The Good

This film is the Best Picture of the year.

The Bad

I wish I could access the interactive features easier.

The Departed brings us Martin Scorsese in the genre he is known for, leading high caliber actors to amazing performances and heightening every scene with either dialogue, editing, or action that enhances the story.

This film shows us the tales of Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio), Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) and the man about whom their world's revolve Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costigan is made a plant in Costello's crew while Sullivan is Frank's agent in the Special Investigations Unit of the Police Force. What ensues is a game of cat and mouse with both Costigan and Sullivan trying to outwit one another, without ever really knowing who the other person is. Through them, we get to see the daily goings on in Costello's world, and we also see how the men in the black hats and the white hats can all be highly corrupted.

Utilizing the editing style that has put Scorsese on the map, The Departed is yet another fine installment in his gangster oeuvre. At times it is cagey, convoluted, scary, and everything else we love to have Martin Scorsese indulge in. This film is layered in music, film language, and the kind of violence that we usually don't see from movies today. It is as if Scorsese has come back and infused this movie with everything that he has learned since he started making films in the 1970s.

From not having title credits until about 20 minutes into the movie, to employing a Dropkick Murphys song as this film's theme, to filling up this movie with so much story and characters that we become as confused as they are, The Departed is the reason why movies are the special experiences that they are.

Features

The Story of the Boston Mob

I was excited to see this on here because I was hoping to find out more about James "Whitey" Bulger, the real life mob boss behind Jack Nicholson's Frank Costello character. Aside from getting a nice history lesson of how the Boston mob came into existence, I was happy to see that Nicholson wasn't merely being Nicholson in this movie. Apparently, this Bulger character was one bad dude and in certain scenes where I thought Nicholson may have hammed it up, he was actually drawing from a real life inspiration. I don't know whether I should be scared or impressed at the work he's done here.

Nine additional scenes with introductions by director Martin Scorsese

Crossing Criminal Cultures

Martin Scorsese may, at times, try and distance himself from mob culture and films with graphic subject matter, but this section gleefully indulges the connection between Scorsese and his former home of Little Italy. I have always admired this director because he turned away from becoming a priest, and instead endeavored in the less noble profession of being a film director. Here we get to see how this director's early influences have carried over all throughout his career. This is a very well put together piece as it looks at this filmmaker from many different angles, it examines his films, and it shows how even when he's not tackling violent subject matter head on, there is always a violent undertone to everything he does.

Video

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 - What most amazed me about how this movie looked in HD-DVD was the amount of clarity this format brought. Having seen this film now in the theater, on Blu-ray and now HD-DVD, I think I have a good idea of what this movie should look like. Truthfully, I found HD-DVD and Blu-ray to look about the same. That said they seem to both play better in this format than they did in the theater. One thing HD-DVD is very good about is enhancing the details. This movie is filled with a constant influx of information. Small pieces of paper, pictures and other things of that nature are shown to us on the screen. I was able to see more (especially when I paused it) than I ever was in the theater. Also, the way this film was shot, I never noticed a disparity in the long shots and close-ups in terms of graininess.

Audio

Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and Dolby TrueHD 5.1. As anybody who is a fan of Martin Scorsese will tell you audio is an incredible counterpart to any of his films. Once again, I found this release to be on par with Blu-ray. I felt engulfed watching this movie as it seems to have been mixed to fill your viewing space (depending on where your speakers are). One thing I love about these next generation formats is just how much sounds like gun shots, or the noises of the street stand out. Everything seemed very finely leveled here, even if by this time in my viewing experience I was a little sick of this movie as a whole.

Package

I have the same problem with this HD-DVD cases as I do with the Blu-ray ones. This is the one area where this next generation format (actually both next generation formats) are really lacking. They just don't look good. They don't seem to stack up well on a shelf and they make this whole release look rinky dink and it's not. The cover features shots of Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. The back cover lists out what The Departed is about, it offers up a Special Features listing, a cast list and system specs.

Final Word

Having seen this film in the theater and now on DVD, I was amazed at how little The Departed has lost in the translation. This movie is so good because it feels real. I never felt as if I was watching actors act. Sure, I think that Jack Nicholson sort of goes over the top here, but I think that Scorsese really knew how to utilize his energy. I also think that Scorsese seems just as at home with the working class in Boston, as he seemed many years prior with working class Italians in Mean Streets.

There is an interesting school of thought that Mean Streets was more real in terms of how it presented the mafia, and that later films like Casino and Goodfellas are sort of this director selling out. Giving that organization more glamour if you will. Well, I don't think we'll ever know what came first in regards to if the film's represent the gangsters, or the gangsters represent the films, but I think that to deny the artistic achievement of what this director has brought to this medium is to do the medium of film a disservice. At all times The Departed is working on us. Whether we are trying to follow the action, the characters, or the plot this movie doesn't let you off the hook until the final credits.

On DVD, this movie still has all the frightening reality that it had in the theater. The Departed is a true movie experience.

The Departed was released October 5, 2006.