The Departed: Revisiting Martin Scorsese’s Classic

Last Updated on October 20, 2022

The Departed is the movie that won the legendary Martin Scorsese his first – and to date only – Oscar for Best Director. While it’s outrageous he didn’t win for Raging Bull or Goodfellas, it can’t be denied that his Boston set crime epic struck a chord with audiences, becoming one of his biggest worldwide hits, grossing over $290 million at the box office. Perhaps this isn’t a surprise as the movie teamed some of the biggest stars in Hollywood of the time (the mid-2000s_ with Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson and Mark Wahlberg playing the leads. The film is actually a remake of the Hong Kong classic Infernal Affairs, which starred Tony Leung and Andy Lau in the roles played here by DiCaprio and Damon.

In it, DiCaprio plays a Boston cop sent undercover into the Irish Mob, run by the psychotic Frank Costello (Nicholson). In return, Costello has a mole of his own, Matt Damon’s Colin Sullivan, who’s rising high in the police department. The two wind up on a violent collision course with fellow Boston cops, played by Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg, along for the ride. It all adds up to one heck of a crime thriller, and the movie which arguably gave Jack Nicholson his final significant big screen role, with him retiring from movies just a few short years after this hit theaters. In this episode of Revisited, we explore The Departed’s origins, the influence the Infernal Affairs trilogy had on the film, and why the movie never got a follow-up, despite a spin-off for Wahlberg’s Dignam being rumoured for years. This episode is written by Cody Hamman, narrated by Travis Hopson, produced by Adam Walton and edited by Juan Jimenez.