Released in 2006, The Departed was an all round success. It grossed $291.5 million worldwide against a $90 million budget, earned Martin Scorsese his first ever Oscar win, and reignited the crime drama in cinema. 20 years later, it still regularly tops the streaming charts.
Led by Leonardo DiCaprio, The Departed is a star-studded crime epic that masterfully explores themes of identity, loyalty, and the pervasive corruption that blurs the lines between law enforcement and organized crime. Widely considered to be one of Scorsese’s finest movies, the fact that it holds up so well today cements that. So, let’s revisit this masterpiece and delve into some behind the scenes facts and easter eggs you may have missed.
The Real-Life Inspiration Behind The Departed
The Departed centres on the Irish mob in Boston. Ran by the eccentric and vicious Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson), the crew runs all of South Boston with iron fists, managing to operate somewhat under the radar thanks to the shady policeman on their payroll. While not directly a story about his life, The Departed‘s main inspiration for Costello was infamous Irish gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, the leader of the Winter Hill Gang in South Boston. The similarity here is that Bulger was outed as a rat for cooperating with the FBI, just like Costello. To help with the authenticity of the film, Scorsese brought in John “Red” Shea, a former senior figure of Bulger’s crew, to act as an advisor and read lines with the stars.
The Hong Kong Connection
While The Departed is loosely based on Whitey Bulger, it is first and foremost a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong crime film, Infernal Affairs. The core plot of both films is almost identical; a cat-and-mouse game between an undercover cop and a mole within the police force. Reportedly, Martin Scorsese didn’t realize the movie was a remake until he had already begun filming it.
Brad Pitt’s Move to Producer
Before Matt Damon signed on to star as the sleazy bent cop Colin Sullivan, Brad Pitt was first on Scorsese’s wish list. Feeling he was too old to play a cop the same age as DiCaprio’s character, he turned the role down but stayed on board as a producer. This could have been his first ever Oscar as the film won Best Picture, however, he was not classed as being one of the eligible 3 major producers of The Departed, due to his production company out-sourcing much of the day-to-day work. Pitt’s first Oscar would come in 2014 as a producer on 12 Years a Slave. He would then win in the Best Supporting Actor category in 2020 when he finally shared the screen with DiCaprio in Quentin Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Other Casting Possibilities
Before Nicholson boarded the film, Scorsese’s first pick for Costello was Al Pacino. By this point, the two had never worked together but had both expressed interest in joining forces. However, Pacino turned the role down. The two cinematic legends wouldn’t work together until 2019 with Netflix’s gangster epic, The Irishman.
Robert De Niro was also eyed for the role of Captain Queenan before Martin Sheen but turned it down to direct The Good Shepherd. Before the relatively unknown Vera Farmiga stepped into the role of Madolyn, Scorsese was considering Kate Winslet, Emily Blunt, Hilary Swank, and Jennifer Aniston.
Jack Nicholson’s Wild Improvisations
Jack Nicholson is certainly known to take his characters to wacky places. In The Departed, he elevated his role as a vicious gangster by incorporating wild improvisations and dark comedic moments. For instance, saying “she falls funny” after shooting a woman was not in the original script. His improvs took his castmates by surprise at times too. In their first scene together in the porn theater, Nicholson completely baffled Matt Damon by wearing a strap-on adult toy. Lastly, the infamous scene where Costello throws cocaine on prostitutes was thought up on the spot by Nicholson.
“X” Marks Death
Eagle-eyed film buffs will notice that Scorsese uses imagery of “X”s to either foreshadow a character’s death or subtly place it in the frame during the death scene. This was a homage to Howard Hawks‘ 1932 Scarface, which does the exact same thing. Throughout The Departed, these haunting X symbols appear through window panels, support beams, graffiti, markers, duct tape, and computer screens.
The Controversial Rat
A common word used in The Departed is “rat” – meaning a traitor, a snitch, or a cooperator. So, it seems rather fitting that the film’s final scene sees a rat walk across the balcony of Sullivan’s apartment after he is slain for being the biggest rat of them all. However, many fans didn’t take kindly to the sequence, with many feeling it cheapened the tone and was a little too on the nose and a slice of heavy-handed symbolism. In fact, people hated it that much that many signed a petition to have it removed from the movie. This campaign was short-lived as Warner Bros. shut it down for copyright infringement.
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