"The Departed" -- Use of profanity and racism -- realistic?

Cafe Society
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I saw “The Departed” for the second time tonight, and for a second time I thought it was overall an excellent movie, minus some quibbles that are neither here nor there for the purposes of this post. The thing that is the purpose of this post is something that took me out of the movie both times I’ve watched it: the way some of the characters used casual racism and profanity in the movie.

Now, BEFORE anyone gets up in arms, my objection is not moral: I have no problem hearing profanity and racism from movie characters; you’d be a fool to go to a Martin Scorsese gangster movie and not expect it. Rather, my objection is…artistic, I guess. Some of it just didn’t ring true to me. It sounded more like an affectation than a realistic depiction of how these people would talk. My objection centered basically on two characters: Mark Wahlberg and Alec Baldwin. Take the scene early in the movie where they’re in a boardroom, outlining their plan on how to take down the gangsters to an assembly of detectives, FBI representatives, etc. They have a dialogue that goes something like this:

“Fuck you.”
“I fucked your mother last night.”
“Suck my balls.”
“Go fuck yourself.”

One of the agents asks a question. Wahlberg replies something like, “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, maybe you should fuck yourself.”

I didn’t buy it. I just didn’t believe that these characters would talk that way in a high-tech boardroom with a bunch of suits around them. Out on the beat or in the locker room or over lunch – absolutely. But in this situation? Nah. Maybe if they’d peppered their speech with a couple "what the fuck?"s or something, but I didn’t believe Wahlberg’s character would be shouting “go fuck yourself” at people like that, in that situation.

Similarly, earlier in the film when Wahlberg and Martin Sheen are interviewing Leonardo DiCaprio, Wahlberg says something about how most people want to be cops so they can “smash a nigger’s head through a windshield.” Sorry, I didn’t buy that either – not from a high ranking detective standing right next to his boss, in front of a potential recruit. Not in today’s world. There were a couple other similar false moments throughout the movie, but you can see what I’m getting at.

So my question is two part: the Cafe Society question is whether or not the above points also took you out of the movie or not. The IMHO is whether or not you think real cops actually talk that way. What do you think?

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I dunno about cops. But suits? Have you listened to the Enron tapes? They tend to weaken your f*cking argument.

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First of all, I saw the film and think it will probably win the Oscar as Best Film (but we will see what else emerges before then).

Yes, in part I agree. Some of the dialog seemed to be pushing the “macho” cop/gangster image in places that seemed somehow out of place. As you mentioned, in a bar or at home with a beer watching football with the guys, I might have believed it, but it was odd that in this film, it (racism and profanity) just didn’t work like it does in most films like this.

Maybe it was because the rest of the film was written so well that it seemed somehow unnecessary.

I read in a review that it was intentional for Nicholson to say “nigger” in the opening scene of the film to show he was not a nice guy, and that the film was not going to be a nice film.

Like you, I am far from a prude, nor am I so PC that it offended me. Still, it was almost like it was an afterthought, and again - the film was so well-written that those slurs really didn’t fit.

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I thought Wahlberg’s profanity in the boardroom made sense, since (if I’m remembering correctly) he didn’t like working with Baldwin or the group in the boardroom. They didn’t have any authority over him, and he was confident enough in his ability and current position that he knew he could say what he wanted and Sheen wouldn’t fire him.

I think it also made sense with the interview with DiCaprio- Wahlberg was trying to provoke him to see how he’d react. They wanted him to do a very dangerous undercover job, and they wanted to see if he really wanted to do it and wouldn’t mess it up. Wahlberg was trying to see if DiCaprio really wanted to be a cop and do good for the city, or if he wanted to be a cop just so he’d have permission for violence.

If Wahlberg had been in front of a bunch of cops or suits he respected, or had been in a typical interview with a new cop, then the profanity and racism would have been a little out of place, but I think in the context of the movie, it worked.

That’s just my take on the movie though; I really need to see it again, because I’m sure there’s stuff I missed.