What ruined it for me was the truly excessive cursing. Two out of three words in the dialogue were some variant of fuck. That was one movie that could really benefit from a little bowdlerizing.
The Stranger: There’s just one thing, Dude.
The Dude: And what’s that?
The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words?
The Dude: What the fuck you talking about?
The Stranger: Okay, Dude. Have it your way.
Stranger
Oh I don’t give a fuck about cursing. I loved Goodfellas and Casino. I just think a lot of movie buffs (myself included) were super stoked about a Scorsese gangster flick starring Nicholson and were so star struck that they didn’t notice the movie’s many weak points.
I don’t know, The Departed won Best Picture and Best Director, it’s hard to really view that as a movie people have “turned their backs on” because it did receive basically the highest accolades.
I don’t think that’s the same as what’s happened to movies like The Dark Knight Rises which people went crazy for and now don’t give it much attention at all.
I just realized what was wrong with The Departed. Scorsese is from New York. All his best films either take place in New York or are about New Yorkers. But The Departed takes place in Boston. Having lived in both cities, I feel that Scorsese fails to bring us into the class struggles and working class neighborhoods and gritty underground world of Boston the way he does in his New York-centric films. It felt more like someone giving us a Frommer’s Guide view of the Boston underworld as opposed to someone who grew up witnessing it around the neighborhood. It’s the difference between Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro being New Yorkers and Alec Baldwin and Leonardo DeCaprio talking in bad Southie accents.
Compared to, say, The Town
Not that you’re wrong about how displaced The Departed seems, but it also just isn’t that great of a film compared to, say, Raging Bull or Goodfellas. Frankly, I’m of the opinion that the Academy gave Scorsese and the film the win due to all the times that his films were unjustly denied recognition, especially given the breadth of his work, from small personal films to broad historical dramas, documentaries, psychological thrillers, even a musical. The only working directors who even comes close to Scorsese’s scope of work are Steven Soderbergh and maybe Roman Polanski.
Stranger
The Departed was a remake of a Hong Kong film (Infernal Affairs). Hollywood just never did over the top filmmaking like they used to do in HK.
In fact, IMHO, it’s not nearly as good as his hugely under-appreciated Gangs of New York.
I hope you’re serious, because that’s one of my favourite movies, hands down.
Dead serious - it’s one of my favorite films of the 2000s. Sure, the film has a few flaws, but “great” is not the same as “flawless”. **Gangs **is a cinematic masterpiece.
The Kevin Smith School of Screenwriting?
Any movie starring Kevin Costner-a mediocre actor who thinks he is a great actor
Isn’t the thing with the reviews of The Departed that movie reviewers collectively decided* “Marty doesn’t have an Oscar for Direction and this cannot FUCKING stand”, so as soon as he gave them something that looked remotely like something he should have got an Oscar for, they went nuts in an effort to create a groundswell that would tip the voters to pay attention to him when filling out their ballots? I say this because, although the movie is fine, it’s nothing more and I certainly didn’t get the impression it was a masterpiece from any of my friends that I talked to about it. So, with respect to the OP, I’m not sure opinion turned on it so much as as it was a case of “Mission Accomplished - let’s never discuss this again”.
*Obviously, I don’t mean they sat down as a group to do this - but the unanimity that swung behind it sure looks like there was some sort of feeling prevalent (maybe there was also a campaign behind it from the studio to get Scorsese the Oscar).
Ahem, Silverado.
Ahem #2 - Bull Durham.
Ahem 33 - The Big Chill (Arguably his greatest performance.)
For what it is, I think The Untouchables still holds up.
Much of internet is people trying to impress everyone with how high their standards are. Thus movies that are Bs or B-s get talked about like they were Fs. The Dark Knight had just as many huge logical flaws as the Dark Knight Rises but the ending was darker so it gets picked apart more.
Movies are meant to be experienced and the Dark Knight Rises was a really good experience. A great movie can be rewatched and the experience enhanced but just because a movie isn’t great doesn’t mean that it sucked.
Gangs of New York was two thirds of a great movie, great acting, great directing, and a story that never made one lick of sense.
When I sat through the Dark Knight Rises at the cinema, while it seemed overlong, I still came away with the feeling that it was quite momentous and thrilling; a gruelling but fitting finale.
When watching it months later at home on Blu-ray it seemed really quite tiresome, without the Multiplex ear-bleed and full-bladdered sense of urgency.
So I think cinema vs home could account for waning appeal sometimes.
Blair Witch Project.
Malone: Why do you want to join the force?
George Stone: To protect the property and citizenry of…
Malone: Ah, don’t waste my time with that bullshit. Where you from, Stone?
George Stone: I’m from the south-side.
Malone: Stone. George Stone. That’s your name? What’s your real name?
George Stone: That is my real name.
Malone: Nah. What was it before you changed it?
George Stone: Giuseppe Petri.
Malone: Ah, I knew it. That’s all you need, one thieving wop on the team.
George Stone: Hey, what’s that you say?
Malone: I said that you’re a lying member of a no good race.
George Stone: [He cuffs Stone across the face. As he draws back his arm again, Stone presses a gun under his chin] Much better than you, you stinking Irish shit pig.
Malone: Oh, I like him.
Ness: [Ness looking a bit nervous and Malone smiling at Stone] Yeah I like him too.
Costner isn’t an actor of great breadth, but what he does he does well. His understated, milquetoast performance in The Untouchables was exactly what was needed to allow the rest of the team to stand out, and it makes him throwing Frank Nitti off of the roof that much more shocking (if not historically accurate). The David Mamet-penned dialogue is what makes the film really stand out though.
Stranger