What do you think of Martin Scorsese's The Departed?

I thought it was a good movie, but Dicaprio almost ruined it for me.  I found myself rooting for the bad guys. I still think it's a good movie, but not a great one.

I feel The Departed is an example of producers having more money than they know what to do with plus the idea that money cannot create art. However much of the movie's budget went for the best actors, however much went for the best writers wasn't enough. 

Well done film on all levels.  I really have no tangible complaints about it other than it didn't show me anything spectacular that blew me away.

Great entertainment.

I never pass up a chance to disparage Scorsese’s lazy rip-off, “The Departed.” If you look up “Make-Up Oscar” in the dictionary you will find The Departed as the #1 definition.

Scorsese’s film is a scene-for-scene remake of a much superior Hong Kong film: “Infernal Affairs” to use its English title.. There is nothing at all in “The Departed” that is new or creative. Anything in the American film that is praiseworthy has been copied and pasted from the Chinese original. The Hollywood remake is lazy, sloppy film making. Scorsese fans still breathlessly rave about a particular unexpected plot twist (the elevator scene) related to Leo’s character, but fans of this Asian thriller weren’t surprised. Marty lifted it whole from “Infernal Affairs”. It is a steal. Even things like the camera placement and blocking of actors is exactly the same. No one connected with “The Departed” can take any credit for it. There is not a single good idea or surprise or plot twist that wasn’t lifted straight from “Infernal Affairs”.

Here’s more sloppiness. The standard three-shot conversation scene is as old as movies themselves. That’s where you get an establishment shot of two (or more) people in a scene. Then, you get an isolated shot of each actor reciting his/her lines. Then the editor can cut back and forth between all the ‘takes.’ In a lot of modern films, they simply by-pass the establishment shot. “The Departed” contains some of the funniest and most outrageous examples. The long dialog scene between Leo and Vera Farmiga in her office kept me on the edge of my seat watching for any evidence at all that the two actors ever saw each other in person, but there is no such shot. We only see Vera and Leo in isolation, reciting their lines. When she writes a prescription for Billy and hands it over the desk, there is a cut to DiCaprio who takes it from a disembodied hand sticking out from the left side of the screen. I laughed out loud. Slack and careless directing.

The ending – the very last line and shot of “Infernal Affairs” – is what lifts this Asian cop film from just Very Good into Masterful territory. This is one thing Scorsese changed! He managed to create the most ridiculous, risible final fade-out shot in any major motion picture in decades. Scorsese directs like a gun-for-hire, someone hired to direct someone else’s work, a director with no stake in the ultimate outcome. “The Departed” is devoid of any creative effort at all on the part of the English language team. It is a terrible movie. Maybe the worst to ever win the Best Picture Oscar.

I've seen it about five times but I'm due for a rewatch as it's been a while.

It's not Scorsese's best, but I enjoyed it.

A lame remake of the Asian original. Mark Wahlberg was the worst, some of the most unconvincing togh guy behaviour I ever witnessed on screen. To quote another reviewer: It felt like he had only learned to swear the previous week. And Nicholson's character was about as threatening as a 90 year old granny.

Only Vera Farmiga and Ray Winstone gave convincing performances.

There is one scene I liked though, when Di Caprio almost gets into a bar fight with some guy and Winstone explains to him why he isn't allowed to beat this man up. Screenwriter William Monahan must've had a rare inspired moment when he wrote that.