thoughts on...the departed

martin scorcese has been one of those directors i've always wanted to like, i think because in film school if you didn't like him, you were scum of the earth. i wanted to understand his devout following and divine like reverence. but up until yesterday, i'd never found cinematic satisfaction in one of his films. i hoped, i really did, that i would like, nay i would love, the departed. by the way, i got to see it free courtesy of eric, to which i am deeply appreciative.

that being said, i can't really say i liked the movie. and i've come to the conclusion that i can't connect with scorcese's films. it's frustrating. maybe i'm so removed from the complex culture he portrays in his films that i can't invest myself in his characters. maybe the simple fact is i can't understand the stories he tells because i've never been there. see, i'm not debating his ability to tell the story, i'm debating the story.

visually, the film is striking, and the plot is tightly woven, even if there are parts of the film i could do without. scorcese's full frontal portrayal of violence for me in this film was almost approaching a kill bill level, to the point where i started to not care....all these characters were so corrupt, they had no redeeming qualities, nothing to live for anwyay. i never understood why any of them did what they did. maybe that was the point, but it seemed pretty pointless. i kept wondering when the movie was going to end. when the film was over, i did, and still do to some extent, have questions about what was scorcese trying to say? his portrayal of everyone in the film is that they're all corrupt, and most of them died. live by the sword, die by the sword? humans are, at their core, horrible, wretched beings? sooner or later we all face judgment?

if you've seen the film and have any insights, or think i'm a moron because scorcese isn't on my top 5 directors list, please feel free to comment.

2 out of 5 stars.

by the way, babel opens today everywhere. go see it!!!