Filmbrain's Screen Capture Quiz: Round 10, Week 10

One of the most infinitely re-watchable films of all times, Goodfellas found Martin Scorsese at one of his directorial peaks, and watching it again recently made me realize how The Departed just didn't reach those highs, though it certainly tried (and even came close on a few occasions). I had been planning all week to walk down to Smith and 9th and take a photo of how the street that once housed Jimmy Conway's warehouse looks today, but simply couldn't find the time. (I've been terribly busy lately with a handful of projects, which also explains the dearth of new content on the blog -- I hope this changes in the near future.) This week -- two books I've read, and would highly recommend, though the reader in this case seems to have taken them a bit too literally. Name the film. Submit your answers to this address. Good luck!

Comments

[agorelik]

I would have to disagree with you on The Departed vs. Goodfellas. The overarching story of Goodfellas is the disintegration of the Mafia (and essentially, all of urban ethnic American life) under the forces of postwar suburbanization, assimilation of ethnic American groups and increasing narcissism. It was very timely in 1990 - all of these were fairly recent events at that time (Henry Hill's arrest at the end of the movie was in reality in 1980 and his testimony stretched well into the 1980s).

Goodfellas has the feel current events of the time (1990) - which, of course, is a primary theme in the gangster genre. Most of the canonical gangster movies of the 1930s through the 1950s explicitly describe themselves as "ripped from the headlines!"

This is true also of Infernal Affairs, which besides other things, is about the PRC's takeover of Hong Kong (which was but 5 years before Infernal Affairs' release). Infernal Affairs also has an incredibly glossy hip look and style.

The Departed is quite the opposite. Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello just isn't a plausible figure right now. Clearly, he's modeled on Whitey Bulger, but Bulger was the very last of the last Irish gangsters and has been out of action for at least 10+ years now. What is plausible within Infernal Affairs (since the Triads do in fact have massive political power throughout East Asia, including influence at the highest levels in the PRC) simply is very anachronistic in The Departed.

Scorcese is trying to bring back a form of gangster movie that just doesn't reflect current reality. He completely missed the opportunity to address how times have changed in the past two decades. Remember that this was an explicit theme of such great gangster movies as The Racket, I Walk Alone, Force of Evil and so on, including Goodfellas. Instead, in The Departed, we get a movie that essentially could have been set in 1960. In fact, Samuel Fuller's Underworld USA (released in 1961) IS the movie Scorcese was trying to make. (Or Melville's Le Doulos in 1962).

[burritoboy]

Sorry, agorelik is me, burritoboy

[Filmbrain]

I'll have to take some more time to think about your comment Burritoboy, but I'm not sure I'm convinced that the un-timeliness of The Departed -- that is doesn't, as you say, reflect current reality -- is the reason for it not being a better film.

The disintegration theme of Goodfellas (also a key element of The Godfather and The Sopranos) is important, and that's certainly something to chew on.

I do think you're on to something with the Melville comparison, however.

[burritoboy]

I don't think it's necessarily a problem to make an anachronistic gangster movie. It's a particular problem with The Departed because it borrows it's plot wholesale from Infernal Affairs.

That plot rests on mobsters being easily believable as a challenge to the entire state. This is emphasized in Infernal Affairs by the reality of the Hong Kong Triads gaining great political influence in the PRC. Also, the reality in Hong Kong of the Triads not having undergone any sort of collapse, unlike the American or even Sicilian Mafias.

Whitey Bulger was simply never a threat to the USA as a whole, no matter how much power he once had in Southie. Because Scorsese made the mistake of casting DiCaprio in Tony Leung's role, he had to emphasize the chief gangster (Jack Nicholson) much much more. And UNLIKE Eric Tsang's portrayal of the gangster, Nicholson steals the movie away from the bland DiCaprio with a completely unbelievable over-the-top presentation.

