The Departed

Posted on Monday, 16 November 2009
Filed under "G321 Thriller Research"

In 2006 Martin Scorsese directed the film Departed, it was a box office hit winning 4 Oscars and another 49 wins & 53 nominations. We where then asked to watch the first 5 minutes of the thriller/gangster film and to take notes on four sections Music, Narrative, Setting and Characters.

The beginning of the film starts of silent and gradually you can hear the sound of the ocean hinting at that the area is near the sea, as it continues it starts to sound like road noises, which then is revealed to be fighting in the street. Further on in the part you can start to here the Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones playing in the scenes, the music starts to die out when the gangster starts to act kind to the kid. This was done to emphise his kindness and generosity, the music suddenly builds up when he give the kid a pat on the hand.

From the open the main character Frank (the gangster) starts to talk about the 1970s Boston. He also hints at his dark side, this is shown when he says “I want my environment to be a product of me” as he says this it show a man betting up another man, thus making him seem like a thug. Frank comes out as average stereotypical gangster, you get this impression from his voice.

The setting comes out in the first few minutes with the noise of water placing it at sea. However after that the setting becomes a foul place with hate crime everywhere, mobs, etc, it also show the nature of the city in the 70s.

The first main character to be shown is Frank he come out stereotypical even with what he wears and acts like. This is shown with him smoking a cigar and blowing it out his classic hard man act. He is also shown to be feared of by people, you get this impression from when he asks the owners daughter of the store if she has started her period when the farther is right next to her. You can see the reason why later on when Frank has a flash back to when kills a couple, this is when he come out as unhinged, as he said “she fell funny.”

The child that he shows kindness to comes out as looking up to him with trying to show he’s brains, this is shown in the part where frank is giving him a speech about church. This gives the impression that the kid is placing him as his role model.

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