The Departed (2006) ft. Peterson W. Hill
Guests:
Peterson W. Hill - Co-Host of the War Starts at Midnight podcast
@petersonwhill on IG, Letterboxd, and Twitter
16x Previous Guest
Cast:
Martin Scorsese, Director
William Monahan, Writer
Michael Ballhaus, Cinematography
Howard Shore, Music
Thelma Schoonmaker, Editing
Leonardo DiCaprio as Trooper William "Billy" Costigan Jr.
Matt Damon as Staff Sergeant Colin Sullivan
Jack Nicholson as Francis "Frank" Costello
Mark Wahlberg as Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam
Martin Sheen as Captain Oliver "Charlie" Queenan
Ray Winstone as Arnold "Frenchie" French
Vera Farmiga as Dr. Madolyn Madden
Alec Baldwin as Captain George Ellerby
Anthony Anderson as Trooper Brown
Kevin Corrigan as Sean Costigan
James Badge Dale as Trooper Barrigan
David O'Hara as Patrick "Fitzy" Fitzgibbons
Mark Rolston as Timothy Delahunt
Background:
The Departed was released on October 6, 2006.
On a rough budget of $90 million, the film would gross over $291 million to finish #14 at the worldwide box office for 2006.
Critics were effusive in their praise in the moment with many notable critics having the film on their top 10 lists for the year and the decade.
The Departed was nominated for 5 Oscars including Best Supporting Actor (Wahlberg) and winning 4 of those for Best Picture, Director (Scorsese), Adapted Screenplay (Monahan), and Editing (Schoonmaker).
In 2021, members of Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) and Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) ranked its screenplay 30th in WGA's "101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (so far)".
In 2025, the film ranked number 31 on The New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century" and number 25 on the "Readers' Choice" edition of the list.
The Departed currently holds a 91% among critics on RT, an 85 score on Metacritic, and a 4.4/5 on Letterboxd.
Plot Summary: In The Departed, the story gives us a thrilling, double-blind paradox: Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is an undercover state trooper trying to take down Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) from the inside. Meanwhile, Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is a golden-boy state trooper who is secretly a mole reporting back to Costello. When both sides realize they have a rat in their house, a paranoid race begins as both moles must uncover the other's identity before they are exposed and killed. It’s a cat-and-mouse game where both men are playing both roles.
Did You Know:
Martin Scorsese really wanted Al Pacino for the role of Costello, because he had never worked with Pacino before, but he turned it down. Jack Nicholson was Scorsese's second choice. After Jack Nicholson joined the cast, his character was re-written to give him a bigger part.
Mark Wahlberg easily fell back on his native accent. Martin Scorsese joked it was so thick, they'd need subtitles.
Vera Farmiga met with a real LAPD psychiatrist to prepare for her role. The psychiatrist read the script, and told Farmiga that Madolyn did pretty much everything wrong.
Leonardo DiCaprio called his one-on-one scene with Jack Nicholson "one of the most memorable moments of my life."
According to Ray Winstone, he and Jack Nicholson did not get along with each other while filming.
Martin Scorsese did not realize this was a remake of a Hong Kong movie until after he had agreed to direct it.
Matt Damon decided his character should be impotent to counter Frank's macho personality.
In the scene when Leonardo DiCaprio is at the airport, the little girl that is seen with the pink backpack is Martin Scorsese's daughter Francesca.
Colin Sullivan's apartment does not exist. The view of the Massachusetts State House was an effects shot from the roof of Suffolk University, which is the law school where Sullivan says he is taking night classes. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus evaluated the shot during pre-production.
Best Performance: Leonardo DiCaprio (Billy)
Best Secondary Performance: Matt Damon (Colin)/Thelma Schoonmaker (Editor)
Most Charismatic Award: Mark Wahlberg (Dignam)/Martin Sheen (Queenan)/William Monohan (Writer)
Best Scene:
Billy's Interview with Queenan
I'm Not a Cop
Shrinking
Microprocessor Meeting
Billy Follows Colin
Queenan's Demise
Billy Confronts Colin
Favorite Scene: Billy's Interview with Queenan/Billy Confronts Colin
Most Indelible Moment: Billy Confronts Colin/Queenan's Demise
In Memorium:
Dennis Haskins, 75, American actor (Saved by the Bell)
Best Lines/Funniest Lines:
Dignam: [observing an exchange of microprocessors for money between Costello and Chinese triad members] This is unbelievable. Who put the fuckin' cameras in this place?
Police Camera Tech: Who the fuck are you?
Dignam: I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.
Frank Costello: ...no one gives it to you. You have to take it.
Lazio: Without asking for too many details, do you have anyone in with Costello presently?
Dignam: Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck yourself. My theory on Feds is they're like mushrooms. Feed 'em shit and keep 'em in the dark. You girls have a good day.
Oliver Queenan: We have a question: Do you want to be a cop, or do you want to appear to be a cop? It's an honest question. A lot of guys just want to appear to be cops. Gun, badge, pretend they're on TV.
Dignam: Yeah, a lot of people just wanna slam a nigger's head through a plate-glass window.
Billy Costigan: You sit there with a mass murderer. A mass murderer. Your heart rate is jacked, and your hand... steady. That's one thing I figured out about myself in prison. My hand does not shake... ever.
