It’s hard to believe, but before 2007’s The Departed, Martin Scorsese had never won an Oscar. Sure, he’d been nominated seven times and probably deserved to win at least twice (for Raging Bull and Goodfellas), but it took his epic, Boston-set remake of the Hong Kong crime film Infernal Affairs for him to finally get the accolade which was so long overdue. In addition to its Oscar win, The Departed stands as one of Scorsese’s most popular efforts commercially, with it grossing close to $300 million worldwide. Many consider it one of his greatest films, but it’s behind-the-scenes story is an interesting one.
For one thing, it partially turned Scorsese off of big-studio filmmaking, with the film such a big success that the studio behind it, Warner Bros, wanted to turn it into a franchise (as had happened with Infernal Affairs). This was something Scorsese had next to no interest in. He also had to deal with one of his stars (Mark Wahlberg) being grumpy over a hair issue. However, given all of the huge stars involved, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, and Jack Nicholson, in perhaps his final great role as a mob boss inspired by Whitey Bulger, the film’s shooting went smoothly. It’s one of Scorsese’s more cost-effective films (only costing a lean $90 million despite the score), with a relatively short (for Scorsese) 151-minute runtime.
In this episode of WTF Happened to This Movie, we explore how The Departed was made, its influences, and how it finally earned Scorsese perhaps the greatest accolade of his career.
