The Departed vs. Infernal Affairs

The Departed (2006) was based on a Hong Kong movie entitled Infernal Affairs (2002). There are many similarities between the two, and many differences as well. The result is two differing takes on the same screenplay.

First off, the most glaring difference between the two movies is that The Departed is nearly fifty minutes longer. Many of these fifty minutes are devoted to character development (particularly at the beginning of the film) and a building tension up to the first scene where both sides of the war discover a mole on the other side. Infernal Affairs just jumps into this concept about ten minutes in, whereas The Departed allows the story to boil over for about forty-five minutes first--as far as I can remember--before kick-starting the plot. The result is that the same scene in The Departed has a greater impact, because you care about the characters more and you contemplate the potential outcomes that every little repercussion the characters make may have.

Second, the two movies go off about handling the plot devices slightly differently. Infernal Affairs makes it immediately clear who each mole is and what side they are on. The Departed instead uses a long dialog between many characters, and still after that you are not 100% sure of what is going on. Other differences in the plot include little clarifications on The Departed's behalf, such as the cops asking 'Why are we chasing Martin Sheen?' before actually doing it. Little things like this give the viewer a more concrete understanding of each scene before going into it. This allows the viewer to better evaluate what is going on before it happens. Lastly, in The Departed, Matt Damon kills Jack Nicholson because Matt believed that Jack was ratting him out to the CIA. This was much more plausible than the idea in Infernal Affairs that the 'asian' Matt Damon decided to kill the 'asian' Jack based on some kind of childhood vow to make a choice in life and turn to the good side.

Third, most of the pivotal scenes--the scenes where major characters die--in Infernal Affairs were handled much differently. Infernal Affairs would use long, drawn out, slow cut-scenes, and then proceed to use flashbacks after it was revealed who died. In my opinion, this just lessened the shock and emotional impact of the surprise that somebody died. The Departed just kept the movie going at a fast-pace and didn't stop for any breathers. This upped the shock of every subsequent death as the movie progressed, as the murders seemed to come out of nowhere and be even more surprising than the last.

In conclusion, I would say that The Departed is a much more concrete and satisfying movie than Infernal Affairs. The Departed is much longer, but for good reason, and the result is that every scene has a greater impact than it did in Infernal Affairs.

THE DEPARTED - From An Analytical Perspective

There were several things I noticed about this movie:

# 1 - Double-Weave Scenes
Rarely throughout the whole movie will one scene play by itself. There's almost always two scenes playing simoultaenously throughout the movie, and the film switches between the two every 10-30 seconds. It keeps you interested in two narratives at the same time. But the movie also uses the one scene style, such as the chase scene in the streets, or the final scene at the rooftop building.

# 2 - Cut-Out-Scenes
Every movie does this: they cut out the in-between scenes and you just assume that when they showed the protaganist call the cab, he rode home, even though they resume the scene at his front door. But in the Departed, they take it to another level. Along with the double-weave scenes, they cut out large portions of what you might call "unnecessary" segments. By doing this, the action moves much faster, and all the filler scenes are removed. It's confusing sometimes, but it gets you right into the action.

# 3 - Don't Answer Questions
The movie throws in many subplots and questions about all the characters, and never fully answers them. SPOILERS Was Jack Nicholson really an FBI informant? Was that other Mafia member really a second undercover cop? How did Mark Whalberg know to kill Matt Damon? And more.
But the movie doesn't answer these, in full at least. The movie is so fast paced and moving from scene to scene, you barely have time to think about these questions, before a whole new stage is set.

# 4 - 150 Minutes = Not Long
The movie is 2 hours and 30 minutes long, yet it is one of the most fast-paced movies I have ever scene. You can owe that to the directing style.