Despite directing some of the best films ever made, Martin Scorsese has only ever won an Oscar for one of them. Whether or not The Departed deserved the four Oscars it won has long been a matter of debate among cinephiles, but now you can decide for yourself because the 2006 crime thriller is now streaming on Peacock – where it’s already become a hit all over again.
Scorsese has been a household name in the world of cinema for decades now, having crafted some of the most beloved films of all time, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and GoodFellas, to name just a few. But while his reputation as a world-class filmmaker is well known among critics and fans alike, Scorsese has never had much luck on Oscars night. He has received a whopping 10 directorial nominations over his long career – the most nominations for any living director. And yet, while his films have earned Academy Awards in other categories, only one of them earned the Oscar for Best Picture. It’s also the only movie Scorsese won an Oscar for directing.
The Departed, so far the only film to earn a Best Director and Best Picture Academy Award for Scorsese, is a 2006 American remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs, directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. It is also a fictionalized take on the real-life Winter Hill Gang from Boston, Massachusetts. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, and Jack Nicholson, the film currently has a 91% critics score and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Among those reviews is a perfect four-star review from late film critic Roger Ebert, who appreciated how Scorsese took another filmmaker’s idea and made it his own. “What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread, is the director’s use of actors, locations and energy, and its buried theme,” Ebert wrote. “I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it’s about; it’s about how it’s about it. That’s always true of a Scorsese film.”
The plot synopsis from that site is as follows:
South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes under cover to infiltrate the organization of gangland chief Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). As Billy gains the mobster’s trust, a career criminal named Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) infiltrates the police department and reports on its activities to his syndicate bosses. When both organizations learn they have a mole in their midst, Billy and Colin must figure out each other’s identities to save their own lives.
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The Departed Was a Major Winner at the Oscars
The Departed also stars Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Vera Farmiga, and Alec Baldwin. Wahlberg was the only cast member nominated for his performance at the 79th Academy Awards, but he lost to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. The other four nominations – for Scorsese’s directing, William Monahan’s adapted script, Thelma Schoonmaker’s editing, and Best Picture – all won their respective categories that night.
The Departed quickly rose in Peacock’s top 10 streaming titles after it hit the platform, sitting at number seven as of this writing. The streamer also features Scorsese’s 1995 Las Vegas crime drama Casino, if you’re looking for a rather long double feature (The Departed runs about two and a half hours, while Casino sits at nearly three hours in length).
In addition to the aforementioned Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and GoodFellas, Scorsese has also received Oscar nominations for Gangs of New York, The Aviator, Hugo, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman, and, most recently, Killers of the Flower Moon. The list of films snubbed by the Academy is just as long, including such hits as Taxi Driver, Cape Fear, The Last Waltz, After Hours, and his breakout picture Mean Streets, among others.
Scorsese’s next film is reportedly titled The Wager, and will once again star Leonardo DiCaprio, who has collaborated with the director on numerous projects. It is an adaptation of the nonfiction book The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, by David Grann, who also wrote the book upon which Killers of the Flower Moon is based. How will it fare at the Oscars? Only time will tell.