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Oct 11, 2006 · Everybody's saying "The Departed" is Martin Scorsese's best picture since "Casino" -- or even "GoodFellas." And some of the (over-)praise has struck me as pretty condescending to Scorsese: "Good boy. You stick to your mobsters now, won't you?"
- The Ultimate Review of "The Departed" | Scanners | Roger Ebert
Though "The Departed" has flourishes of black comedy...
- The Departed movie review & film summary (2007) | Roger Ebert
"The Departed" is about two men trying to live public lives...
- The Ultimate Review of "The Departed" | Scanners | Roger Ebert
Sep 29, 2023 · We take a look back at the ending of The Departed, and how a different ending would've changed the overall message of the crime film.
- The Double Theory
- Why Costigan & Sullivan Are So Similar
- Frank Costello: King Rat
- Madolyn Madden
- Delahunt
- Dignam
- The Ending Shows It’S A Rat-Eat-Rat World
- What to Read Or Watch Next
Many narratives make use of opposites, i.e., characters and themes that are mirror images of each other. Think Jekyll and Hyde, Good Vs Evil, Cops & Robbers etc. The conflict between opposites is what makes drama (described in more detail in this essay about Jaws). The Departed features similar opposites and mirror images but goes one step further:...
Costigan and Sullivan are doubles. Both are young cops. Both work for the mob – but while Costigan does it to bring Costello to justice, Sullivan does it to protect him. The two are even more similar at the start of the film. Both men are hungry for recognition. Both have similar backgrounds, too – working class families, dead parents. Without know...
Costello (Jack Nicholson) leads the Irish American mob. He’s not a sociopathic killer, but he is a very strategic one, seeing death as a necessary evil to his job and desires. “Non serviam”, he tells a young Sullivan – I will not serve – quoting Irish author James Joyce (though the quote is also attributed to Lucifer). Costello is an individualist,...
Police psychiatrist Madden (Vera Farmiga) is another bridge thatconnects Costigan and Sullivan. Both men unwittingly share a ‘father’in Costello, and a ‘wife’ in Madden. Madden quite literally betrays Sullivan by cheating on him. It’s also likely that her unborn child is Costigan’s but, because this detail is never spelled out, it’s another connect...
Delahunt (Mark Rolston) may be another double for Costigan. He’s part of Costello’s mob, and memorably plays a ‘guess the cop’ game which may well be a diversion. According to the game, anyone who ignores the gang is a cop. That puts Costigan under the spotlight when he stumbles out of Costello’s bar, yet protects him at the same time – because he’...
Foul-mouthed Dignam (Mark Wahlberg) is the ‘bad cop’ in a good cop, bad cop pairing with Captain Queenan (good cop, bad cop is another type of doubling, one meant to disorientate and catch out criminals). Queenan and Dignam are opposites in other ways, too: old Vs young, and soft-spoken Vs foul mouthed. Dignam is also a double for Sullivan, with bo...
The Departed features one double cross after another. Ultimately, almost all the characters choose to wear masks of morality and loyalty in public, and pursue their own desires in private. Moreover, in the world that Frank Costello has created – in which a man should take whatever he wants just because he can– there’s no escape from corruption and ...
Oct 8, 2006 · Though "The Departed" has flourishes of black comedy throughout, it's not "Prizzi's Honor"; it's a truly dark movie in which many people die horribly, and ending on a goofy visual pun makes fools of the audience for caring. Advertisement. Bad, bad Jack, feasting on food and scenery. UPDATE: Revisiting "The Departed."
Dec 26, 2023 · The ending of Scorsese's The Departed has twists and turns to match any thriller, and the surviving characters are key to understanding the movie.
Jul 5, 2007 · "The Departed" is about two men trying to live public lives that are the radical opposites of their inner realities. Their attempts threaten to destroy them, either by implosion or fatal betrayal. The telling of their stories involves a moral labyrinth, in which good and evil wear each other's masks.
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Feb 9, 2021 · The Departed is a movie that isn't afraid to use overt symbolism to make a point. Just look at that divisive ending shot involving a rat scurrying across a balcony.