Such a gangster in reality would never pose much of a threat beyond a very limited neighborhood (which is, in fact, what Scorcese shows us - Frank Costello's gang is really only a mere handful of Irish immigrants). Scorcese's underlying plot is a single one-time theft of computer chips, whereas Infernal Affairs' main plot thread is a continually growing set of permanent alliances between the Hong Kong Triads and all the other crime syndicates throughout East Asia (i.e. international affairs, as well as infernal and internal affairs).

[mike]

Burrito, I think you make a couple of valid points but I also think you miss the point of the movie. Infernal Affairs and The Departed are simply two different movies and to compare them aside from the “mole that needs to be found” is a pure canard.

I think Scorsese has made an elegiac film, one that mourns the passing of a way of life, that is to say the Irish Mob in Boston. The movie has the feel of a movie that could have been set in the sixties because it (and the characters in it) pine for the old ways but cannot seem to adjust to a new way of life. The movie depicts the swan song of the Irish mob as poetry and the greatness of the movie lies in its darkness. No one wins in The Departed.

Eric Tsang’s performance as Sam is simply amazing but to compare it to Nicholson’s [which is admittedly over the top] ignores the fact that the characters are completely different, as you have pointed out yourself. And I am not a big fan of DiCaprio at all but I think you are wrong in dismissing his performance as bland as well as for ignoring the absolute gem performances of Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen and the soon to be nominated for an Oscar performance of Mark Wahlberg.

And as for Scorsese, I think that this is his year. The Departed represents his best non-biopic film since the equally dark and brutal Taxi Driver.

[burritoboy]

"Infernal Affairs and The Departed are simply two different movies and to compare them aside from the “mole that needs to be found” is a pure canard."

Well, except that I think Infernal Affairs is a very good movie and The Departed is largely a failure, and we want to know why - especially since The Departed's plot is, with only very minor changes, the same as Infernal Affairs.

It's more than fine for Scorcese to make a very different movie than Infernal Affairs, it's not fine for him to make a bad movie. Since Scorcese is working with a plot that's already shown to be a success (and he made it into a failure), one place to start the analysis is from analyzing the differences between the two films.

[burritoboy]

"The movie depicts the swan song of the Irish mob as poetry"

Except that The Departed never bothers to make that case that mob life has much poetry or beauty in it (the prime Irish gangster Frank Costello is a homocidial maniac AND a traitor, for example). Again, for a director who really did that, see JP Melville. To do that, Scorcese would need another plotline, which he doesn't have. Again, this is the problem of borrowing the plot from Infernal Affairs - IA is not, of course, interested in elegiac depictions of disappearing Triad life, because the Triads are just as powerful today as they ever have been.

[HarryTuttle]

I'm all behind burritoboy's statements. The movie is a shameless rip-off and an obsolete miss. This remake is simply pointless.

If only for the fact that it shies away from portraying the real threats in today's world. What is this unknown asian organisation buying missile technology from the USA? Scorsese wasn't bold enough to spell it Al Qaeda... this is the credible dormant-agent story. And the quarel should have been between CIA and FBI, and the corruption in the Administration.

[burritoboy]

"And the quarel should have been between CIA and FBI, and the corruption in the Administration."

Right. Remember that the Hong Kong policemen in Infernal Affairs are mostly members of the highest-ranked elite unit in the entire country (the city-state of Hong Kong) - i.e. the most important cops conceivable. As an American, the fact that Whitey Bulger is terrorizing South Boston may be interesting (or not), but it's hardly a vitally pressing problem to anyone outside of South Boston. In fact, the movie shows Costello as not even being able to control the Providence mob - yes, he's unable to project his power to a small neighboring city.

[mike]

I feel like I am in some movie version of the O'Reilly Factor. Just because you call The Departed a failure or a bad movie does not make it so. There are millions of moviegoers out there who loved the movie. Are we all wrong, "Bill"?

[mike]

and now I guess all of you will say that all of the critical awards that The Departed has received are somehow invalid?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/awards