'The Departed 4K' Steelbook UHD Review
It's hard to write about Martin Scorsese as I've idolized him since I was a teenager. How do I not screw it up when trying to process my thoughts on one of my favorite directors since I was a teenager? Marty's most recent film, Killers of the Flower Moon, doesn't hold up the way some of his other works have. I'll still defend The Irishman to my last breath as it's earned its length. Mostly. Why? Because it's a story about a business relationship that becomes personal over many years. You're meant to see these characters age, whither, and die. Spotty CGI de-aging and all.
The Departed is Martin Scorsese's most commercial film outside of 2011's Hugo, which came out four years after the 2006 thriller. Inspired by Whitey Bulger's history and 1930's The Public Enemy, Martin Scorsese crafts a story about trust and betrayal in a thriller that stands the test of time. Not only that, but looking at it seventeen years later, it's a great period film. The Departed came out at the time that flip phones were the latest cell phones. The tension felt in the scene when William (Billy) Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) is calling Staff Sergeant Collin Sullivan's (Matt Damon) cell phone is nail-biting; it's an anxiety-inducing scene where the silence between the ringing builds stress. You could certainly replicate the scene with any type of phone, but there's something special in the silence and loudness of the ringing flip phone that makes the scene work so well.
The Departed is a relentlessly entertaining crime film. It's one of my favorite thrillers, mostly because I'm an unabashed Scorsese fan who will give the man the benefit of the doubt on almost any narrative he makes. There are cinephile filmmakers like Marty who are walking encyclopedias on film history, but few are quite as successful as Martin Scorsese. He's a man who has made anything from a mobster flick to a Jesus film to a concert movie or an autobiographical documentary on George Harrison. The man is far more than just the crime movie guy. But when he does crime, nobody has done it any better. If it weren't for Goodfellas, there would be no Sopranos.
It's not hard to trace allegories of Jesus in Scorsese's work, from Jake LaMotta repenting for his sins in the Sugar Ray Robinson in Raging Bull to Frank Costello's crucifixion-like pose when he's taken down in The Departed. Marty's Catholic upbringing can be found in Mean Streets to The Last Temptation of Christ. The Departed is one of Marty's most entertaining films next to Goodfellas. The movie is filled with twists that are endlessly engaging, making you wonder who's going to make it out or die next. It's deserving of its 2007 Best Picture Oscar. Of the fellow nominees, Little Miss Sunshine, Babel, and Letters from Iwo Jima are all excellent pictures. I have not seen The Queen, so I would not know how it compares. So how's the Steelbook already, you long-winded dork? Well, it depends on your setup.
First is the picture quality department. The Departed looks very good. Michael Ballhaus's cinematography's vast color space is faithfully preserved in the 4k Ultra HD disc. The film was originally shot on 35mm film with a hint of harsh blues in the frame, but not to the extent that everything is blue like it is in a Clint Eastwood film. The image is crisp and sharp, like it was just printed today. Unfortunately, I don't own a 4K television, so I have no idea how it would look with HDR (high dynamic range) enabled.
The sound is great if you have a recent home theater. If you're like me, who owns an outdated Harmon Kardon AVR 310 receiver with cubed Bose speakers, then you're out of luck on getting surround sound. An additional blue ray disc would have been a welcome addition like I had with Oppenheimer. The DTS HD and Dolby Surround won't be detected on an older sound system like mine but may run fine on yours if you have a home theater that hasn't come from the stone age. Not having a recent home theater to try it on, I can only assume the DTS HD and Dolby Surround sounds pristine. As a case of curiosity, I fired up my old double disc Departed DVD from when it originally hit the home video market to see how it stands up. The quality of my old system holds up surprisingly well. I fast-forwarded to the gunfight in the film to test out the surround sound. It used fewer of the rear speakers than I desired but still sounded better than my Steelbook version of the film. Even the picture quality, although upscaled from standard definition, looks clean.
The disc features the same special features as the original DVD, with the glaring exception of one. The Feature-Length TCM Career Profile: Scorsese on Scorsese. As it says in the title, the feature is the length of a movie profiling Martin Scorsese, commentating on his illustrious work. Also, there's no audio commentary, which would have been a welcome addition to the movie. Other features include a documentary about Whitey Bulger, nine deleted and extended scenes with an introduction by Martin Scorsese before each scene, and Southie and The Departed: Crossing Criminal Cultures, a documentary that breaks down the crime in the Southie neighborhood of Boston. The features are variable but are still missing the TCM feature on Martin Scorsese which is a huge extra to leave out with little features that provide any new content.
What is new is a short documentary feature on the making of the film, Guilt and Betrayal: Looking into The Departed adds some new insight into the film. In it, you see the movies that inspired Scorsese to make the film and the themes they used to develop the characters. Billy Costigan is the guilty aspect of the film. He feels guilt for his crooked family. Although he scored high on the SAT, where he could be anything, Billy opts to work as an undercover state police detective to pay penance for his troubled background. Betrayal is Collin Sullivan's character. Despite using his connections as a state PD, Collin is aware that criminal kingpin Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) can turn on him at any time. The betrayal comes from Frank Costello raising Collin like a son, only to stab him in the back as an adult. Betrayal happens all over the place in The Departed. Look no further than the body count in the film for proof.
As much as I love 4K, there's a reason I keep all my physical media. I can still get surround sound on my DVD that I can't get on my 4K for one thing. By owning The Departed on 4K and DVD, I'm able to keep all the special features. If you have a 4K television with High Dynamic Range available and a newer home theater that's DTS HD compatible, you'll get the ultimate home viewing experience. If you're like me with an older HD TV that only projects in 1080p and a home theater that existed during the emergence of DVDs, there's not much reason to re-purchase the film unless you're planning to upgrade your home entertainment center soon. With that said, it never hurts to purchase the physical disc, as we should do whatever is necessary to keep physical media alive and keep it from becoming extinct.
My rating below is on the 4K disc, not the movie. The movie gets four Guinesses
The Departed 4K Steelbook is currently available
