“The Departed” A story of love and betrayal woven through a pseudo-father-son relationship *Note! Contains spoilers

Demonic Father

Frank, played by Jack Nicholson, is too demonic to be a fake father. He is consumed by insanity, like Jack Torrance in " The Shining " (1980) or the Joker in " Batman " (1989).

"At some point we decided to focus on the danger and power of this man and his slow breakdown. He has great power, but he's crumbling and losing his mind. We liked that sense of danger."

" says Scorsese. In order to expand the character of Frank Costello, screenwriter William Monahan came up with the idea of ​​basing the character on real-life gangster James "Whitey" Bulger. He was an Irish-American who led the Winter Hill Gang, an organized crime group. After being reported and living on the run for 16 years, he was arrested in 2011 and it was revealed at his trial that he was an informant for the FBI (though he denies it). Although he was a gangster, he was a "rat" who sold out his comrades to the FBI to protect himself.

Frank is, so to speak, a father who is not afraid to betray his children. And he has no real children of his own blood. No son to succeed him. This is just my speculation, but perhaps Frank was not able to have children. In a scene towards the end of the film, Colin says these words to Frank:

"What are you doing? Murdering people, drugs and women. No kids."

In a fit of rage, Frank aims a gun at Colin, but is shot dead in return. His inability to have children may have cast a dark shadow over his life, turning him into a demon.

The Departed(c)Photofest / Getty Images

Another interesting fact: Detective Billy, who is ordered to go undercover, and gangster Colin, who is sent to the police as an informant, are like two sides of the same coin. They both fall in love with a woman, psychiatrist Madolyn (Vera Farmiga). However, while there is a scene in which Billy makes passionate love with Madolyn, there is no love scene between Colin and Madolyn. And when Madolyn tells Colin that she is pregnant, he looks puzzled.

Matt Damon thought that Colin should be impotent to compete with the macho Frank when he was preparing for the role. Even if that wasn't the case, he probably had the same physical condition as Frank and was aware of that fact for a long time. If that's the case, it makes me wonder if Billy, not Colin, was the father of her child.

To me, "The Departed" seems like a drama about men who are unable to build a true father-son relationship.

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