The Departed (spoiler)

its a shot for shot remake of a asian movie called "enternal affairs". Enternal Affairs was a just better, sound, shots as well... and had a better ending.

I know scorsese is an amazing director, and departed had an all star cast. The action in enternal affairs and the suspense was just amazing. Give it a shot, It's subtitled tho. But so is City of God.
 
Curtis.Laronde said:
its a shot for shot remake of a asian movie called "enternal affairs". Enternal Affairs was a just better, sound, shots as well... and had a better ending.

I know scorsese is an amazing director, and departed had an all star cast. The action in enternal affairs and the suspense was just amazing. Give it a shot, It's subtitled tho. But so is City of God.
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I saw Internal Affairs and in my opinion The Departed is a much better version.
 
Just as a point of clarification, it's Infernal Affairs, not internal.

I enjoyed The Departed a great deal. Haven't seen IA yet, still need to check it out one of these days.

That elevator scene completely blew me away (pun?). Unfortunately I was kind of expecting Leo to die since someone had alluded to it before I saw it, but the quickness and brutality the whole scene goes down with is pretty jaw dropping.
 
Curtis.Laronde said:
its a shot for shot remake of a asian movie called "enternal affairs". Enternal Affairs was a just better, sound, shots as well... and had a better ending.

I know scorsese is an amazing director, and departed had an all star cast. The action in enternal affairs and the suspense was just amazing. Give it a shot, It's subtitled tho. But so is City of God.
Click to expand...

I need to netflix this one.

Scorsese is a god and I'll not be biased, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
I swear I'm not a Scorsese basher, but what are the chances of a mob mole and a police mole whose efforts center around the same Irish Don unknowingly sharing the same woman in a city the size of Boston? I hate to knock the likes of William Monahan--the script is tremendous in so many way, but that kind of happenstance is overstructuring I think .
 
David Jimerson said:
I have not seen Infernal Affairs, but I'm going to guess that The Departed is NOT a shot-for-shot remake.
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You're right, David. It's NOT a shot-for-shot remake...not even close. I really enjoyed The Departed. I ended up buying Infernal Affairs to see what all the hubbub was about. It's not bad but it's nowhere near as good as The Departed. I guess I should've gone to Netflix.

To fans of Asian Cinema, I'm sure it is a great movie and they hate the idea that it was remade by Scorsese. What they don't want to recognize is that without The Departed, most of the population would have never even heard of Infernal Affairs. It's nice to watch Infernal Affairs as the source material for The Departed, then decide for yourself which you like better.
 
I saw Internal Affairs after I saw The Departed, and I like The Departed more, but I imagine if I had seen them in the opposite order, I would like Internal Affairs more.

They're both good films though.
 
Mark Walberg is the true gem of that film. His performance is sublime. He almost stole the show. Baldwin was awesome too even though he had very little screen time. DiCaprio and Damon did a competent job. The weakest link in the whole film was Jack Nicholson. He "phoned in" that performance. Absentee ballot acting. The restaurant sequence where he asks Leo, "You know what I like about restaurants?" was more lame than Marlon Brando's improvisation in Apocalypse Now.
 
Drew Ott said:
I saw Internal Affairs after I saw The Departed, and I like The Departed more, but I imagine if I had seen them in the opposite order, I would like Internal Affairs more.

They're both good films though.
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Exactly. I've seen Infernal Affairs first. I really liked The Departed, but it always feels like a stolen story and the hollywood ending really sucked. Why kill Matt Damon? Why can't it just be a bad ending? I don't get it. It totally ruins the end.

Of course the overall feeling of a big hollywood production is better. As well as you can identify yourself better with western actors. Thats probably one of the biggest factors why many people like The Departed more.
 
The Departed winning the Oscar for best picture, for me, was a mixture of joy for one of my favourite directors finally getting his much deserved best director Oscar, but, at the same time, an insult to his previous work. Why ? Because I really do feel the Departed is an inferior Scorcese film.

And I say inferior, obviously because I first saw "Infernal Affairs".

I'm a fan of Asian cinema (ok, world cinema in general :) ), and the original, which had its own "all star cast", including "heavyweights" like Tony Leung (In The Mood for Love, Hero), Andy Lau, Eric Tsang, among others, was, in itself, a fantastic thriller and a movie that by its own right deserved Western Award recognition. It wasn't, in my view, at all inferior to "The Departed", excelling even in certain character development and depth, as well as a much more "realistic" and "food for tought" ending.

It was shot by long time Wong Kar Wai cameraman Andrew Lau, which is quite apparent by the intense, classy and stylish look of the film, as well as the beautifully lensed cinematography. It was heavily awarded in Asia. (HK Movie Awards, Asian Movie Awards Taiwan, with awards for Best Actor performance to Tony Leung, etc.).

"The Departed" script is an almost carbon copy of Infernal Affairs"- to the point of shockingly similar story board choices and pacing. This was, in my view, the most "Scorceseless" film Marty has ever done- and he was awarded by it. With previous masterpieces like The Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, Bringing Out The Dead, The Aviator not gaining recognition vs obviously inferior competition, this gaining the oscar was revolting.

I don't blame Scorcese here. He personaly stated he wasn't expecting much from the film, and certainly not an Oscar nod (and win!)

I suggest everyone to really give a chance and view "Infernal Affairs", baring in mind that it was the original idea, the original movie, and immediately watch "The Departed" afterwards. Then post their experience.

Also, if you have the chance, watch "Infernal Affairs 2". Its superior to the first IMHO, and has probably one of the most impressive opening sequences ever. I suggest searching for Infernal Affairs 2 opening in youtube.

EDIT- Here's that Opening. Directed by Andrew Lau.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=516Ps-R_utM

EDIT AGAIN- Forget about "Infernal Affairs 3"- it was a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy.
 
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Honestly, I felt The Departed was by far the most entertaining Scorsese film - not necessarily the best in an artistic sense, but the most aesthetically and cinematically pleasing as an audience member. I haven't seen Infernal Affairs, but I have heard that The Departed is a pretty darn close remake.

But, if you think about it, it takes a master to make something great even better.
 
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