Film Research #5 - The Departed

Film Research #5 - The Departed

The Departed is a 2006 American crime drama film. The film takes place in Boston. It features a mob boss who plants a mole in the local police department but the local police department do the same to the mob. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIsyHKsjftY

The film starts with a still of a black title card with the words 'Boston' and 'Some years ago'. Having this be the first scene we see is effective as not only does it create mystery and confusion in the audience but it clearly displays where the movie is set, Boston as well as telling us the scenes to follow were in the past and have already happened. It then straight edits into a fight between two men, during this scene the camera is extremely shaky which does 2 things; it tells the audience that the person recording is
an amateur and due to the context of it being a fight in the streets it allows us to presume the person recording is a bystander who has decided to record the fight. It also emphasises on the action, as this is a convention in most action films, to make the camera unstable and shaky to display action and emphasize it. In the shot we can see two grown men with old fashioned clothing and big hair which tells us this is most likely real footage of a fight in the past, most likely shown on a documentary or other educational movie/tv program. The mise-en-scene in terms of clothing and hair style help emphasize the time period this shot is in. With slight research I believe the audience is lead to believe this shot is in the late 1980's with the clothing and big hair have being typical of the time, this is also when camcorders were commercially available and a bystander would be able to record a fight. Around this time, and it was reported on so the older audience may know but there was a few gangs around Boston during the 1980's and onwards and fact the narration is saying 'I don't want to be a product of my environment' can mean that he doesn't want to be a part of the gang violence and that he wants to change his area. So the audience can assume that this fight is gang-related and quickly turns from a 1v1 fight to a bunch of guys beating up a single person.

The next shot of importance is right after the fight, as the narrator is saying his first line it cuts to a shot of police officers looking after the transport of some American school buses, eluding to the fact that the area is unsafe and the buses could be attacked or in danger. Then as soon as the narrator says 'I want my environment to be a product of me' it cuts to the fight, potentially showing a link between the phrase and the big fight maybe being the fact that the narrator wants to cause similar fights like this, maybe the narrator is the leader of a gang and he wants violence like this.

It then cuts to a shot of a mail box painted with the word 'No' and immediately after a bus full of black children is shown as well as a shot of a black child looking out of a smashed bus window. The significance of this order of events, the 'No' and then the black children shows that the setting of the film is a racist setting, the white 'No' symbolizing the white community's lack of
acceptance of the black community as after the smashed window a large crowd of loud white people is shown to have been blocked from a street from police. Due to the choice of editing the audience can assume that they are blocking them from a street that maybe has a black school on it or houses within which black people live. The scene also has a narration which says 'years ago we had the church, that was only a way of
saying we had each other' eluding to the fact that maybe the church is no longer operating due to certain situations between the black and white communities or maybe it means that the church no longer acts as a way of uniting the community as it previously did, as it previously made everyone feel as if they had 'each other' to rely on and these recent events causing tension between communities mean the church is now dominated by one community and intimidates the other from going. It then cuts from a large gathering of some sort, most likely a violent one due to the context to a black man saying 'Now, I don't know, they put hate in your heart' and the editing of this makes it seem as if it is the narrator continuing to talk, now saying the church puts hate in people's hearts which could elude to the fact that it is the church that caused the conflict. When the voice over says 'we had each other' the crowd in the scene cheers, simulating the fact they are cheering for the non-diegetic voice over.

At this point the soundtrack starts, cutting to an establishing shot which we have identified as a convention within this genre. The narrator continues to talk about 'The Knights of Columbus' which is a catholic fraternity who help low-income families and he describes them as 'head-breakers' which could mean they manipulate and convince people of their ways in a shady fashion which could be classed as low-key hypnotism continuing to say how they 'took over' their part of the city which only enforces this idea.

A tracking shot is then used to follow a shadowed man left as the narrator continues to talk, the shadows is clearly a mature man and the focus on him by the camera leads the audience to believe that the narration is the thoughts of this man. The narration goes onto talk about the presidency, irrelevant to the plot but also talks about what he has against the 'black chappies' also referring to them as niggers which is a highly racist term, telling us that this man is not a fan of the black community and the fact that he could also be racist. When talking, the narration says 'is this' and then pauses, this makes the audience pay attention to the voice-over and pay attention to what he is about to say which will clearly be of importance. After he finishes that line the music increases in volume to symbolise the magnitude of the line for the plot.

It then cuts to a POV shot, moving in a way similar to the way a man would walk, towards a store. We see that the street sign says don't walk which tells us that the person we are in the POV of is a rule-breaker and while this is a minor rule that doesn't affect life much it plants the idea in the audience's head that this person easily breaks rules meaning he could be capable of a lot more and could be a criminal. During this scene he goes inside the shop and the shot transitions from a POV to an over the shoulder shot from the man whose POV we were in. The man behind the counter, presuming he is the owner when taking into consideration his age, appearance and the fact he goes into the till to get money to hand to the blue shirted man, for the purpose of this research we will call
him 'Man A'. Man A gets handed some money and tells the owner 'don't make me come down for this again'. As Man A comes into shot we hear a screech from what we can assume is the car in the background, this simulates the panic and fear from the owner as if he was scared of Man A. We can assume this money is rent and that Man A owns the building or is using threats to earn money from them, for example telling them to pay him or he won't stop his gang from attacking them, we of course do not know this or if he is a leader of a gang but this is only
what the scene suggests. The shot transitions into a two-shot with a girl in the background being mentioned by Man A and a boy in the foreground symbolising the importance of this boy because he is in focus unlike the girl and his mise-en-scene, clothing, is a brighter much more diverse colour than that of the other people around him, bringing him to the attention of the audience.

