The Departed Movie Review

The Departed (2006) Movie Review

After 100th year celebrations in 2023, Roadshow and Warner Bros are continuing to deliver with another slate of 4K Ultra HD remasters arriving in March and April 2024. We’ve already seen classics such as: The Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, Casablanca, Rebel Without a Cause, Cool-hand Luke, Unforgiven, Rio Bravo, V For Vendetta, Beetlejuice, Training Day, The Goonies, and many, many more have hit shelves over the past 2 years. Now we can look forward to another slate of releases, with this month’s ‘The Departed’.

Director Martin Scorsese has one of, if not the, best filmography of all time. When you make a list of the best films of all time, Marty’s classics always find their way in there. Directing a plethora of amazing films including, ‘Mean Street’, ‘Raging Bull’, ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Goodefalls’, ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’, ‘Casino’, ‘Cape fear’, ‘Shutter Island’, ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’, ‘Hugo’, ‘The Irishman’, ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ and many, MANY more.  You may find it hard to believe, but the legendary filmmaker only has one best directing Academy Award to his name, and that Oscar was given to him for his 2006 remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime thriller ‘Infernal Affairs’, ‘The Departed’ in 2006. A film I often regard as one of my favourite films in Martin Scorsese’s library.  

‘The Departed’ tells the tale of an undercover cop and a mole in the police department, attempting to identify each other whilst infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston. Leonardo DiCaprio plays our informant Billy, flexing his acting muscle, Matt Damon is the mole in the Police Department Colin, Jack Nicholson is our crime boss, Costello and Mark Wahlberg snagged an oscar nomination for his role as police officer Dignam. That’s not to mention the other heavy hitters that round out the impressive cast, Vera Famiga, Ray Winstone, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, James Badge Dale, Anthony Anderson, and Kevin Corrigan. As I mentioned, ‘The Departed’ may just be my favourite Martin Scorsese film and for good reason. I am over the moon. I get to talk about this film in all its 4K Ultra HD glory.

The real strengths of the film lie in the back and forth between both Costello’s gang and the Boston Police Department. The game of cat and mouse here is truly riveting, brought to life by Scorsese’s expert direction and the magnificent performances from its immensely talented cast. Scorsese has worked with DiCaprio a total of 5 times (Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of The Flower Moon), with The Departed marking the third time, at the time, they had worked together. DiCaprio is very unhinged in this film, selling the internal conflict of his character, having to sell the fact he is toeing the line of becoming a full-fledged criminal and remaining an undercover police officer. Its riveting to watch DiCaprio work here, garnering a lot of attention for his stellar career, sometimes his work here in ‘The Departed’ goes unnoticed and unrecognised.  

On the other side of this, we have Matt Damon’s mole, an overly cocky criminal wannabe, who is successfully infiltrating Boston PD. Damon’s character only shares scenes with DiCaprio in the film's third act. The tension in these sequences dials up to 11, with the audience fully aware of who the players are, but obviously the characters have no idea. This Chekov’s gun moment culminates in truly dramatic, shocking, and unpredictable fashion, which ultimately remains the reason why this film is as prolific and amazing as it still is. Even though the film is nearly 20 years old, I will refrain from spoiling its dramatic conclusion, although I will remark, it still shocks me even after watching the film at least 10 times.

‘The Departed’ is a classic in every sense of the word. Scorsese flexes his directing muscle here, really showcasing why he is one of the best to ever do it. ‘The Departed’ is up there with his best work and ranks for me as one of the best crime thrillers of all time. Though it’s not all suspense, and thrills, there is a lot of great banter and comedy thrown in throughout, which really does elevate some of the tension, but to the benefit of the audience. I, along with other film fans and collectors have been waiting for this classic film to hit 4K Ultra HD and finally in April, our prayers will be answered, with a new 4K UHD release of the film hitting stores 24 April 2024. This will be a must own for all film collectors! Pre-order your copy here - https://www.sanity.com.au/products/2984669/Departed--Blu-ray--UHD-The

2024 promises to be stacked full of great releases, so make sure you sign up to Sanity’s newsletter, so you don’t miss another major release and for all things movies, music, merchandise, shop Sanity!

Long live physical media!

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Buy The Departed on 4K UHD here

Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here