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Only question: Does it rise to the rank of The Godfather? I mean, The Departed?

Posted by clarkjohnsen (R) on October 8, 2006 at 12:36:00

Resoundingly, yes.

You WILL go see it anyway, so let me just offer a couple caveats:

-- The Leo DiCaprio character way too conveniently is assigned to this one psychologist; let it pass.

-- In the shootings at the end -- that's not giving anything away is it? -- I mean, this is Scorsese -- either the director or the editor has so mistimed the last gunshot that half the audience breaks out in laughter. Nervous laughter, granted, but it shouldn't be funny and it was. Bad miscue; let it pass, but be prepared.

Speaking of cutting, Thelma Schoonmaker has done it for Scorsese since 1980 and I can see her handiwork. While the presentation is not linear, neither is it convoluted; and the early confusion one has between the Damon and DiCaprio characters was, I think in retrospect, intentional and worthy.

How many deserving Oscars? Can you count to thirteen? Trouble is, should Damon, DiCaprio, or Nicholson get the lead male nomination, or all three? (My opinion: Leo DiCaprio has now joined the short list of the very greatest actors.) Should Wahlberg, Sheen or Baldwin get the supporting male, or all three?

Oh, another caveat: Lots of the f-word, but played either for humor (and this is a very funny movie) or for drama -- I was never offended by it, although I am apt to be. Ditto the bloodletting. Neither element seemed gratuitous.

Boston: While much of the film was shot elsewhere -- did I read Romania? -- the city contributes its presence in a family way: micks and goons and Church and State. The criminal neighborhood we know fondly as Southie was shown in all its desolate glory of maybe fifteen years ago, especially the waterfront warehouse area where for twenty years (until 1990) I operated The Listening Studio. The buildings are real, the stairwells are real, the rooftops are real -- I've been in and on them all, the very location where the dramatic denoument of the movie occurs.

And I was reminded of an episode that occurred in 1983. I was on the phone to Brian Cheney when gunshots rang out. From the window I saw a Ford screech to a halt maybe fifty feet below my second-story window and three guys pile out, guns ablaze at the two police cruisers coming up the street. Both those cars slid into 90-degree turns to block the road and proceeded to fire away. By this time I had ducked below the window sill with occasional pop-ups to check the action (like in the movies) at the same time giving a full play-by-play report to Brian.

The bad guys (bank robbers, it developed) were soon subdued.

Life... movies...

clark

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