Sightlines · reception
How The Departed was received
2006 · Martin Scorsese · The Departed on Sightlines
The arc
A huge hit and instant awards darling in 2006, it finally won Scorsese his Best Picture and Best Director Oscars — and while some framed it then as a 'career achievement' win, it has since settled in as one of the most rewatched and quoted crime films of its decade.
What’s debated
The forever-debate: did Scorsese win the Oscar for the 'wrong' movie — is The Departed top-shelf Scorsese or just the one the Academy finally caught up to after Goodfellas?
Its footprint
Mark Wahlberg's insult-spraying Dignam is endlessly quoted ('I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.'), Boston-accent riffs on it are a genre unto themselves, and the Dropkick Murphys' 'I'm Shipping Up to Boston' became permanently fused to the movie.
Where it stands
A Letterboxd staple and canonical 'dad movie' hangout-thriller — the rare Best Picture winner that film fans actually rewatch for fun.
Did you know? It's a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, and despite its stacked cast, Mark Wahlberg landed the film's only acting Oscar nomination.
Named by the director
- Infernal Affairs (2002) — The credited source — Scorsese openly built the film on Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's Hong Kong original.
- Scarface (1932) — Scorsese has said the recurring 'X' motif marking doomed characters is a homage to Howard Hawks' gangster classic.