The Boston police have been after a Irish American mob boss named Frank Costello, but they have nothing to put him away, so they decide to send in an undercover cop, Billy Costigan. Little does the Boston police know is that Costello has a rat in their department.
Blaine: Martin Scorsese grew up in a neighborhood where there was some organized crime and he found it fascinating, but he wasn’t suitable to be in the mafia due to his asthma and pore running skills. His parents did their best to keep Martin away from all of that. However, Martin still thought of the mafia as an interesting subject. Martin’s passion was movies. Going to the theater always brought joy to Martin and it was his escape from reality. The gangster genre was Martin’s favorite. A lot of those gangster movies are classics today. They were a real inspiration to Martin because of the way they were made and their style. When Martin decided he wanted to be a filmmaker in life he knew he wanted to make gangster films and he made five of them, “Mean Streets”, “Goodfellas”, “Casino”, “Gangs of New York” and “The Departed”. Martin Scorsese is best known as the king of gangster films. Martin’s movies really show what life of a gangster is like.
Martin Scorsese had a long time working relationship with Robert DeNiro. They worked together on six projects and after “Casino” they went their separate ways for some reason. “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” was on TV and Martin was really impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. Martin really wanted to work with Leo, but it was hard to find a project for them to do together. Finally, Martin was able to work with Leo on “Gangs of New York”. Martin and Leo also did “The Aviator” together after “Gangs” and Leonardo DiCaprio was becoming Martin Scorsese’s new leading man. Martin was an inspiration to Leonardo for his style and the work he puts into making films. When it came to “The Departed”, both Martin and Leonardo got a copy of the script. They both agreed that they would read the script that night and call each other the next morning to see if this would be something worth doing next. Martin and Leonardo were working as a team on “The Departed” and they both agreed that they should do it. “The Departed” is a remake of a movie from Hong Kong called “Infernal Affairs”, which involved undercover police work.
Bringing “The Departed” to life was something Martin Scorsese didn’t enjoy. I guess it was a lot of work. Martin doesn’t dislike “The Departed”, he just didn’t like making it. “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones is a popular song and Martin Scorsese has used it in three of his movies, “Goodfellas”, “Casino” and “The Departed”.
Billy is alone in the world because he hardly has any friends and the last member of his family has just passed away. This undercover work he is doing is causing him to go insane. He can hardly live with himself for what he has seen while hanging out with Costello and his men. Leonardo put so much drama into Billy, which is why I think “The Departed” is one of his top best movies. Leo shows a lot of fear in his eyes and depression as well. The eyes get teary a lot and that’s what I love the most about Leo’s performance as Billy.
Martin was able to get a lot of A list actors in “The Departed”. Colin Sullivan, Costello’s rat inside the Boston police, was supposed to be played by Brad Pitt, but Martin felt Colin should be played by someone around the same age as Leo, like Matt Damon. Matt Damon was all for being apart of “The Departed” because this was a perfect opportunity to work with Martin Scorsese. Matt was also happy to be doing another movie in his home of Boston after “Good Will Hunting”. Brad Pitt was still involved with “The Departed”, only as a producer.
Matt Damon had watched a movie called “The Hard Way” from 1991 and he liked Michael J. Fox’s performance in that movie. So Matt based his perfjoamcne of Colin on Michael J. Fox in “The Hard Way”. Only two people in the Boston Police know Billy is an undercover rat in Costello’s group and Colin is trying to figure out who it is. Colin acts like a spoiled brat in wanting to know who the rat is. I think of Colin as unlikable because he’s a rat working for the bad guy.
Frank Costello is based on James ‘Whitey’ Bulger, an organized crime boss who disappeared off of the face of the Earth for seventeen years while the authorities were looking for him.
