Monahan speaks
Collider's Steve Weintraub (a.k.a. "Frosty") has posted some mildly nervy, undoubtedly fascinating comments from Departed screenwriter William Monahan that came out of an interview. One of the more interesting riffs concerns the rumors about one or more Departed sequels being planned.
"I read the prequel and sequel to Infernal Affairs for the first time a couple of weeks ago and there wasn't anything I could use in Boston situation, not now. The thing is, that world of The Departed is sort of an intensely personal literary construct. If you analyze what the commodity is now, it's that literary construct.
"People are talking about a sequel, but the reality is that I could propose Untitled Boston Crime Picture and sell it for more than I'd get for a sequel. I'm not putting the screws to anybody, I'm stating a fact. The commodity has transformed. I'll be writing about Boston as long as I live, but whether or not I do it in the form of a Departed sequel is up to other people.
"I'd honestly love to bring back Dignam, (Wells note: Mark Wahlberg's character, he means. Duhhhhh....who the hell else could Monahan bring back? Everyone else is dead except for Alec Baldwin and Vera Farmiga.)
"And I know how the picture would open. With The Departed Tango and snow falling on the Boston Common. I know every scene in the picture. Maybe it will happen, maybe it won't, maybe fuck yourself." (Wells note: Monahan didn't say those last three words -- I stuck them in on my own because it sounded right and so damn similar to a line of dialogue that Wahlberg said in The Departed.)
"When I say that I couldn't use Infernal Affairs 2 and 3 I'm not criticizing either film, I'm saying that "The Departed" now points in its own direction. Mak and Chong are brilliant filmmakers. I think that the give and take between American and Asian cinema is one of the great energizing cross-cultural relationships, like rock music getting to England in the '50s and coming back as the British invasion. Except both are the R&B record and both are the British invasion.
"If there were no Martin Scorsese or Michael Mann there probably never would have been an Infernal Affairs, so there's a chicken and the egg situation to begin with. I'm in negotiations to do another adaptation of a Mak and Chong script, somewhere down the road. And I may do an original in Hong Kong. I love the way they make films, they just run them up and get them in the theaters. If one doesn't work you do another one. There's no over-thinking."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on February 20, 2007 at 12:46 PM
comment #1
lesterg
says ...
So basically, the entire interview is a negotiation tactic.
Posted by lesterg
at February 20, 2007 1:22 PM
comment #2
Josh Massey
says ...
I know most regular readers (myself included) have long since seen The Departed - but you just had to throw that spoiler in there without a warning, huh?
Posted by Josh Massey
at February 20, 2007 1:34 PM
comment #3
rocco
says ...
The first thing I'd do if I was going to continue the 'Departed' saga would be to get rid of Monahan. Some of the dialogue was sharp, but every damn twist and turn was broadcast from a mile away, and the Dignam "surprise" was very poorly set up. (Dignam? Sounds a lot like Dignan...had he just recently watched 'Bottle Rocket'??)
Posted by rocco
at February 20, 2007 2:14 PM
comment #4
storymark
says ...
Jeff only has one spiler warning per year in him. And he used it up on Pirates.
Kinda funny, though. Just read a rant on Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio's (Pirates writers) message board, about how deceptive and... "inventive" entertainment journalists are. Then come over here and read an article in which their biggest fan inserts an extra phrase into a quote (yeah, he cops to it, but I was under the impression that it's still bad form).
Posted by storymark
at February 20, 2007 2:17 PM
comment #5
JD
says ...
"If there were no Martin Scorsese or Michael Mann there probably never would have been an Infernal Affairs, so there's a chicken and the egg situation to begin with."
DZ is gonna love this. I've been saying this in repsonse to his Asia-loving rants for months.
Posted by JD
at February 20, 2007 2:40 PM
comment #6
Ju-osh
says ...
Mann maybe, but I don't see anything very 'Scorsese' in any of the Infernal affairs films (nothing that wasn't already in scores of old film noirs, anyway).
And inserting your own words into other people quotes is wrong, Jeff. You should have thrown your humerous addition into the panethesis, then you wouldn't have needed that awkward, backpedaling acknowledgement.
Posted by Ju-osh
at February 20, 2007 2:57 PM
comment #7
Breedlove
says ...
yeah, it's been an interesting day in spoiler-land with jeff. i noticed the spoiler warning in the 'pirates' piece and was shocked. i thought we had brought him over from the dark side. then he goes and just destroys anyone hoping to catch 'the departed' on dvd. i saw it twice, so no skin off my back, but at this point he's clearly doing it on purpose just to sort of fuck with people, which i actually kind of respect in an odd way.
and why would monahan get more money for 'untitled boston crime picture' than for a
'departed' sequel? don't understand that. the whole point of all these sequels is they make more money for all involved. that can't be right.
Posted by Breedlove
at February 20, 2007 3:19 PM
comment #8
corey3rd
says ...
they blew up the earth at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes - and Fox still got a third, fourth and 5th Ape film.
Posted by corey3rd
at February 20, 2007 4:23 PM
comment #9
jjgittes
says ...
Maybe if there's a sequel , they could have the characters believe in ways that are like, you know, remotely believable.
I enjoyed "The Departed" it's a good film that's been wildly overpraised as a great one - but I would think even if its most ardent admirers would admit that there are huge gaps in logic that are just baffling.
My personal fave is when DiCaprio walks out of a room where everyone has been told to stay until Nicholson gets there. Right....see, the film should have ended right there. Nicholson blows his head off for walking out of that meeting.
