Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” is in fact a remake of the Hong Kong Crime Thriller “Infernal Affairs” which has basically the same plot line, and sense of dread. Scorsese approaches the crime thriller yet again, with his version of the exceptional crime thriller, now set in the mean streets of Boston, and not the murky landscape of Korea. The narrative is basically the same, and Scorsese doesn’t seem to think he can do better than the original film, so he copies the original film verbatim, save for the ending. One big crime syndicate, one big police department. Both are at war. In both teams, the plot slowly unveils and we learn that in the syndicate there is a mole from the police department feeding information back to HQ, while there happens to be a mole from the syndicate in power at the police department distorting information
Tag Archives: Martin Scorsese
After Hours (1985)
Street Pickup: Why don’t you just go home?
Paul Hackett: Pal, I’ve been asking myself that all night.
Everybody knows “Taxi Driver”, everybody knows “Goodfellas”, everybody knows “Cape Fear”, but a little known film from legendary director Martin Scorsese that film buffs rarely ever talk about is Scorsese’s vastly under-appreciated 1985 dark comedy “After Hours”. This intriguing, funny, and sometimes mind-blowing film takes place in the grim lonely streets of downtown Manhattan where a workaday word processor named Paul Hackett meets a young girl at a cafe. The two spark up a conversation and he calls her trying to set up a date with her. Seeking a change from the monotony of his everyday routine, Paul travels downtown for a late night rendezvous with Marcy (Rosanna Arquette), a shy beautiful girl who seems innocent enough. What starts off as a gentle tale ends up as a horrifying nightmare.