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[Morticcia]

Can anyone here please tell me what the ending of the Departed was supposed to impart?

I waited patiently for a few weeks for netflix to get a copy of this much ballyhooed movie to us. Now, it's got a great cast, it's about Beantown and just as importantly it was FILMED in Boston. It was even filmed inside and outside the old Hurley building, the scene of my first office job back in the early '90's. Woohoo. But then.

At the end when the bodies piled up like oh so much dander, I got really pissed off. What the hell is that all about? I'm obtuse I know that. I can miss the metaphor even when it's spelled out in neon lights five feet high. What am I missing?

Now if the ending was realistic I could accept it without comprehension. That's life, it's not always a metaphor for something important. It just is, stupid sometimes, brilliant, other times. But the ending doesn't make sense.

Now I freely admit to not seeing almost all the mob type movies out there. It's a conscious choice. So maybe there is an homage I'm missing out on, but really it seems as if Scorcese took a page out of Tarantino but decided the requisite heaping helping of irony was unnecessary for his opus.

And maybe if I had the second disk with the special features, I would be more enlightened. Maybe.

I'd appreciate any help on the subject. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

[Muji]

Personally, I kind of saw it as a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" sort of thing.

The "good guy" (Leo), despite constantly trying to do his best and continuously pushing onwards in the face of adversity—for great justice—nonetheless meets his end in what might one consider to be a "fitting" way, considering the life he's led and the events that brought him up to that fatal moment in time; enmeshed as he was in the deadly world of undercover work, despite his best efforts, it got the better of him in the end. But hey, at least he "won", his work helping to undo Nicholson's tangled web.

The "bad guy" (Matt), on the other hand seemed like he was gonna get away with it... and considering he was more grey than black, that was almost acceptable. Despite clearly being a "bad guy", the impression was also given that, near the end, he had decided to turn his back upon that world. Also considering his origins, it was hard to seem him as a truly evil man. Instead, he was simply an opportunist, taught by his apparently hard childhood to take what he could out of life by any means.

But he couldn't get away, could he? Not fair to give the bad guy a happy ending. And he was so close, too, all the loose ends tied up! Oh, but Mr. Second In Command (Mark) had to hunt him down at the very end...

I guess I would have found that more forgivable and less deus ex machina if there had been a bit more foreshadowing. The character simply disappeared completely off the radar and then, boom, back at the end to wrap everything up in a nice little package.

...

An extra bit of info, in case you didn't know:

The Departed is actually a remake of a Hong Kong movie called Internal Affairs.

From Wiki, on the original's ending(s):

Quote: The original ending climaxes with Ming identifying himself to the police as an officer, and paying homage to Yan at his funeral, where he is buried next to Superintendent Wong. A flashback reaffirms the point that Ming wished he had taken a different route in his life.

An alternate ending of Infernal Affairs was created for mainland China. The alternate ending has Ming exit the lift to be informed that the police force have found evidence that he was a mole. He hands them his badge and is arrested without protest. This ending was meant to please mainland officials by affirming that crime does not pay.

My guess is that "the bad guy wins in the end" didn't seem like an appropriate ending for a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster (as no doubt Scorsese and the producers knew The Departed would be), and "the bad guy gets found out and peacefully gives up at the end" seemed somewhat... lacking/weak by Western standards (The Departed no doubt not having the moral depth, ambiguity and questioning of the original), they were pretty much only left with the "the character you forgot about comes back at the last minute and kills the bad guy" ending.

[JuntaJoe]

I saw the ending coming.

You never let Mark Walberg off your radar until he gets to kill something in a movie. :lol:

[Morticcia]

I remember reading it was based on the movie, Internal Affairs, but the outline of the plot also resembles the real life and times of Whitey Bulger, an Boston Irish mob guy who was allowed to maintain his life of crime all the while he was a FBI informant.

His handler is now in jail.

The FBI tipped him off before the law could pick him up and he's been mia ever since. He's one of America's top ten most wanted. Both Marky Mark and Matt Damon grew up in the neighborhoods dominated by his presence.

I still maintain the ending was very D list, imnsho. :(

[bannie]

JuntaJoe wrote: I saw the ending coming.

You never let Mark Walberg off your radar until he gets to kill something in a movie. :lol:


Same here

I think, with the exception of Baldwin, every single characters story is wrapped up except for Walberg who just vanishes. It wasnt his character to just leave after all the ball busting he did in the film. I know I was smiling when he showed up


The rat at the end pissed me off to no end though