The Departed
April 2007 Reviewed by: Mischa Hayek Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

The Departed marks the return of director Martin Scorsese to the type of gritty crime drama that he stylized so well in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Goodfellas. Not his best film, The Departed won Scorsese his first Academy Award for Best Director despite five previous nominations for much better films. Ironically, his winning removes him from an even more prestigious club that is occupied by Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, and Fritz Lang -- great directors who never won an Oscar.

Adapted from the 2002 Hong Kong action film, Infernal Affairs, by screenwriter William Monahan, The Departed is an ensemble piece telling the story of two moles: one a cop working undercover as a gangster, the other a gangster working undercover as a cop. Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is a young kid growing up in Boston who is recruited through an act of kindness by local crime boss, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Sullivan does well in school, grows up straight, and enters the police force where he is fast-tracked and becomes a member of the Massachusetts State Police's Special Investigative Unit, all the time maintaining his secret connection to Frank Costello. Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a brilliant student who decides to underachieve and join the state police force. Recruited by Oliver Queenan (Martin Sheen), the head of an undercover unit, Costigan’s cover is carefully arranged: he is kicked out of the police force and sent to jail on a trumped-up assault charge. After being released from prison, he wanders back to the Irish neighborhood run by Frank Costello and with some guile works his way into Costello’s gang.

Costigan soon realizes that Costello has a mole in the police department, and that is how he has evaded arrest in spite of all of his criminal activities. At the same time, Sullivan discovers that the police now have a mole within Costello’s gang. Now each plays a frantic cat-and-mouse game trying to discover the identity of the other while each protects his own cover.

Though performances are first-rate all around, Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin have the most fun in their roles. Wahlberg’s Dignum, the wacko assistant to Queenan in the undercover unit, is likely the most obnoxious cop on the force, in need of extensive sensitivity training. He steals almost every scene he is in. And Baldwin is perfectly cast as Ellerby, the blowhard in charge of the Special Investigative Unit.

Picture quality is very good on this DVD transfer. Images are sharp and crisp, but there are no outstanding visual features. While not a dark or gloomy film, it has no bright, sunny scenes that might inadvertently suggest a happy mood or an optimistic outcome. Sound quality is also high, especially evident during the voice-over narration when one can still clearly hear background noises.

The version that I was able to rent from my local video store was the regular widescreen edition which, unfortunately, had only one special feature: the theatrical trailer. However, The Departed is also available in four other versions -- Fullscreen, Blu-ray, HD DVD, and Special Edition (Widescreen). The latter three versions include the following features: nine additional scenes with introductions by director Martin Scorsese; the feature-length TCM career profile Scorsese on Scorsese; "The Story of the Boston Mob: The Real-Life Gangster behind Jack Nicholson's Character"; "Crossing Criminal Cultures: How Little Italy's Crime and Violence Influence Scorsese's Work"; and the theatrical trailer. Audio and language subtitles on all versions are in English, French, and Spanish.

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