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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Departed, The
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Universal acclaim
Based on 39 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 518 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Crime | Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
William Monahan
Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong (screenplay Wu jian dao, aka Infernal Affairs)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Release Date:
Theatrical: October 6, 2006
DVD: February 13, 2007
Running Time: 149 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong brutal violence, pervasive language, some strong sexual content and drug material
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin
This gritty crime drama from director Martin Scorsese takes us into the lives of two cops: Colin Sullivan (Damon), smart and unabashedly ambitious, appears to be on the fast track in the Massachusetts State Police Department's elite Special Investigations Unit, whose prime target is powerful Irish mob boss Frank Costello (Nicholson). Billy Costigan (DiCaprio), street-smart and tough, is purported to have a violent temper that costs him his badge and eventually lands him back on the rough streets of South Boston, where he is recruited into Costello's ranks. But neither man is what he seems and, as they work at cross purposes, they are plunged into a dangerous game of cat and mouse in which the stakes could not be higher. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
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TV: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
A new American crime classic from the legendary Martin Scorsese, whose talent shines here on its highest beams.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
The Departed is Scorsese's most purely enjoyable movie in years. But it's not for the faint of heart. It's rude, bleak, violent and defiantly un-PC. But if you doubt that it's also OK to laugh throughout this rat's nest of paranoia, deceit and bloodshed, keep your eyes on the final frames. Scorsese's parting shot is an uncharacteristic, but well-earned, wink.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
The original film was gritty and entertaining ("Infernal Affairs"); the new version is a masterpiece - the best effort Scorsese has brought to the screen since "Goodfellas."
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
A triumphant revisiting of territory in which Scorsese is an unchallenged master -- the crime drama.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
DiCaprio harnesses a terrific, buggy intensity reminiscent of "GoodFellas'" hopped-up Henry Hill (Ray Liotta).
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
When a director of Scorsese's caliber is working at the top of his game, it's a reminder of why we go to the movies in the first place.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The screenplay, by William Monahan, is simply sensational. Scenes play brilliantly. Feelings flow like molten lava. The dialogue overflows with edgy wit and acidulous arias of imprecation.
Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
This is the most vibrant, exciting and invigorating movie-movie of the year.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Thelma Schoonmaker, a Scorsese collaborator for over a quarter-century, did the bull's-eye editing. The moviemaking throughout is swift, unaffected, masterly.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
It is intriguing to wonder what Scorsese saw in the Hong Kong movie that inspired him to make the second remake of his career (after "Cape Fear"). I think he instantly recognized that this story, at a buried level, brought two sides of his art and psyche into equal focus.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It isn't in the same league as the director's best work, chiefly because it lacks the bravura flourishes of cinematic craft that helped make his name. But it's so vital and bloody and funny and wicked and tense and unapologetic that it feels kin to those films, which little of the director's work of the past decade has managed to pull off.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Whatever it is, the film is the first major release of the fall worth talking about: a fast-paced, visually slick, psychologically fascinating Boston-set cops-and-crooks saga.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The very title The Departed suggests a James Joycean take on Irish-Catholic sentiment when, of course, this story is anything but: It's Scorsesean, and he's in full bloom.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
DiCaprio's performance is a revelation only for those who have underestimated him. In Scorsese's previous films, "The Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator," he seemed callow and miscast, but here he has the presence of a full-bodied adult. He's grown into his emotions.
Read Full Review >Variety Todd McCarthy
This reworking of a popular Hong Kong picture pulses with energy, tangy dialogue and crackling performances from a fine cast.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Scorsese didn't need to remake "Infernal Affairs," but what he has done with it is a compliment rather than an affront to the original: The Departed reimagines its source material rather than just leeching off it, preserving the bone structure of the first movie while finding new curves in it. The story has been clarified; the ellipses of the original have been filled in with just the right amount of exploratory shading. This is a picture of grand gestures and subtle intricacies, a movie that, even at more than two hours long, feels miraculously lean. It's a smart shot of lucid storytelling.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
This is a dream cast for both Scorsese and the viewer, and everyone is working at the peak of their craft. Nicholson's flawless performance as the increasingly unhinged crime boss is a marvel of manic, paranoid ruination.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
When The Departed roars to life, as it does in so many of its scenes, you feel like nobody understands movies -- the delirious highs, the unforgiving moral depths -- as well as this man does. Welcome back, Marty.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
The profanity-laced but witty and literate dialogue by William Monahan ("Kingdom of Heaven") is delivered by a brilliantly chosen cast, almost all of whom are operating at the very top of their game.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The film's score and editing brilliantly heighten the film's energy, keeping the audience somewhat off-kilter and unsure where things are headed.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
It's a movie with a pulse. Sometimes, it flies off the chart.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
What helps make The Departed at once a success and a relief isn't that the director of "Kundun," Mr. Scorsese's deeply felt film about the Dalai Lama, is back on the mean streets where he belongs; what's at stake here is the film and the filmmaking, not the director's epic importance.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Frequently excessive but never dull, The Departed is a little too much of a lot of the things that define Martin Scorsese films but it's also almost impossible to resist. Too operatic at times, too in love with violence and macho posturing at others, it's a potboiler dressed up in upscale designer clothes, but oh how that pot does boil.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Crackles right along, stopping only long enough for Scorsese's signature bursts of explosive violence. Those brawls feel a bit rote, but what's different here is a newfound playful humor.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
The movie works smashingly, especially if you haven't seen its Hong Kong counterpart and haven't a clue what's coming. But for all its snap, crackle, and pop, it's nowhere near as galvanic emotionally.
