The Departed 6.5 / Infernal Affairs 9
OK, I'm gonna go on a rant here. I had an argument about this last night and saw IA mentioned in another thread so anyone who doesn't want to be spoiled stop reading
SPOILERS AHEAD
Right, I'm often accused by my mates of hating The Departed. This isn't true, I think it's a very good film, highly enjoyable and well acted. I can gladly sit through it 3 or 4 times. Problem is, everything good about it is ripped straight from Infernal Affairs and everything bad about it is added in. And the adds in make it far far worse than it's original counterpart. How Scorsese and WIllian Monahan in particular walked away with Oscars for this is something that annoys me greatly....It's not that it was bad, but that they managed to remake a film, with more money, great actors, a great director and all the freedom in the world, and they made it worse!!...How is that an achievement!
First off, Marky Mark. Now Mark is actually a good edition character wise. His character doesn't exist in the original and in terms of dialogue and on screen presence he's great. Problem is, his character is completely pointless and in 2 crucial instances, ruins the film for me. In The Departed when Martin Sheen's character is thrown from the roof (played out exactly as it did in IA) it's not the pivotal moment is should be because Marky Mark exists. In IA, he is the only person who knows the Di Caprio/Tony Leung Character is undercover so his death is a shocking and significant event. Thats it for Leo/Leung as far as we know. In TD, Marky Mark knows, so the whole importance is removed.
Then he comes into play again at the end by shooting the Matt Damon/Andy Lau character. There are several things here that annoy me. Firstly Damon is given no profound characterization in the film. He's the bad guy and we hate him. In IA, Lau is given a (forgive the word) journey in which he gradually comes to realize he's the bad guy and tries to atone for his ways. The shooting of his boss is the first step in this, not born out of self preservation as in The Departed, but down as much to guilt & atonement as it is to betrayal & saving his own skin.
Lau is actually the more interesting of the 2 in IA and crucially is the one who re-instates Di Caprio/Leung's status as a policeman after his death, even going so far as to bury him next to the captain. Something he does out of choice, not desperation.
The whole point of Infernal Affairs is the duality and jealously between the two. Both wished to have lived the other life. Di Caprio/Leung wanted the life of a respectable police man and Damon/Lau wanted the love and appreciation of The Gangster. In the end Lau is extremely jealous of Leung for doing the right thing. This is demonstrated beautifully in the last line of the film, one completely cut from The Departed.
At the begining, when both are in the Acadamy and Di Caprio/Leung is faux thrown out, they do it publically in IA, with the officer throwing him out telling the other cadets (including the Lau/Damon character) "Who wants to be like this man?" as a threat for those who don't take it seriously....At the funeral Lau thinks back to this incident and then says to himself - "I do". Brilliant!...Except in The Departed we end on Marky Mark shooting Damon/Lau because he's the bad guy, and then a rat scuttles past in some pathetic attempt at a visual metaphor that presumably seems cool to Monahan/Scorsese (yeah he's a rat, geddit? don't be a rat!!..feck yeah!!)
Then we have the stupid love triangle were Di Caprio (being the hero) sleeps with Damon's (being the villian) girl. In the end we find out Damon in impotent and shit in bed and the baby is probably Di Caprio's...What? Utter wanky bollocks....no such hokey macho one-up-manship hollywood tripe happens in Infernal Affairs and I'm glad it didn't...
Even the title is better!...Infernal Affiars (the original Hong Kong title referenced the lowest circle of Hell, so 'Infernal' play on 'Internal Affairs' is a brilliant bit of word play) Whereas 'The Departed is just some suedo intellectual guff Jack spouts about the dead.
In summary if you've seen The Departed, watch Infernal Affairs, If you've seen neither, watch Infernal Affairs FIRST!
Mega rant over..