The Departed [SPOILERS!]

[Joshua Randall]

Yeah yeah, The Departed isn't fantasy or sci-fi, but it's still a damn good movie. It's not, however, a flawless masterpiece that should automatically win a boatload of Oscars.

Spoilers... I'm serious, MAJOR spoilers. Like, if you read what's below, you'll know how the movie ends, and that will take all the tension out of it.
[sblock]At one point, Leo DiCaprio's character (Billy Costigan) visits Martin Sheen's character (Capt. Queenan) at the latter's house. Queenan invites Billy in and asks him to have something to eat. Then... nothing.

I really wanted to see a scene between the two of them to play up the surrogate good-father/son dynamic, in opposition to Jack Nicholson's character's (Frank Costello) bad-father/son dynamic with Billy. I wonder if a scene was filmed, but cut?

Not everyone needed to die via headshot at the end like some gangsta version of a Shakespeare play. In particular, the random other corrupt cop who shot Billy in the elevator, thereby saving Matt Damon's character (forgot the name), seemed like deus ex machina to me. I mean, there was no hint of that particular cop being a Costello mole at all.

Similarly, the fact that Mark Wahlberg (Lt. Dignam) could break into Damon's apartment totally unseen just to murder him in the last scene was also pretty convenient. Like the writer wanted to go for a morally ambiguous ending in which Damon "won" and remained unscathed, but then changed his mind and decided to kill him off instead.[/sblock]So, other comments?

 

[hafrogman]

[sblock]Similarly, the fact that Mark Wahlberg (Lt. Dignam) could break into Damon's apartment totally unseen just to murder him in the last scene was also pretty convenient. Like the writer wanted to go for a morally ambiguous ending in which Damon "won" and remained unscathed, but then changed his mind and decided to kill him off instead.[/sblock]

Gonna forgo spoiler blocks, seems pointless in a clearly labled thread.

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My big beef just after I watched the movie was the envelope that Costogan gave Madolyn. It never gets mentioned again. But after discussing it with my friends, it seems to actually fit in with your last point.

We theorize that the envelope tells Madolyn to go to Dignam, and explains what Damon was up to. Dignam now has enough proof to jusify killing Damon to himself, and has Madolyn who gives him access to the apartment. Who needs to break in when you have a key?

All of this seems reasonably logical looking back on it, but it could have been cleared up much more in the movie.

 

[KenM]

I really liked it. When Dignam went on leave, did he turn his badge in? I don't remember. If he had his badge, he did not need a key. He goes to the manager on duty, shows his badge and asks to be let into the apt..

 

[Joshua Randall]

My big beef just after I watched the movie was the envelope that Costogan gave Madolyn.

Yes! I forgot about that. (Although right after the credits started to roll, I leaned over to my wife and said, "We never found out what's in the envelope.")

Your scenario is certainly plausible, as is KenM's, for how Dignam got into the apartment.

But, another thing about that envelope: if it contained damning evidence against Damon's character, why didn't Madolyn go to the police? Or if she didn't trust the police force, the FBI? Or someone?

Also, Costigan mentioned that Costello's lawyer gave him "boxes and boxes" of taped conversations. What happened to those? Wouldn't the lawyer follow up, especially when Costigan died in a shootout involving the same corrupt police who were implicated on the tapes?!

All-in-all, there were too many loose ends and plot holes for me to enjoy the movie as much as I wanted to.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, bear in mind, it's a remake of a Hong Kong movie, Infernal Affairs. I was wondering if they kept the ending from that, and sounds like they did. And the tension fo the movie, too.

Spoiler

I think the point of having the "good" guy getting shot at the end was simply meant to be a shocker. Like one minute, he's about to get his life back, then, boom, he's dead. And the tables are turned. Unhappy endings like are somewhat more common in HK movies than in Hollywood.

But then again, in the HK movie, the Leonardo role was played by Tony Leung, who is far more likeable a guy. Leonardo getting shot probably is a happy ending in Hollywood.