THE DEPARTED (2006)

[linebaugh]

whice part are you on?

 

[sus]

I finished, it was le epic

 

[Corpsey]

I forgot Nicholson quotes Joyce in that intro

 

[Mr. Tea]

I don't remember much about this film except that Nicholson is perhaps more menacing and sinister than in any other role I've seen him in.

 

[catalog]

the whole film is really hammy and over the top, not just nicholson but also wahlberg with all his creative swearing. totally ridiculous plot which has so many holes in it, but strangely compelling nonetheless and gets better every time you see it.

 

[sus]

Anyone seen Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong original this is based on?

 

[sus]

the whole film is really hammy and over the top, not just nicholson but also wahlberg with all his creative swearing. totally ridiculous plot which has so many holes in it, but strangely compelling nonetheless and gets better every time you see it.

The idea of getting erased from the database, two people on Earth know who you are, and you're at the mercy of this massive bureaucratic machine which can only run on procedure—terrifying

 

[sus]

Or the unmasking of patriarchs—Sheen's Queenland as impotent, unable to protect his agents; Nicholson's Costello as corrupt, tipping off the FBI and recording his makeshift son on a wire.

 

[sus]

Can't believe how many flicks I seen lately that revolve around mirroring, doubles, identity theft. I was into it at first, now I think it's gotta be the most overplayed conceptual trope. Sure, there's classics like Vertigo and masterpieces like Mulholland Drive, but in the last month there's been The Prestige (which shot-references Jekyll & Hyde), Showgirls, Three Woman, now DiCaprio/Damon.

 

[Corpsey]

I like to think that they didn't even write this scene, they just filmed Jack Nicholson on his day off.

 

[Corpsey]

I'd be much more interested in a Scorcese film starring old-ass Jack Nicholson than Leonardo DiCaprio.

 

[sus]

That's the weirdest scene in the whole movie, I couldn't believe it made it through the editing room, I guess Scorsese probably had carte blanche at that point in his career. I remember someone saying about James Baldwin, by the time he became an old man of letters he was too big to be edited, no one could tell him what to do, the works are a little baroque and overgrown in consequence.

 

[catalog]

baroque is a good description of the departed - both scorsese and nicholson egging one another on. it's very operatic, with his little singing skits and also the costumes he wears

 

[Corpsey]

The scene where Nicholson's crew meets up with chinese gangsters is bizarre as well, as far as I remember.

 

[luka]

Can't believe how many flicks I seen lately that revolve around mirroring, doubles, identity theft. I was into it at first, now I think it's gotta be the most overplayed conceptual trope. Sure, there's classics like Vertigo and masterpieces like Mulholland Drive, but in the last month there's been The Prestige (which shot-references Jekyll & Hyde), Showgirls, Three Woman, now DiCaprio/Damon.

I don't watch films this way. Don't have the knack for it. I'd like to though. It always feels as though you can make a dull film good using this method. Is it learned or innate?

 

[luka]

It's how I got into vigilant citizen. You'd read his take on what you thought was just generic Hollywood trash and he'd turn it into an illuminati programming ritual and you'd think, wow, that films amazing and I'm a dunce. How did I not read it properly

 

[luka]

There's a lot of different ways to watch a film. For instance Craner writes these sumptuous essays on films which reduce down to, mmmm, tits, Italian tits!

 

[luka]

I'm very suspicious of the word cinematography. Any time that gets used I distrust the writer immediately. It's like sound design when you're talking about a tune. It means the tune is a dud if you're mentioning sound design as a rule.

 

[Corpsey]

That's kind of true. Great cinematography (Deakins, e.g.) can make an average film seem like an above average film.

 

[sus]

The scene where Nicholson's crew meets up with chinese gangsters is bizarre as well, as far as I remember.

Yeah good early oughts America/China fears. Late enough that the writing of a new Cold War was on the wall; early enough that Chinese consumer markets hadn't made these kinds of Hollywood depictions impossible.