"The Departed" directed by Martin Scorsese [review]

Abstract

For any serious cinemagoer or lover of film as an art form, the arrival of a new film by Martin Scorsese is a reason to get very excited indeed. Scorsese has long been regarded as one of the greatest of America’s filmmakers; since the mid-1980s he has been regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers in the world, period. With landmark works like Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990) and Bringing Out the Dead (1999) to his credit, Scorsese is a director for whom any actor will go the distance, and the casts the director manages to assemble for his every project are extraordinarily impressive. As a visualist Scorsese is a force to be reckoned with, and his soundtracks regularly become known as classic creations; his regular collaborators, including editor Thelma Schoonmaker and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus are the best in their respective fields. Paraphrasing all of this, one could justifiably describe Martin Scorsese as one of the most important and interesting directors on the face of the planet.