at home the rest is [ __ ] and you know it such existential struggles have regularly occupied Scorsese both within his three overt films about faith and without what's fascinating about the departed then particularly given its titles religious connotations is its continual disavowal and even skeptical dismissal of an explicitly spiritual dimension Church wants you in your place kneel stare me instead go for that sort of thing I don't know what to do for you Scorsese's only other remake 1991's Cape Fear is based on the pretty straightforward 1962 thriller which pits sadistic ex-con Robert Mitchum against straight arrow Gregory Peck and his family Scorsese deliberately muddies the waters spreading sin and guilt across all the flawed characters Robert DeNiro psychopath is effectively an Old Testament fire and brimstone Avenger bringing down righteous judgment from a higher power Virgil Johnson I'm getting youth education here yet in adapting a film that foregrounds theological concerns the departed's Catholic Irish Americans have lost their religion God says the worst of them any spiritual connection at all [Music] [Applause] there's no transcendence here instead a weariness if not outright contempt for even the idea of salvation the film even ends with arguably Scorsese's most cynical and widely ridiculed image today in comparison to Infernal Affairs is sincere karmic deliberations the emotional weight of the departed for all its dynamic the cinematic expertise suffers as a result both are still superior crime thrillers whether the departed is a superior Martin Scorsese picture is perhaps less convincing

Channel: Little White Lies

Views: 81,391

Keywords: Martin Scorsese, Video Essay, Film, Cinema, Hong Kong, Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Andrew Lau, Remake, Hollywood, editing, filmmaking, The Departed, Scorsese

Id: yiST_6X3MLI

Length: 10min 0sec (600 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 20 2019