The cast of The Departed is the dream team of Hollywood. Enlisting the help of actors Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Leonardo Decaprio, Martin Sheen, Jack Nicholson, and Alec Baldwin, the caliber of a-listers makes any viewer enter the viewing of this film with expectations the size of the sun.
THERE ARE SPOILERS IN THIS
With the main plot taking place in South Boston, The Departed follows Leonardo Decaprio as an undercover cop attempting to infiltrate and rat on the Boston Mafia, a crime circle ringmastered by Jack Nicholson. The Boston PD has a long history with Jack Nicholson’s character, Frank Costello, and deputizes Leo’s character, Billy Costigan, to infiltrate the crime ring from the inside. Meanwhile, Matt Damon’s character, Colin Sullivan, was essentially raised by Costello and serves as a double agent from within the Boston PD, feeding Frank information. This movie culminates in its closing scene, which can only be described as a roller coaster ride of emotions and confusion. At the crux of the film, the mafia and Boston Police Department meet in an abandoned building. After a series of plot twists and double-crosses, the movie ends with every single main character dead by either a gunshot or falling off of the abandoned building.
This film is one of the greatest of the 2000s, and this is shown through the magnitude and multitude of the awards it took home from the 2007 Oscars. With such a star-studded cast, working alongside a Hall of Fame director in Martin Scorsese, The Departed walked out of the Academy Awards with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Achievement in Film Editing, as well as a Best Supporting Actor mark for Mark Wahlberg (no pun intended). With Scorsese’s success in directing films such as The Wolf of Wall Street, Taxi Driver, The Goodfellas (#16 on the IMDB Top 100), and Shutter Island, this film solidifies him as one of the greatest directors of all time as The Departed is ranked as the 36th best movie of all time by IMDB.
The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese, is truly an amazing film. Not only is it a somewhat comedic film in the characters that you’re introduced to, but the development and 180-degree turns of the plot make it a movie worth watching, rewatching, and rewatching again. With a cast on par with the ‘95-’96 Chicago Bulls, I recommend this movie to anyone regardless of interest in crime or mafia-related movies.
Another really great movie review! I especially like how you engage the reader from the beginning by enumerating the list of star actors that appear in the film and then utilizing the metaphor “expectations the size of the sun” to make us really excited to learn what the movie was about. I also like how you gave us a general synopsis of the story and included details of the dramatic ending, but left out a lot of specifics regarding the plot in between. Personally, I am far more interested in watching the movie now than if you gave me the film’s entire summary.
I have actually never seen this movie and it sounds really good! I guess you could say you had some spoilers in there, but I think you did a great job avoiding spilling too much. I will definitely have to check it out, thank you! Also great use of the oxford comma and metaphor : )
Hi, this movie looks really good and is definitely one that I would consider watching. The cast is very compelling in itself. I also liked how you had a lot of background information on the movie such as the Oscars it was nominated for and the IMDB stats.
I have heard of this movie and how it has a “star-studded cast” before, but I have never seen it. Your review made me very interested in watching it. I liked how you included specific awards this movie won and other films Scorsese directed for readers who might be unaware of this information.