The Departed, (Martin Scorsese, 2006) is a remake of the original film Infernal Affairs, (Wai Keung Lau, 2002). Both films were very successful except the original was more successful in Honk Kong than anywhere else because the film was in Chinese. One of the main reasons Scorsese remade the film was because of the language and the unknown actors which made it difficult for the film to become big in the US, so he remade it in English using famous well known stars and it became a big hit.
The film critic Roger Ebert did a review on The Departed and believed that Scorsese still made this remake of the film his own because he is an auteur. In Hollywood film remakes are highly popular but normally when a film is remade it's normally exactly same as the original and it either does better or worse. The Departed wasn't just a remake, Scorsese managed to make this film slightly different to make it his own. "What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread is the director's use of actors, locations and energy, and it's buried theme. I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about. That's always true of a Scorsese film." (Ebert, 10.12.14)
After watching both 'Infernal Affairs' and 'The Departed' both films have similarities however The Departed had a greater sense of exposition than the original. In the beginning half of The Departed, the film had narration by one of the characters 'Frank Costello. The character 'Frank Costello' is established as dominant and powerful because of his opening sentence from the narration 'I don't want to be a product of my environment, I want my environment to be a product of me.' Here he is saying that he doesn't want the environment to have an impact on him but he wants to have an impact on his environment, he wants to take charge and be dominant this is one of the key characteristics that he displays during the film.
Here is a screenshot of Frank Costello while he was narrating.
'no one gives it to you, you have to take it'
As part of the exposition 'Frank Costello' lets the audience know what exactly is happening by narrating, It is this strong sense exposition that is in contrast with the film 'Infernal Affairs.' An American audience may understand less about Infernal Affairs because it didn't have the narration explaining what’s happening. charcacter and themes
At the very beginning of the film, it showed some archive footage of what the crime was like before, this helped give exposition by showing the audience Boston’s crime before the character Frank Costello took charge.
Instead of shooting the film in its original destination Scorsese decided to film in the town Boston. Martin didn't pick this place randomly, he decided on Boston because it has a lot of violent history behind it which suited the films scenes and themes.
Here is a screenshot of the archive footage in Boston showing the audience what Boston was like in the past. 'the city experienced conflict starting in 1974 over desegregation busing, which resulted in unrest and violence around public schools throughout the mid-1970s.'
When the film started the characters names were used a lot which helped the audience identify each characters name. In the beginning of Infernal Affairs there wasn't any narration over the film to tell the audience what the plot was, but there was also not a lot of use of characters names, this technique could make it more difficult for a mainstream audience to understand the narrative.
I analysed both films ‘The Departed’ and ‘Infernal Affairs’ and noticed that ‘The Departed’ had more exposition. ‘The Departed’ was made for the American audience, having more exposition is typical for mainstream American films since the Americans are a passive audience, while ‘Infernal Affairs’ was set in Japan and the audience there is an active audience. The departed has more drama, romance and exposition. This is typical for a film that comes out of Hollywood rather than Hong Kong.
Infernal affairs is a crime thriller whilst The Departed is a crime/drama thriller. Because the remake had better exposition which made it easier for the audience to understand, The crime genre was more identifiable in The Departed than Infernal Affairs. The crime scenes were rushed into in Infernal Affairs This could be because of the lack of narration.
Love triangles, drug abuse and alcoholism; these are some of the dramatic scenes that occurs in The Departed. The love triangle is between the three characters Billy, Collin and Madolyn. Madolyn originally meets the character Collin first but she notices Collin keeping things from her, and then she meets Billy. They start of with an argument and then they get to know each other and Billy ends up having only her to trust. They met because Madolyn was his psychiatrist and Billy was asking her to put him on some pills, this is where the drug abuse scene starts, she only gives him the pills because he shouted at her which shows drug addict behavior which adds to the drama. Another drug scene is when Billy is with his cousin selling drugs to get the attention of the character Frank.
Having more drama in a film keeps the audience entertained and it also appeals to a wider audience. In Infernal Affairs there wasn't as many dramatic scenes which caused the film to feel like it was dragging on for too long which causes the audience to feel less engaged. Because of the wide variety of scenes The Departed was more commercially successful as a result.
The stars in The Departed did have an impact on the film because they bring the attention of their fan base to the film, the stars fans would watch the film just because they're in it rather than watching the film because they like it. In Infernal affairs the American audience didn't recognize any of the actors so their attention wouldn't have been as engaged as it it would of been if they saw an actor they knew/liked.
The Martin Scorsese film costed approximately $90 million to make while Infernal Affairs was 50 million Hong Kong dollars. For The departed it made a grand total of $132,384,315 in the box office and Infernal Affairs made $169,659.
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