Revisited: THE DEPARTED

While I still believe that Scorsese’s long-deserved Oscar should have been for any other of the gifts he’s bestowed upon us for the last 50 years and that the original, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, is better, I can say that, having revisited THE DEPARTED this weekend for the first time in almost a decade, it nonetheless remains an enjoyable pulp crime / dark (darkdarkdarkdark) comedy / fever dream love letter to the great crime films (including his own) – in a way, Scorsese channeling Tarantino – with the ending in particular being the closest we’ll get to a Scorsese slapstick comedy, his version of the Keystone Kops (capped off with a THIRD MAN homage following the funeral).

The first in a modern homage trilogy for Scorsese (though everything he does wears his love of each genre he tackles on its sleeve)? THE DEPARTED as fever-dream-delirium-homage to pulp crime fiction / crime films; SHUTTER ISLAND a hallucinatory love letter to Hitchcock and B-thrillers (much in the vein of 1991’s CAPE FEAR and not as well-executed, though I do want to revisit both films); and HUGO a joyous song sung to cinematic history and the magic of early moviemaking?

It’s quite possible that I liked it, THE DEPARTED, far more this time around than the first time I saw it. Maybe I just missed Boston. Or needed the delirium.