Martin Scorsese went to Jack Nicholson to offer him the role of Frank Costello, but Nicholson wouldn’t accept it, even though he wanted to work with Martin. Then Martin offered to give Nicholson the freedom to do whatever with the character and let him take charge. William Monahan, who adapted “The Departed”, kept re-writing the Frank Costello character in different ways. Then when Jack Nicholson was officially onboard, William wrote the character for Nicholson.
Jack Nicholson would act like an acting coach to his co-stars, whenever he was doing scenes with them. Jack would be telling them to improve more. There’s a scene where Leonardo’s character, Billy, is being tortured by one of Costello’s men to confess if he is a cop or not. Billy has a cast around his arm because it has already taken some damage and the guy bangs the arm against a table. Jack Nicholson thought Leonardo DiCaprio wasn’t convincing enough in that scene and needed to improve more. Nicholson would act like he was in charge a lot and half of the time he became an inspiration to the other actors. Other times, he was a huge pain in the neck.
Nicholson became a huge pain in the butt for Ray Winstone, who plays one of Costello’s men. Nicholson and Winstone did not get along the whole time they were making “The Departed”.
Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg had worked with each other on the 1995 movie, “The Basketball Diaries” and they were buddies while making it. When they reunited for “The Departed”, Mark Wahlberg would be yelling at Leonardo’s face because his character, Sean, is a hard cop. Sean is really hard on Billy because he doesn’t like him that much. But Sean hates Colin Sullivan more. Nicholson wasn’t the only actor who turned down “The Departed” at first, Mark Wahlberg too didn’t want to be involved with the project. Mark kept saying “no” several times. Mark wanted to work with Martin Scorsese, but he wasn’t interested in playing Sgt. Sean Dignam. Mark Wahlberg’s agent lied to Martin Scorsese saying he was interested in the project and that got Martin’s hopes up high. Mark was upset with his agent that he lied about being interested in the project. Mark called up Martin Scorsese and made it clear to him on the phone that he was not interested in being apart of “The Departed” at all. Mark’s rejection disappointed Martin, but Martin said “ok” just like that. Mark’s agent thought it was stupid to reject an offer from Martin Scorsese. The agent told Mark to just talk to Martin in person because both Martin and the agent felt Mark was made for this part. Martin wanted to allow Mark to have freedom to do whatever in his performance. Martin also gave Mark good reasons to do the project. Mark finally said yes and got involved with “The Departed”. The reason Mark didn’t want to play Sean Dignam is because he’s a cop and Mark would have trouble with authority growing up in Boston. I guess Mark wanted to show what cops are like to him through his performance as Sgt. Sean Dignam.
Martin Scorsese had seen Vera Farmiga in another movie and he was impressed with her work, so Martin had Vera come in to test her out. Vera Farmiga had trouble figuring out what type of person Madolyn Madden was as she was reading through the script and she knew Martin was going to ask her opinion on the character. Madolyn Madden is the Chief psych police psychologist of LAPD and Vera liked that Madolyn is smart, but doesn’t use common sense.
Madolyn is the love interest of both Billy and Colin. Colin is Madolyn’s boyfriend and Billy starts off as a patient of her’s. Madolyn sees how stressed out Billy is when they first meet and he’s a little hard for her to handle because like I said this undercover work is too much for Billy. Madolyn decides to transfer Billy to someone else. Billy then starts to show a nicer side to Madolyn. Billy has been though so much that he hasn’t tried to take time off work and enjoy himself. Billy and Madolyn have an affair.
Madolyn had feelings for Billy, but she can not be with him because she is committed to Colin. Billy understands why they can’t be together, even though she’s the only thing he has to a normal life. Madolyn is pregnant with what I believe is Billy’s child. She tells Colin the baby is his and “The Departed” doesn’t reveal if the baby is really Billy’s or not, but it feels like it is.
