Friday, October 20, 2006

Excuse me waiter but there's a DiCaprio in my Scorsese


I have to give credit to Scott for my title. Way back before "Gangs of New York" came out we both were bemoaning the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio was the lead in the next Martin Scorsese movie. But taking into account the realities of the movie (money) making business we knew the days of Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro were behind us and if Scorsese wanted to keep on making films he had to ensure box office returns. So we sucked it up and surprisingly "Gangs" turned out to be a really good film. Mostly due to the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis in my opinion.

Then came "The Aviator". Leo all by himself and playing Howard Hughes no less. We held our collective breath. But yet again I have to say another solid film that actually had me reluctantly admitting that DiCaprio gave a really great performance. So When "The Departed" was announced I was nonplussed. Bring it on!

"The departed" is a twisty turny cops n robbers suspense film, based on the Hong Kong film "Infernal Affairs",that is just a joy to watch. Early on after I had settled into my seat and the movie started there is an opening image, an establishing shot of a candy store where inside Jack Nicholson menaces the shop keep into handing over protection money. That shot blew me away!

It was like being teleported onto that very street where not only could you see and hear the goings on down the block and inside the candy shop but I could taste and smell exactly what it would be like to be standing there. I was hooked. He had me and from then on it was like taking a walk with Martin Scorsese along these mean streets where he was pointing out various points of interest on this personally guided tour where we laughed and talked and debated and shuddered with horror at all the goings on of these characters. To me this was Scorsese having fun, goofing around and playing with material he knows backwards an forwards. I enjoyed it immensely.