The Departed
— The older generation still runs things round these parts.”
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- United States, 2006
Scorsese has finally won a Best Director Oscar for The Departed. What a shame he didn’t win for one of his earlier and better efforts, because this one just doesn’t compare.
Look past Michael Ballhaus’ superb cinematography and Scorsese’s rich scenemaking and the big problem is the generation gap. The elders in support – Jack Nicholson, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and Ray Winstone – are excellent; it’s the youthful leads that don’t cut it: Leonardo Di Caprio, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg. And sadly the movie is all about them.
Wahlberg is foulmouthed but irrelevant and Damon is one-dimensional (Will Hunting being a much better Southie specimen), but I’m still sitting on the fence about Di Caprio. His performances exhibit occasional flashes of magnificence, but there’s still something of that awkward youth in him and The Departed is supposed to be a movie for grown-ups.
See also:
The Aviator
Like the 1920s lifestyle – expensive but frequently soulless.
- Originally published: 19 Feb 2007 in Film
Mean Streets
A sparklingly childish De Niro and some very mature directing.
- Originally published: 30 Aug 2006 in Film
Gangs Of New York
Vast epic on the lowly origins of the skyscraper city.
- Originally published: 22 Jan 2007 in Film
The Good Shepherd
This dry history of a mystery man’s motivations hides its intelligence rather too well.
- Originally published: 16 Oct 2007 in Film
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Hello you, I'm Mike Padgett. I'm not a Princeton curator, Knoxville mayoral candidate, Kentuckian pastor or Arizona journalist, I just share the same name. In fact, I am a consultant working in user experience and information design.
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I'm originally from Yorkshire, England but nowadays I live in Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Black Albert.
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