For the first Director Movie Assignment, I watched The Departed starring Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg. The movie is about two people who graduate from a police academy and start working undercover to try and find the "rat". The movie got a little confusing at times, since Collin Sullivan (Matt Damon) and William Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) are working double lives. Sullivan works undercover for Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) and gets caught up in his job, lies, and his girlfriend. Costigan works undercover for Queenan (Martin Sheen) and gains Costello's trust, just so he and Queenan will be able to arrest Costello. Since we haven't watched any other Scorsese Films, I can't relate this film to another film, so I will focus on the goriness of this film.
This film has many gory scenes. I was very surprised at how gory some of the scenes were. In addition to many numerous stabbing and shootings in the film, there were other scenes like when Costigan gets his arm that is already in a cast smashed on a pool table in a bar because Costello thinks he is hiding something in it. This scene was very brutal to watch because after the arm was smashed and the arm was broken, Costello started hitting the arm with a boot. This scene was especially painful to watch. Another example of goriness in the film is when Queenan falls off a building and lands right in front of Costigan and all we see is blood spray up. This scene was pretty bloody but, by this point in the film we had seen lots of shootings so it wasn't too surprising to see blood. One last example is one of the last scenes where Costigan takes Sullivan down the elevator and when the doors open, they find some unknown man standing there with a gun who immediately shoots Costigan in the head and blood splatters everywhere. In an article I found from the Chicago Sun Times, the author talks about what the meaning of this last scene really meant. Scorcese, who is quoted in the article, says that many people didn't like a gory ending, but that was how he wanted it. I think that Scorsese added all the gore just because he wanted to and to make things more realistic, since the movie is about the mob.
I think this movie was very good and I liked the gory ending because it didn't really leave us hanging at the end. This movie makes me excited to watch more films by Martin Scorsese.
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8 comments:
I think some of the gore in the movie is very unnecessary. i Too liked the ending with the surprise gun shot in the elevator. although i felt it was unnecessary it helped tie up loose ends in the film.
I do agree with Ogre Achiever in that the final scene provided closure because Costigan, who was known to be a squeeler throughout the film, was finally killed after all of the snitching he did. I feel that gore is a big part of Scorsese's movies, because I have seen several and all of them are very gut-wrenching, and, in a sense, I feel that it is a "theme" of his and it truly shapes his movies to make them interesting.
I see what both you mean about how the gore is unnecessary and some of the scenes really grossed me out. I thought jack nicholsons character was the most violent character in the film. I am looking forward to watching more of Scorsese's movies to see how he uses gore in his other films.
If you are looking for gore in a scorsese film, Gangs of New York is the movie to see. the end consists of an all out brawl between hundreds of people from rival gangs. I think you would all enjoy it.
I have heard gangs of new York is good. I have wanted to see thy movie for a little while. Someone should watch gangs of new York for our groups next blog. I have also heard that goodfellas and casino are good Scorsese films.
I'm going to watch Gangs of New York for my part of the Scorsese film. Good thing I didn't read that part Ogre otherwise it would have spoiled the ending. What movies are Kieper and Curry watching? One trend that I noticed in most Scorsese films that I've heard of are that the main characters are always either Italian or Irish. I found that to be interesting and shows perhaps a bias or maybe a way to show his background. I'm not sure.
I as well noticed that the characters in this film were playing the rolls of Irish mobsters as opposed to Italian gangsters which is whom Scorsese's films are typically centralized around. I also noticed that the story takes place in Boston as opposed to New York or Las Vegas which also differentiates The Departed from other Scorsese films. I enjoyed his use of "Shipping Up to Boston" as sort of a theme song for DiCaprio's character as he delves further into Nicholson's character's world of organized crime.
Another thing I noticed about the film's soundtrack is that Scorsese uses the song "Gimme Shelter" which I recognized from some of his other movies. When I looked into it further I found that he used the same song in both Casino and Goodfellas which I though was interesting. The part of the movie that I enjoyed the most was Scorsese's use of the telephone to heighten suspense throughout the story. He uses it in at least two scenes such as when Damon's character revieves a phone call from his boss while his girlfriend is in the room and when Damon's character and Nicholos's character are playing cat and mouse in the construction site after the cops surround the place. His use of the cellphone to increase the suspense in that scene is very well done in my opinion and I think it is one of the most noticible directing choices that Scorsese makes in order to improve the film.
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