81 Days With Oscar And Me

Few movies are as violent, foul-mouthed, and bloody as The Departed.

I can’t help but wonder what audiences in, say, 1939 would have thought of The Departed had this film been inserted into the projector instead of Gone With the Wind. I dare say every last one of them would have run, screaming, out of the theater.

Times sure have changed. When every other word is an F or a C, and when cocaine, sex, and getting shot in the head become worthy of an Academy Award for Best Picture the world is in sad, sad shape.

I’m not saying this movie isn’t brilliant. It is. It’s exceptionally well written, and incredibly well acted. I’ve never seen Matt Damon, Leonardo diCaprio, or Jack Nicholson better (this is Jack’s third Best Picture-winning movie). And the soundtrack (which includes the song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” performed by the Celtic-Punk band Dropkick Murphys) is as lively as the movie itself.

But, holy Moses, man. What does this movie say about us as a society – and Hollywood as the creative think tank – when we laud such a raw, bleak, underbelly of a subject matter?

To put it another way, can you imagine Clark Gable using the F-word in the 1939 film Gone With the Wind? Or the C-word? Or whipping out his pistol and blowing Ashley’s head off? As it was, the creators of Gone With the Wind had to beg and plead with the censors to keep intact Rhett’s last line to Scarlett (“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”).

How about Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca, another Best-Picture winner. What if, instead of politically neutral, Rick was temperamentally challenged, resorting to beating people and either stabbing them or shooting them in the heart, breaking their arms, and kicking in their ribs?

I maintain that movies like The Departed have a right to be made. They are, after all, protected by the Constitution’s First Amendment. And Hollywood can vote any movie Best Picture that it wants.

But I don’t believe for a minute that such movies serve our culture well. They don’t uplift. They drag down. They don’t fill one with awe. They cause one to feel revulsion. The don’t inspire greatness. They indulge our weaknesses.

I like The Departed. But I don’t think it will be watched, quoted from, or praised as great filmmaking 30-40 years from now. It’ll be watched by the same people who get off on Goodfellas (also a Scorsese movie) and Scarface and other gangster flicks. For a certain segment of society, the bloodier and more violent a movie is the more it’s endlessly quoted and heartily enjoyed.

I’m not one of those folks.

But I do know a well-made move when I see it.

And The Departed is very well made.

Still, Hollywood proved for over seven decades that it could create sublime, expressive, intelligent, moving, imminently quotable and riveting movies without resorting to this level of violence and profanity. Once movies like this, Crash, and No Country For Old Men are chosen as Best-Picture winners, what’s next – Saw IX? Hostel VI? Seriously. If a movie like The Departed is held up as Best Picture, where do budding filmmakers go from here? How do they top violence this graphic, profanity this raw?

And, the even bigger question: Should they?

The Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio (1974- )…………………………………Billy Costigan
Matt Damon (1970- )………………………………………….Colin Sullivan
Jack Nicholson (1937- )……………………………………….Frank Costello
Mark Wahlberg (1971- )………………………………………Staff Sgt. Dignam
Martin Sheen (1940- )…………………………………………Cpt. Queenan
Ray Winstone (1957- )…………………………………………Mr. French
Vera Farmiga (1973- )…………………………………………Madolyn
Anthony Anderson (1970- )………………………………….Brown
Alec Baldwin (1958- )………………………………………….Cpt. Ellerby
Kevin Corrigan (1969- )……………………………………….Cousin Sean
David O’Hara (1965- )………………………………………….Fitzy

Directed By
Martin Scorsese (1942- )

Written By
William Monahan, 1960- (screenplay)
Alan Mak, 1965- (2002 screenplay Mou gaan dou) and
Felix Chong, 1968- (2002 screenplay Mou gaan dou)

The Departed was nominated for five Academy Awards, and won four: Best Achievement in Directing (Martin Scorsese), Best Achievement in Editing, Best Motion Picture of the Year, Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (William Monahan).