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Re: The Departed - better than you give it credit for

I found it to be a rather intriguing didactic between the moral and immoral, belief and disbelief, faith and apostasy, consciousness and oblivion ... a commentary on man's quest to give meaning to life and motive to action in an ultimately meaningless existence. One of the film's central images -- the blowing out of people's brains, is telling. The uniforms or lack thereof, in the police, the frocks, or lack thereof, among the film's do-gooders, are other interesting keys.

The employment of the classic literary device, the separated twins, to you an object of ridicule, places it in a dramatic tradition that includes Greek Drama and Shakespeare.

DiCaprio, an actor I never much admired, gives an astonishingly good performance. Damon is a bit more stolid and unimaginative -- yet earnest and effective. Jack is well, Jack. And though he always seems to be Jack, his has some wonderful moments.

It is easy to approach the film with a dismissive attitude. After all, it's a another Scorcese crime romp, at first glance. But it is a far more ambitious and successful film than many Scorcese had made -- and one of the few films that ever deserved a best picture oscar. I just wish he would quit plastering scenes over with rock anthems, which seem so often life square pegs forced into round holes.

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  Kimber Kable  

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