Departed(Blu-ray) (2006) - Oscar® Winner!

"A ferociously entertaining film.  Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
"A new American crime classic from the legendary Martin Scorsese...  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
"...the most vibrant, exciting and invigorating movie-movie of the year.  Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald
"...a reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place.  Scott Tobias, The Onion A.V. Club
"...a fast-paced, visually slick, psychologically fascinating Boston-set cops-and-crooks saga.  William Arnold, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Editor's Note Director Martin Scorsese returns to his trademark style with the violent, bruised, and bloody feature THE DEPARTED. Scorsese filched the basic storyline from Wai Keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak's masterful 2002 Hong Kong action film, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, which saw a policeman going undercover as a mob member and a mob member infiltrating the police force. Scorsese transfers the action to Boston, positioning Leonardo Di Caprio as undercover cop William Costigan and Matt Damon as undercover mobster Colin Sullivan. While Costigan and Sullivan get into plenty of nail-biting situations that almost reveal their true identities, Scorsese gradually unravels his strong supporting cast, including Jack Nicholson as Sullivan's mob boss, Frank Costello; Ray Winstone as Costello's meat-headed muscle; Mark Wahlberg as a hot-headed police sergeant; and Vera Farmiga as a love interest for both Damon and DiCaprio's characters. THE DEPARTED finds Scorsese generously dipping his toes back into waters that will be warmly familiar to his biggest fans. Rolling Stones songs pepper the soundtrack, recalling the remarkable "Jumpin' Jack Flash" sequence in MEAN STREETS; bullets and blood punctuate every key scene, bringing TAXI DRIVER's explosive finale to mind; and the mobster-themed storyline is a thrilling return to GOODFELLAS territory. Nicholson and Winstone provide acting master-classes every time they appear, neatly complementing the blossoming talents of DiCaprio, Damon, and Wahlberg, while further veteran support comes in small roles for Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin. Scorsese is often criticized for affording precious little screen time to female characters, and THE DEPARTED won't quell those dissenting voices, although Farmiga's character proves to be more than a match for DiCaprio and Damon's posturings. But Scorsese followers who balked at his diversions into documentary filmmaking (NO DIRECTION HOME) and period epics (THE AVIATOR) will be delighted to find raw male machismo puncturing the screen once again in this frenetic entry into his celebrated oeuvre.

	Alec Baldwin
	Anthony Anderson
	Jack Nicholson
	Leonardo DiCaprio
	Mark Wahlberg
	Martin Sheen
	Matt Damon
	Vera Farmiga
	Brad Pitt - Producer
	Felix Chong - Based On Screenplay By
	Howard Shore - Original Music By
	Kristin Hahn - Executive Producer
	Martin Scorsese - Director
	Michael Ballhaus - Cinematographer
	Siu Fai Mak - Based On Screenplay By
	Teresa Carriker-Thayer - Art Director
	Thelma Schoonmaker - Editor
	William Monahan - Screenplay

Entertainment Weekly
"THE DEPARTED is splattered with moments of pure, dead-eyed, blood-soaked Scorsesean violence....Nicholson provides a menace that's half silky, half seedy." -- Grade: A- 10/13/2006 p.108

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "DiCaprio fully justifies his place as Marty's new muse....[He delivers] THE DEPARTED's most dangerous turn." 11/01/2006 34

New York Times
"The speed and Mr. Scorsese's sureness of touch, particularly when it comes to carving up space with the camera, keep the plot's hall of mirrors from becoming a distraction." 10/06/2006 p.E1-E8

Rolling Stone
4 stars out of 4 -- "The actors bring their A games to this triumphant bruiser of a film, its darkly wanton wit the only defense against complete chaos." 10/19/2006 p.137

Sight and Sound
"[A] juicy and enjoyable gangster picture. It has generous salty humour, tremendous narrative drive, an absorbingly complex plot of multiple betrayal, and a roster of entertaining actors." 12/01/2006 p.53

Box Office
"Martin Scorsese here succeeds in creating a bleak picture with a fatalistic Irish sensibility." 12/01/2006 p.78

Premiere
Included in Premiere's "10 Best Movies Of The Year" -- "[With] enough bravura acting for a dozen such pictures..." 01/01/2007 p.48

Rolling Stone
Ranked #1 in Rolling Stone's "The 10 Best Movies Of 2006" -- "[A] model of what directing is when craft rises to the level of art." 12/28/2006 p.116

Entertainment Weekly
Included in Entertainment Weekly's "Top 10 Films Of The Year" -- "Scorsese's got the best of men at the tops of their games. THE DEPARTED is this year's meatiest movie diversion." 12/29/2006 p.104

Film Comment
Ranked #1 in Film Comment's "20 Best Films Of 2006." 01/01/2007 p.36

Film Comment
"[T]his 'gangster movie' feels like a direct emanation from a society in a state of severe moral disorientation....THE DEPARTED reminds us that if there's truly an enemy, it's within." 01/01/2007 p.38

USA Today
4 stars out of 4 -- "[I]t's a rare treat for moviegoers to see six major actors, all in strong roles, together in one movie." 02/16/2007 p.3E

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "DiCaprio stands tall, even when sharing the screen with Nicholson....THE DEPARTED is his master class..." 03/01/2007 p.102

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "[W]ith Nicholson and DiCaprio together on screen for the first time, a performance masterclass is assured." 07/01/2007 p.21

Wall Street Journal
"THE DEPARTED has become a classic in its own right, thanks in no small measure to William Monahan's script..." 09/17/2010

ReelViews 10 of 10
The Departed is a perfect example of why remakes shouldn't be dismissed out of hand. Director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter William Monahan have taken the B-grade Hong Kong crime flick Infernal Affairs and re-imagined it as an American epic tragedy. The original film was gritty and entertaining; the new version is a masterpiece - the best effort Scorsese has brought to the screen since Goodfellas (ending a decade-long drought of disappointments and near-misses). In making The Departed, Scorsese has retained the essential plot structure of Infernal Affairs but has transformed the movie into something truly his own...The Departed is as suspenseful as anything the director has previously achieved. This movie deserves mention alongside Scorsese's most celebrated movies: Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, and The Age of Innocence. - James Berardinelli

Variety 9 of 10
Mixing it up with modern mobsters for the first time since "Casino" 11 years ago, Martin Scorsese cooks up a juicy and bloody steak of a movie in "The Departed." Different from the director's earlier crime dramas in its shared focus on cops rather than on just the goodfellas, this reworking of a popular Hong Kong picture pulses with energy, tangy dialogue and crackling performances from a fine cast...For those who want reassurance Scorsese is re-embracing the "GoodFellas" aesthetic, it's there right at the outset. With the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter" setting the mood, an imposing man addresses a nice Irish kid at a working class soda fountain and presses money into the kid's hand, enticing the boy into his circle...DiCaprio is outstanding as the audience's main point of emotional contact...In his third collaboration with Scorsese, DiCaprio has rarely been this vital, energized or passionate. - Todd McCarthy