The Departed! Martin Scorsese film. Lead cast including Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson. Intriguing storyline albeit with a disappointingly simple ending. Sounds like a good pick at the DVD store.
Well, I thought so too, but the film actually left me fuming. In many ways The Departed is a classic police versus underground film. Informants infiltrate both sides, which makes the narrative extremely watchable.
But come on? I thought the days of women fulfilling the role of sex object, with little brain beneath the bod were over? Apparently not! For a start, theres not a single sight of a female cop in the entire film. The most woman we get is an extra in the FBI headquarters, who has her butt surveyed and whistled at. Nice! Whats even better is that she turns and smiles suggestively at the aforesaid whistler.
Moving right along!
Then we get the peppering of derogatory one liners about women throughout the entire film. Okay, it enforces the fact that underground crims are ugly in every way, but the comments came just as often from the mouths of FBI investigators and cops the supposed good guys. My personal favourite was you have to get married to prove youre not a homo. Lovely! Theres also the obvious: whores and a tarty girlfriend latched onto the underground boss.
Then, wait for it, here comes the best part. Theres the attractive psychiatrist who deals with crims and cops alike in a kind of post traumatic stress disorder type of way. She comes across okay for about three seconds, then she becomes a naïve, brainless, emotionally unstable f*&% for Damons character. Oh, and also for DiCaprios character cant have her rooting just one of the lead characters. She was so shockingly created as a sex object, who was merely a host for children in the end, that we were convinced while watching the film that she would be the true informant. Nup! Thats all she was. And to top it off, when she finds out Damons true identity what does she do? (dont worry Im not giving anything away if you have any inclination to see this film). Nothing! What a good little woman she is, right to the very end.