““The Departed” is a powerful police, criminal drama of deception and tension. Officer Billy Costigan (Leonardo DeCaprio) is a recent graduate of the Massachusetts state police academy placed deep under cover to infiltrate the mob gang of Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). Costello has his own informant Detective Sergeant Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) planted deeply and powerfully in the police department’s task force that investigates mob crime. “The Departed” is the story of the three men’s interrelations. The action thoughtfully drives the move and adds to the overall affect of the movie. Unlike some crime dramas there is no unjustified violence or excessive special affects. . . . .
. . . The movie runs for 151 minutes, following a trend to make movies longer, probably to justify charging ten dollars or so to watch them. Probably the movie could be cut by half an hour with careful editing and suffer no ill-effects. The movie is in color and the principal language is profanity. I’m old enough to remember when the “F-word” meant something other than the speaker was too ignorant or too lazy to think of another adjective. It wouldn’t hurt the movie, or my feelings, if half the profanity were cut.
