After having dabbled in the other genre for long, to the chargrin of his admirers, ’Mob’ director Martin Scorcese returns to home ground with his tribute to the Irish Mafia. Since the Italian-Mafia has been beaten to death by the legendary Coppola in his’God Father’ series, Scorcese is content exploring the Irish - the original’wiseguys’. Be it in his best’The Goodfellas’, long and violent’Gangs of New York’ or the recent’The Departed’.
Rat and Mouse Game
As Costello put it in the longish intro -’A cop or a criminal. When faced with a loaded gun, how does it matter?’.
Frank Costello(Jack Nicholson) as the boss of the Boston Irish-mob, is the pivot of the story. Massachusetts PD plants a mole, Billy Costigan(DiCaprio) in Costello’s gang. Costello in turn has his own informer, Colin Sullivan(Matt Damon) in the force. Soon both Costello and the state police realize they have a’rat’ in their midst; and a rat race starts to eliminate the other. Survival of the fittest becomes the name of the game. It’s not the typical cat and mouse game here. It’s more like the Rat-and-Rat game. Everyone(almost) is ratting-out on others. And I don’t just mean the protagonists here. The story’s a wild ride full of unexpected twists and turns.
Some of the key characters are played by Scorcese regulars like DiCaprio(Aviator, GoNY), Alec Baldwin(Aviator) and others worthy additions Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga. Of the lot, Jack Nicholson, stands above the rest as the maniacal gang leader with a killer-streak and a penchant for violence. Bears a strong resemblance to his "Joker" days [in Batman]. DiCaprio also gives his best as does Matt Damon. Damon however has a meatier role with enough shades of grey to his advantage. Mark Wahlberg was unrecognizable in his getup as Dignam( I realized after looking at the credits). Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin turn in good performances too. Vera does have her moments as the love interest of Damon and DiCaprio and sharing bed with both of them [must have been a double whammy!]
I have not seen’Internal Affairs’. So can’t comment on being inspired from it. But it did bring to mind another cop-flick’LA Confidential’ - two cops playing a game of oneupmanship, falling for the same girl etc. Scorcese does manage to hold attention to the climax with a gritty direction. It’s climax which was a let down for me, the sudden developments and the seemingly neverending twists and turns following at breakneck speed. It gets - nearly - confusing, till Scorcese thankfully decides to pull the curtains.
Dude’s Take
’The Departed’ for all the hype never reaches the levels of earlier Scorcese achievements like ’Goodfellas’, ’Mean Streets’, ’Raging Bull’, ’Taxi Driver’ etc. It does have a tight screen play, but not enough punchlines for a gangster flick. Besides Jackson, others don’t have many real memorable lines. Menacing he may be, but Jackson’s character is a timid p-u-s-s-y compared to’Bill the Butcher’(David Day-Lewis) in the memorable’Gangs of New York’. Call me an oddball, but I did like’Aviator’ and’Gangs’ better than’The Departed’. Though they had more meat, their length was the real foil.
It doesn’t mean, I came out disappointed. The movie does have it’s poetic [in the gangland sense] moments. It could have been better. Here are my favourite scences.
Frank Costello’s longish intro. His thoughts about Irish, niggers, his confrontation with a shopkeeper late on protection-money payment, his enquiries with a teenager about her menstruation( ladki badi hogayi - Irish mob style!), his views on the catholic church, futility of pacifism and service to society, the way he keeps pampering kids who thinks could be useful to running the business in the long run. In a nutshell, brilliantly done.
Costello’s sexual relations with a catholic nun. His politically in-correct [to put it midly] views on the Catholic clergy, whom he refers to as the pedarasts. His exchanges with them. His usage of’church terms’ to refer to his irreligious life - like his’I have an angel waiting for(to have sex with) me’.
Frankie watching a theater performance [ Gangs influence?] with a white and a black paramours to each side. His’coking’ the bed for the next performance with the black lady after the show.’ Breath it till you turn still’.
His chastizement of Chinese where they confront his men with Automatic guns -’This is America. Holding an Automatic doesn’t add inches to your d**k’.
Scence where Nicolson confronts DiCaprio, suspecting him to be the rat -’I smell a Rat’. Both have acted it brilliantly. My top favorite.
Queenan [sheen] getting thrown of the building, falling down like a leaf on to the pavement, splashing DiCaprio’s face with blood.
DiCaprios session with Vera where he demands that she give him the’Valium’. His charged and passionate sex with her in a later scene.
The last scene that combines the Massachusett’s legislature building( Sullivan’s, unstated, ’political ambition’) and a real rat running off the balcony frame.
Departingly
I was actually surprised when I liked’The Prestige’ better than it! Scorcese may win an Oscar for it. But it won’t be remembered as his best.
To anwer the question raised by the title - Dead can’t talk. If they could, the secrets they would reveal; the world would be much more horrible and nastier place than it is.