Man A then decides to buy something from the shop but tells the girl to serve him instead of the man, showing a convention that the men in these films would rather interact with women than other men, symbolizing their objectification by a majority of men and this is emphasized when Man A asks the girl if she has had her period yet, possibly meaning that she has committed a sexual act with Man A or someone else, most likely for money as she is reluctant to serve him and frowns when he holds a tight grip on the product.


He then turns towards the boy and references him as 'Jonny Sullivan’s kid' telling the audience that he is in contact or has been in contact with the boy's father and therefore knows the boy. When the shot cuts to a close-up of the boy's face to display his reactions to the conversation he is shown as being quiet and shy, meaning this is either the boy's personality or Man A has a reputation of violence or intimidation causing the boy to be afraid of him. However, when the man
starts to tell the owner of the shop to gather up some food and supplies, he is shown in a charitable, kind light, having learnt the boy lives with his grandmother may have triggered a feeling in Man A to which he respects and wants to help the boy and his grandmother. The gathering is shown in a quick succession of cuts to display a rush, the owner wants to do it quickly to please Man A. Instead of paying for the groceries and getting the change he tells the girl to keep the money he just got from the owner and to 'buy yourself some makeup' to the girl, further showing this convention of the power men have over women in this genre, telling her what to do to look pretty. He then hands the boy some spare change from earlier and tells him if he wants more to meet him down Man A's road, this makes the man seem dodgy, offering a child work as child labor is illegal in most places in the world. The soundtrack displays the dodgy nature of the conversation as it is much lower and quieter than before. The shot then goes into a shot of the boy walking home with the groceries and the man watching him, this shows the man's interest with the boy showing the audience that the man has plans for him. This can be seen in two ways, devious and ominous causing the audience to see malicious intent in the man's actions which could corrupt the boy and turn him to a life of crime or that the man merely wants to help the boy in life, giving him some key skills and work experience, earning money in the process. The soundtrack picks up where it left off here displaying the situation returning to normal.

The next shot is inside a church which we know because of the clothes the boy and what we can presume is the priest and the surrounding area, focusing on the boy in robes displaying his innocence and good will, helping lead a funeral service. The focus of white shows us that currently the boy is pure and innocent. To contrast this, the next shot is inside a dark garage, with Man A in the shadows and the boy listening to him, symbolizing the boy listening
the shadows, to the dark, to what the church sees as evil temptations. Man A is describing church as telling the boys that 'church wants you in your place' saying it wants you to 'kneel, stand, kneel, stand' symbolizing the repetitiveness of the whole idea and the obedience it wants from its visitors. Man A goes on to say to them if 'that's what your going for I don't know what to do for you' meaning he isn't going to be telling the boys exactly what to do, they have to have initiative
and this is backed up in the repeated phrase from earlier in the opening, 'A man makes his own way, no one gives it too you, you have to take it' which tells the audience that Man A must have had a rough experience involving work, a situation where he realized he would have to do everything himself, the emphasis on this phrase and it's repetition means it is important top the man and of importance to him. To display the side of darkness inside Man A as discussed later, he describes to the boys what happened to the people who last tried to tell him what to do and immediately cuts to a close up of a gun just before he shoots a man and woman in the back of the head. The fact that the same song is playing throughout the past scenes and continues through this one shows Man A's distance from the reality, he has little to no hesitance to shooting these two and laughs because the woman fell 'funny'. This gives insight to the character's behavior so the audience can then justify his actions and intentions later on in the film.

The next scene starts with a voice-over from the previous seen, Man A talking about being someone at the end of the shooting scene shows us that this is who he has decided to be, who he wants to be and that the church did not help with that decision. This is where the music finally changes to a more serious tone, slower and more methodical describing the situation, emphasizing on the fact that he is giving some serious, down to earth advice to the boy, saying that the church wont let you believe you can be who you want, continuing to say that the church would tell people they could be either 'cops' the good people in life, pursuing evil or just not committing it 'or criminals' the people who sin, the people who brake the laws and dishonor God.

It is important to note that through this entire opening Man A's face has been shrouded in mystery, the director's use of lighting keeping it in the shadows, hiding any important features of it from the audience making them wander, who he is, what he looks like and the ways he reacts. He is hidden as it creates a sense of mystery, and causes the audience to not judge him based on what he looks like, keeping his face hidden means that they don't assume anything about the man until the film gives them some information to make these presumptions from. At the end of the opening he walks up to the boy, revealing his face saying how 'when your faced with a loaded gun, what's the difference?". They decided to show his face at this moment because it is a moment of honesty, he is telling the boy exactly how it is and giving him some solid advise, and the reveal of his face means this is the true man, they way he will be throughout the rest of the film. It also displays trust, he has kept his face in the dark to everyone else but reveals it to this boy.

Overall, The Departed has taught me the effects of keeping a character's physical features hidden throughout a scene or opening and how it creates a mysterious element around a character and stops the audience making assumptions based on their features instead of their actions. It has also taught me how the soundtrack can help emphasize the dynamic of the opening and bring attention to certain parts of it, highlighting and assisting in the effect the scene creates.