Then, Nicholson just asks himself "Hey, you know what? i've never had a mole in my organization until this new guy joined. Maybe it's the new guy. Maybe I should have followed him ONCE or something."
That would have been a bracing dose of behavior appropriate to the character.
Posted by jjgittes
at February 20, 2007 7:16 PM
comment #10
Spacelamb
says ...
I haven't caught The Departed yet. Fair enough, the news about a sequel gave hints but did you have to spell it out, Jeffrey?
Posted by Spacelamb
at February 20, 2007 11:40 PM
comment #11
AH
says ...
Wait a second, the movie is out on DVD and people are still going crazy about spoilers!
Posted by AH
at February 21, 2007 6:30 AM
comment #12
Josh Massey
says ...
The movie just came out on DVD, and though I saw it in the theater, a lot of people chose to instead watch it at home (which is increasingly the preferable movie-watching environment, with the rise of home theaters and the decline of big-screen presentation and human decency.)
Posted by Josh Massey
at February 21, 2007 6:59 AM
comment #13
DavidF
says ...
I kinda agree with jgittes...there are some logic holes.
(SPOILERS, if you still care!)
My answer to that one would be that, being a rat himself, Nicholson is always paranoid about rats and would probably be looking for one anyway. As DiCaprio says, he starts moving from legit wondering about a rat to acting downright insane.
That said, Costigan being the new guy should be the leading suspect. They knew that only like 5 guys were at that Chinese meet and one of them was the inside guy so....
The only other thing that really bugged me - and it's not a plot hole per se - is that Queenan and Dignan had a perfect psych profile on Costigan and had no clue whatsoever that Sullivan was best buds with Costello.
In the end, it should have been easier for both sides to figure out who their mole was but the paranoia and secrecy on both sides blinded them. I guess that's kinda the point -see Nicholson's opening monologue; "When I was your age they used to say you could become cops or criminals. What I'm saying to you is this... When you're facing a loaded gun, what's the difference?"
Posted by DavidF
at February 21, 2007 7:58 AM
comment #14
Craig Kennedy
says ...
Logic shmogic. I love the hell out of The Big Sleep and it doesn't make a bit of sense. I was too busy enjoying The Departed because of the characters and the acting and the dialogue to take the time to nitpick a few plot holes.
Posted by Craig Kennedy
at February 21, 2007 11:34 AM
comment #15
jjgittes
says ...
Spoilers below.
If you really look at the film closely there are holes all over the place. Costigan arresting Sullivan rather than seeking out Dignan.
Costello not following Costigan (instead he sets up a phony info situation, riiiiight.) Even down to a second mole in the police force that Sullivan didn't know about (absolutely absurd - there's no plot reason to hide the 2nd mole from Sullivan, it's simply in to shock you with the twist).
The film has great dialogue and inept plotting. They work so hard to add layers of subtext to the Sullivan charcter (is he "gay", pretending in his personal life like he does in his professional one?) - and then blow the nuts and bolts part of the movie.
Like I said before I liked it as an entertaining flick, but, it has logic holes all over it,
Posted by jjgittes
at February 21, 2007 11:35 AM
comment #16
The Movie Man
says ...
You guys are smarter than me, I didn't think of most of these holes, but two things that did bother me were: 1. that Nicholson is an informant, it seems that would render a large portion of his sending a mole in pointless. 2. the other guy being a mole out of nowhere. The other stuff didn't occur to me until I read them here.
I think the movie kind of falls apart in general in that last 30 minutes. It seems like the filmmakers saw they were 2 hours in and said "oops gotta put away the toys" and killed everyone off to resolve the plot strands. I think the pleasant surprise of a director not shying away from offing so many of his characters distracted people from alot of what you guys are talking about (probably myself included.) THE DEPARTED is a lot of fun, great six pack on a friday night movie, but its not a great film, and we wouldn't be talking about anywhere near this much if it was the exact same movie with a diffrent, less recognizable director.
Posted by The Movie Man
at February 21, 2007 2:34 PM
comment #17
corey3rd
says ...
here's my question about the opening - did Jack and Mr. French kill the underaged girl that was working at the cornerstore? The beach victim seemed like her with the same hair and blue shirt sans sleeves. Or were we supposed to think that the girl who Jack wanted to know if she'd had her first period became his girlfriend?
Posted by corey3rd
at February 21, 2007 6:27 PM
comment #18
DavidF
says ...
Nicholson's sending a mole in isn't pointless because he is an informant for the FBI. Sullivan is a mole with the state police.
It's not a plot hole that Costigan didn't seek out Dignan. No one seemed to know where he was and he seemed to hope/expect that that other cop would bring him along. That cop seemed a bit too freaked out and unsure of who to trust at that point.
I figure it doesn't matter and the movie would have ended the same way (ie with everyone shooting each other) if Dignan had showed. But then we wouldn't have had the amusing bit where we see that even dogs don't trust Sullivan and he's just waiting for the hammer to fall.
The other guy being a mole is certainly a twist but it does make sense that Sullivan wouldn't know about him. The whole theme is that everyone is a rat and clearly Costello has crossed over from cautious to paranoid. (What does seem odd is that the other guy DOES know about Sullivan but maybe he figured it out over time or after Sullivan killed him...?)
And I don't think the beach girl has anything to do with the corner store girl.
I still love the movie. I'm just saying.
Posted by DavidF
at February 23, 2007 7:48 AM