Read Full Review >Empire Roberto Sadovski
Back to the streets and with a stellar cast, Martin Scorsese proves once again that he's the master of urban storytelling -- and of thrillingly violent filmmaking.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Not one of Scorsese's greatest films; it doesn't use the camera to reveal the psychological and aesthetic dimensions of an entire world, as "Mean Streets," "Taxi Driver," "Raging Bull," and "Goodfellas" did. But it's a viciously merry, violent, high-wattage entertainment, and speech is the most brazenly flamboyant element in it.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The Departed exists in a movie-place about as far from personal statements as a storied director can get. Maybe those days for Scorsese are long gone. But Scorsese's sense of craft remains sure.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
There's no attempt at greatness here, just a fabulously successful attempt at a good crime movie. The Oscar-bait self-consciousness of "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator" is gone. In its place is a buoyancy, an impish delight in telling a harsh urban story in the most effective terms possible.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The Departed is completely engrossing, a master class in suspense. But in moral terms it may be the least involving story that Scorsese -- an artist much preoccupied with morality -- has ever taken on.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
This isn't to say The Departed is a bad movie, far from it, but knowing who's directing it and the amount of talent he had to work with, it's hard not to be disappointed that Scorsese didn't knock us on our asses. Is it his best movie since "Goodfellas?" Sure, but it falls shy of that film's excellence.
Read Full Review >Slate Dana Stevens
It's nice to see Scorsese back in the saddle and a treat to find a cops-and-robbers thriller with some energy and wit. But even so, it's a stylish head rush of a movie that flies by, even at two-and-a-half hours, and keeps turning the knife (and your stomach) up to the final scene.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
Rarely has a star's look-at-me turn so completely torpedoed a project. Whenever the picture threatens to gain some momentum, up pops Jack to stop it dead in its tracks. The loyal few may be laughing with him, but the rest of us are definitely laughing at him.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Neither a debacle nor a bore, The Departed works but only up to a point, and never emotionally--even if the director does contrive to supply his version of a happy ending.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Scorsese in his prime might've made better use of this hamming, but this picture feels like an exercise by a Scorsese clone who has tackled the master's themes - without his energy and economy of style.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Is Scorsese desperate? This screenplay has the scent of it, as if he is scraping for material to feed his basic filmic interests. But the risk in this case--not evaded--was that his need led him close to painful strain. I can't remember another Scorsese moment as shockingly banal as the finishing touch here.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 518 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Keith P gave it a10:
This is a great movie. I can see why it won the Academy Award for Best Picture. The actors in this movie did their roles well.
ER Man gave it a10:
The most successful movie following the infamous GoodFellows. Filled with a brilliant cast from the main characters like Leonardo Dicaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg to top actors with very few scenes like Alec Baldwin. The Departed is a bloody violent suspense. Keeping the viewer entertained with the amazing acting and compelling srory, which will be keeping you at the edge of your seat by plot twists that I never saw coming. A true action packed thriller that is more than worth your money. I highly recommend The Departed, which the critics are crazy about. See this movie!!!
[Anonymous] gave it a9:
An amazing film. Mark Walberg is the best actor in the whole movie besides Jack Nicholson.
Kyle B gave it a10:
Amazing movie. The actors they got for this movie were all terrific. The directing and writing in this movie was fantastic and the overall plot was awesome. BRAVO!
Joe B gave it a7:
It certainly doesn't trump Scorese's past works, but you can see his brilliance in some parts. It is not the least sentimental, and I doubt that it was Oscar-worthy, compared to his last brilliances, such as Goodfellas and Taxi Driver. The characters are not defined at all. The only aspect of the writing that is decent is the characterization of Boston. But that doesn't make a good movie. Instead of relying on the characters, this film relies on the plot, which is a terrible mistake. I don't know how Scorsese made this screenplay into a decent movie. No one else could, and I guess that's what separates some directors from others. Only a true genius like Scorsese could make this Bourne-esque movie into a barely decent one.
J S gave it a6:
The reviews for this movie were very misleading. I didn't realise going in that all the positive reviews were just making Scorsese a free ticket for an oscar. Its shameful that the academy gave into the hype for this movie, but insulted The Dark Knight by inferring people only liked it for Ledger. This movie was just a cheap thriller with a novel plot. You can tell the script was written by a hollywood prince who has no dealings with the outside world. It was a lot like a Quentin Tarantino movie; no texture, just the unrealistic overuse of language you'd only hear on a 6th grade school yard, and intense random violence. Speaking of language, the movie manages to demean the Boston area police to a greater extent than they have in real life. I can't imagine professionals at a meeting for a major police agency jokingly yelling 'I did your mom!' to each other. It had a lot of good acting all around, I'll give it that. Even Alec Baldwin manages to avoid being unbearable; and thankfully he isn't in many scenes. Their attempt to make you hate Mark Wahlberg's character throughout 3/4s the movie and then flip him to being a 'good guy' didn't float with me; it actually seemed goofy. Jack Nicholson reprises his role as The Joker, which seems better this time around. The character writing is so juvenile that 12 year olds could have easily played most of the parts. I think its interesting that in most movies like this they try to show a human side to the villains... But this movie goes above and beyond: dehumanizing everyone in the world other than two characters. If you aren't a scumbag you can't relate to 98% of the people in this film. Strangely, some elements of the film reminds me of Robocop. The way several of the characters die and Jack Nicholson's randomly breaking in with his party girls reminded me of the "I'd Buy That for a Dollar!" guy. But I actually liked Robocop. Usually when I see a movie that is grossly violent I look for some kind of meaning in the whole plot. Well, there is none in The Departed. Its just a bunch of thugs who kill people violently, and then die violently themselves. With a slight amount of intrigue in between, I could easily confuse this for one of the Bourne films.
caporegime gave it a10:
Great movie. This puts the Irish gangsters more fierce and unpredictable than the Italian gangsters today.