Next to Sean Dignam, Capt. Oliver Queenan, played by Martin Sheen, is one of the men in charge of Billy and only Oliver and Sean know Billy is the undercover cop inside Costello’s group. There’s a moment where Oliver invites Billy inside his house because Billy has really useful information. Oliver treats Billy very good in that scene knowing Billy is risking his own life to help take Costello down. They look like they are starting to become close. Oliver goes to meet with Billy and Colin tips off Costello that he is going to meet with the rat. Costello’s men arrive at the location and Oliver stalls them so that Billy can get away and not have his cover blown. Costello’s men throw Oliver off the building and he hits the ground right in front of Billy. The first time I saw that scene it was very shocking, with the body hitting the ground, right in front of Billy. It’s one of those scenes that is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Oliver Queenan’s death I would say is on Colin. Oliver’s death is really hard on Billy and he looks like he wishes it was just a bad dream he could wake up from because it’s hard to believe what just happened.
Almost every main character in “The Departed”, Billy Costigan, Frank Costello and Colin Sullivan get killed off in the end. Colin is the one to put an end to Frank Costello’s life and is believed to be a hero by the Boston police, but it doesn’t take that long for Billy to discover he was Costello’s rat inside the Boston police. The only person Billy can trust that information with is Madolyn because she is the only person he knows and the only person left in the world that he can trust. Madolyn can’t look at Colin now that she knows he was helping a dangerous gang leader get away with serious crimes. She wants Colin out of her life. Billy cuffs Colin and plans to turn him into the authorities with evidence that will put Colin away for life. Sadly, Billy gets killed by another mole of Costello’s who was inside the Boston police. Being at Billy’s funeral depresses Madolyn because she had feelings for Billy. Madolyn knew Billy was a good man and he’s the person she feels she should have been with. Later, Sean shows up at Colin’s apartment wearing an outfit to make sure all his tracks are covered so that way he doesn’t leave any finger prints behind after he shoots Colin dead. I guess Sean got the information on Colin as well. The look on Sean’s face as he is looking at Colin is “I knew there was something about you that I didn’t like”.
My rating on “The Departed” is five out of five stars
I’m Shipping Up to Boston
The Simpsons
Episode: The Debarted
Plot: Bart has some competition in pranking when a new kid, Donny, arrives at his school. But after Donny takes the blame for a prank Bart did that all changes. Donny gains Bart’s trust and he is welcomed into his club. What Bart doesn’t know is Donny is working for Principal Skinner as an undercover rat. Every time Bart tries to pull off a prank, Skinner will know it’s coming. Bart can’t explain how Skinner is always on to him. Willy, the school janitor, informs Bart that Skinner has a rat, although he doesn’t know who it is. Bart sees Skinner talking with the rat, but he can’t see his face. Bart suspects it might be his friend, Milhouse. Bart has Milhouse locked up, so that way he won’t snitch again. Later, Bart runs into Principal Skinner and notices Skinner’s tung is blue. When Bart invited Donny into the club he gave him some blue liquorice that turns your tung blue. Bart realizes that Donny was the rat the whole time. Instead of going with his plan to egg Skinner’s house, Bart tricks Donny into the school storage building. Bart reveals he knows Donny is the rat. Donny explains his story to Bart that he came from an orphanage and Principal Skinner and Superintendent Chalmers needed someone to help take Bart down. Bart is disappointed because he liked Donny and Donny felt a friendship too. Bart’s new plan is to mix Diet Coke and mentos together in Skinner’s office with Donny inside. Skinner and Chalmers show up with a camera as evidence that will get Bart suspended from school for ten days. Willie, the school janitor, was a rat too. Bart was the only friend Donny had and he can’t allow Bart to get into trouble. Donny pushes the crate of mentos over to the crate of Diet Coke, causing a fizzy explosion. Donny gets Bart out through the roof. Donny has earned Bart’s trust again. Donny has to go and he hopes him and Bart will meet each other again in the future.
Blaine: The song from “The Departed”, “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” plays in the background a few times. The clothes Donny wears are based on Leonardo DiCaprio’s looks in “The Departed”. Donny was voiced by Topher Grace and Donny’s looks were also based on Topher in “Spider-Man 3”.
