Faith Meets Life: Taking meaning from The Departed
If you plan on seeing the Martin Scorsese film, The Departed, brace yourself. While it's unlikely to be the bloodiest film you ever see, you will leave the theatre splattered. The film earns its 18A rating in the first twenty minutes, maybe ten.
The premise for the film's story grabs the attention. Meet Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). He has been brought up by Boston mobster, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Thanks to Costello's emotional abuse of the young Sullivan, Sullivan ends up with an unhealthy dependency on the father figure Costello. Costello grooms him to become a mole inside the police Special Investigations Unit (SIU). This unit is on a mission to bring Costello down.
At the same time the SIU persuades a young cop with a family history in crime to infiltrate Costello's organization. The cat and mouse game that ensues keeps the story moving, with plenty of blood letting along the way.
Near the beginning of the film, Costello philosophizes about being a cop versus being a gangster. He observes that the end result for either is about the same. To adapt a famous line from elsewhere, those who live by the gun will die by the gun. And, that seems to be about it. End of story; as far as The Departed goes.
So, one has to wonder why Scorsese would make this bleak movie. It never finds a way out of the world of backstabbing violence, slutty sex, fear and betrayal.
Why would someone produce this film?
I doubt that Scorsese needs the money he'll make from it. By now, he must have enough of it, and therefore, some other motive. It may well be that he just wants to rub our faces into the crap. It may be that he wants to say that beneath the thin veneer of civility, we are all about death and sex. Ever since the (now frequently discredited) psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, many artists and other reflective folks have suspected that in the end, it's all about blood and survival. Children exist to be drawn into a life of corruption. Any loyalties, such as those that surface in the film's characters, will in the end lead us only into back alleys and dead end streets.
It may be that Scorsese simply wants to remind us of what he thinks we really are- of that from which we can never really escape. When push comes to shove, we'll nuke our enemies in order to survive, pillage the societies that refuse to give us their goods, and bully our way to the top of the heap if a raise depends on it.
However, I wonder if Scorsese has another purpose for making this film. I think it can be seen on another level. The movie, taken in its entirety, can perhaps take us outside itself. Perhaps Scorsese's real intention is to do just that — to jolt us into looking for something beyond our propensity for violence and possessions, into looking for something beyond our appetite for porn and glamour. Maybe his real purpose is to jar us into a search for a different truth, one that brings hope and purpose, one that is not a mere veneer, but reaches the heart.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
The premise for the film's story grabs the attention. Meet Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon). He has been brought up by Boston mobster, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Thanks to Costello's emotional abuse of the young Sullivan, Sullivan ends up with an unhealthy dependency on the father figure Costello. Costello grooms him to become a mole inside the police Special Investigations Unit (SIU). This unit is on a mission to bring Costello down.
At the same time the SIU persuades a young cop with a family history in crime to infiltrate Costello's organization. The cat and mouse game that ensues keeps the story moving, with plenty of blood letting along the way.
Near the beginning of the film, Costello philosophizes about being a cop versus being a gangster. He observes that the end result for either is about the same. To adapt a famous line from elsewhere, those who live by the gun will die by the gun. And, that seems to be about it. End of story; as far as The Departed goes.
So, one has to wonder why Scorsese would make this bleak movie. It never finds a way out of the world of backstabbing violence, slutty sex, fear and betrayal.
Why would someone produce this film?
I doubt that Scorsese needs the money he'll make from it. By now, he must have enough of it, and therefore, some other motive. It may well be that he just wants to rub our faces into the crap. It may be that he wants to say that beneath the thin veneer of civility, we are all about death and sex. Ever since the (now frequently discredited) psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud, many artists and other reflective folks have suspected that in the end, it's all about blood and survival. Children exist to be drawn into a life of corruption. Any loyalties, such as those that surface in the film's characters, will in the end lead us only into back alleys and dead end streets.
It may be that Scorsese simply wants to remind us of what he thinks we really are- of that from which we can never really escape. When push comes to shove, we'll nuke our enemies in order to survive, pillage the societies that refuse to give us their goods, and bully our way to the top of the heap if a raise depends on it.
However, I wonder if Scorsese has another purpose for making this film. I think it can be seen on another level. The movie, taken in its entirety, can perhaps take us outside itself. Perhaps Scorsese's real intention is to do just that — to jolt us into looking for something beyond our propensity for violence and possessions, into looking for something beyond our appetite for porn and glamour. Maybe his real purpose is to jar us into a search for a different truth, one that brings hope and purpose, one that is not a mere veneer, but reaches the heart.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
