I finally watched it, years after it’s sweeping success in Academy, all because I liked the Chinese original “Internal Affairs” better. So, finally, I watched it. The conclusion is:
It’s not as bad as I was worried, but certainly not as good. Granted, it is tough for me to absorb all those Irish references, and if you want say my ignorance stopped me from appreciating the movie, fine. But I honestly don’t see how that’s really affecting the story. Yes, it provided a great backdrop, but how is it affecting the main characters? The decision they make?
In “Internal Affairs”, it really got to me the relationship between the police informant and his one and only police contact, the father figure, the only connection to the sane side. In this version, Queenan’s character only had a few light strokes. The only time you can add an additional relationship on them is when Bill shows up in Queenan’s house. Subsequently, when Queenan dies in front of Bill, all you feel is his fear and desperation instead of the loss of a father. The added screen tension was given to Frank Costello, but I honestly cannot figure out that character any more with all that extra writing, all I can get is he is insane like Nicholson’s Joker in Batman. I don’t know what that wife/mistress of his is doing there either. I actually liked how paranoid Costello was in “internal affairs”, it wasn’t just walking around with bloody hand or blowing coke, it was via never ending suspicion on every single guy around him.
In “Internal Affairs”, both characters were equally intriguing. But “the departed”, Matt Damon’s character just wasn’t strong. The lack of time buildup in this version between they graduate to this big event weakens the establishment of their mask. In “The Departed”, you feel like it’s only been a few months (thought Bill says it’s a year), in “Internal Affairs”, by changing the actors from a fresh faced 20 year old to a weathered 30 year old, then given the established life style they have, you really have a feeling that they are pretty much submerged in their assumed life. One failure in the American script is the combining of the two female characters. By saying Colin Sullivan’s girl friend is having sexual and relationship problem with Colin early on and her having an affair with Bill and being his one last connection totally weakens Colin’s connection to the human side (she seems disposable, I was surprised when she confronted him with the tape, he didn’t just kill her) thus he becomes more one dimensional. All he is doing now is survival, instead of a struggle.
The scene between Bill and Madolyn is not bad. But just wasn’t as striking as original. Madolyn was wonderful, so much between than the Chinese actress, who was nothing but a pretty vase in that movie, but the one scene when Bill’s Chinese version talks to Madolyn got me consumed. Is it the dialogue? Is it the editing? I don’t know. I actually really like DiCaprio in this movie. Maybe it’s that line “Your vulnerability is freaking me out” really got me on an inside joke track. By the way, back to Colin and Madolyn’s encounter from the beginning, it was as fast as a burger joint drive through, all I felt like was he was using that as a cover instead of needing someone to keep him sane. Big flaw.
One thing I almost forgot until I saw the guy asking Bill “you know why I didn’t tell them you are an informant” before he died was how the Chinese version had that character an innocent kind of slow kid, it was more of a consistent character, not any thing striking, but you see him as a person, as one little green grass in the darkness, such as good contrast against all the brutality. I felt bad when he died. Didn’t feel anything other than “wow, good story twist” in this version.
The directing/editing, it actually won the Academy. But it was mostly jarring to me until half way over (I guess I got used to it), yes it’s smart editing, Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker packed lots of story in a short time. But was it a good idea? I felt rushed the whole time. Never got a chance to sock in and totally feel one character’s pulse before getting pulled into some other intense story. The cuts were jarring here and there too.
The original Chinese title “Wu Jian Dao” means a road with no return, to the never escaping hell is nice reflection of the two characters and the others. In that hell, the worst of the 8 hells, you cannot die, you cannot live, you can only suffer. But this title, “the departed”, wasn’t nearly catchy.
To end this ranting, “The Departed” is a good movie, great story if you haven’t watched the Chinese version, lots of twist and turns, but it’s a Hollywood story, to say it’s a story about Humanity, it just didn’t allow itself to get there.