Billy Costigan: Do you lie?
Madolyn: Why? Do you?
Billy Costigan: No, I'm asking if you lie.
Madolyn: Honesty is not synonymous with truth.
Billy Costigan: [amused] Yeah, you lie. You lie.
Billy Costigan: [to the bartender] Cranberry juice.
Man Glassed in Bar: It's a natural diuretic. My girlfriend drinks it when she's got her period. What, do you got your period?
Frank Costello: Jeez. She fell funny. [chuckles at the dead bodies]
Mr. French: Francis, you really should see somebody.
Frank Costello: I got this rat, this gnawing, cheese eating fuckin' rat and it brings up questions... You know, see, Bill, like you're the new guy. Girlfriend... Why don't you stay in the bar that night I got your numbers. Social Security numbers. Everybody's fuckin' numbers.
Billy Costigan: Is there something that you just wanna go ahead and ask me? 'Cause I'll give you the fuckin' answer, all right? Frank, look at me. Look at me. I'm not the fuckin' rat. Okay? I'm not the fuckin' rat.
Fitzy: I'm embarrassed. I still don't believe he was a cop, I don't believe it.
Frank Costello: The COPS... are saying he's a cop... so I won't look for the cop. Are you soft, Fitz? When I tell you... to dump a body in the marsh, you dump him *IN* the marsh. Not where some guy from John Hancock goes every Thursday, TO GET A FUCKING BLOWJOB!
Frank Costello: I don't want to be a product of my environment. I want my environment to be a product of me.
Frank Costello: What we generally do - in this country... is one guy brings the items and the other guy pays him. No tickee, no laundry!
Oliver Queenan: Do you know what we do here? My section?
Billy Costigan: Sir, yes, sir. I have an idea...
Dignam: [interrupting] Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's say you have no idea and leave it at that, okay? No idea. Zip. None. If you had an idea of what we do, we would not be good at what we do, now would we? We would be cunts. Are you calling us cunts?
Oliver Queenan: Staff Sergeant Dignam has a style of his own. I'm afraid we all have to get used to it.
Billy Costigan: There was a cop leaving when I came in.
Madolyn: How did you know he was a cop?
Billy Costigan: You know, bad haircut, no dress sense, and, you know, a slight air of scumbag entitlement.
Dignam: Your fuckin' family's dug into the Southie projects like ticks. Three-decker men at best. You, however, grew up on the North Shore, huh? Well, la-di-fuckin'-da. You were kind of a double kid, I bet, right? Huh? One kid with your old man, one kid with your mother. You're upper-middle class during the weeks, then you're droppin' your "R"s and you're hangin' in the big, bad Southie projects with your daddy, the fuckin' donkey on the weekends. I got that right?
Dignam: [Billy does not answer] Yup. You have different accents? You did, didn't you? You little fuckin' snake. You were like different people.
Billy Costigan: You a psychiatrist?
Dignam: Well, if I was I'd ask you why you're a Statie making 30 grand a year. And I think if I was Sigmund fuckin' Freud I wouldn't get an answer. So tell me, what's a lace-curtain motherfucker like you doing in the Staties?
Billy Costigan: Families are always rising or falling in America, am I right?
Oliver Queenan: Who said that?
Billy Costigan: Hawthorne.
Dignam: [Dignam makes a farting sound] What's the matter, smartass, you don't know any fuckin' Shakespeare?
Oliver Queenan: You're a worker. You'll rise fast.
Dignam: Like a 12-year-old's dick.
Frank Costello: When I was your age they would say we can become cops, or criminals. Today, what I'm saying to you is this: when you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?
Billy Costigan: Let me tell you something. They signed up to use their weapons; most of them, alright. But they watch enough TV so they know they have to weep after they use their weapons. There is no one more full of shit than a cop; except a cop on TV.
Ellerby: Marriage is an important part of getting ahead: lets people know you're not a homo; married guy seems more stable; people see the ring, they think at least somebody can stand the son of a bitch; ladies see the ring, they know immediately you must have some cash or your cock must work.
Frank Costello: I haven't needed money since I took Archie's milk money in the third grade. Tell you the truth, I don't need pussy anymore either, but I like it.
Colin Sullivan: What Freud said about the Irish is: We're the only people who are impervious to psychoanalysis.
The Stanley Rubric:
Legacy: 8.83
Impact/Significance: 9.33
Novelty: 8.33
Classic-ness: 7.5
Rewatchability: 8.83
Audience Score: 8.95 (8.5 IMDB, 94% RT)
Total: 51.77
Remaining Questions:
What does Billy give to Madolyn?
Why doesn't Billy try to expose Colin in the police department?
Why doesn't Billy hand over the evidence instead of trying to make a citizen's arrest?
How does Dignam find out?
There's a moment at the end where Colin pauses at the door while trying to open it. Does that mean anything?
Why doesn't Delahunt turn Billy in?
What is the rough timeline of this movie? (says that he's been seeing a shrink for 6 months, but we know that he's been with Costello for years)
What happens to the real microprocessors?
Who gets Billy's Medal of Merit?
Who's child is Madolyn pregnant with?
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