The Departed (Blu-ray) Blu-ray, 2006

The Departed, Scorsese’s first film with a contemporary setting for two decades, is a remake of the acclaimed Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs (2002) starring Tony Leung and Andy Lau as two long-term ‘moles’ planted within the mob and police who are assigned to find the mole within their respective organisations. Transposing the action to present-day Boston, Scorsese’s film boasts a heavyweight cast headed by Leonardo Di Caprio (in his third consecutive Scorsese picture) and Matt Damon as the ambitious operatives on opposite sides of the law, desperately seeking to maintain their cover whilst uncovering the identity of their opposite numbers.

Lauded upon its release (and graced with multiple Oscar nominations), the film is a breathtaking, muscular epic featuring excellent performances (Jack Nicholson as monstrous mob boss Frank Costello has all the flamboyance and wide-eyed menace of Al Pacino in Devil’s Advocate) as well as a wonderful, typically Scorseseian jukebox soundtrack. Along with music from The Rolling Stones, LaVern Baker and the Dropkick Murphys the director uses Van Morrison’s version of Pink Floyd’s ‘Comfortably Numb’ to reflect the dilemma of Di Caprio’s tormented undercover cop Billy Costigan as he is drawn deeper into Costello’s infernal circle.

Pasquale Iannone on 1st February 2007
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