The Departed (2006) - Shipwreck 0

In The Departed, Leonardo DiCaprio plays a cop infiltrated in a mob syndicate led by Jack Nicholson.  There is a bunch of cops out to get Jack, including Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Matt Damon and Mark Walhberg.  Every single one of them utter more than one homophobic slur.  We had tons of "cocksuckers" and "faggots". Non-stop.

The movie starts off with racism.  N word and all.  But the racism dies down into the movie, while the homophobic slurs increase in tone and frequency.  I was very upset to see that level of homophobia in a good movie, with great actors.

I had seen on Towle that there would be homophobia, but didn't know that it would be this bad. 

Until quite late in the movie mostly bad guys (bad cops and criminals) were using the slurs, but the Shipwreck Zero was locked in when our hero, Leonardo DiCaprio, calls the worst crook in the movie a "two faced faggot".

A really shameful movie by Martin Scorsese (I always thought he was overrated anyway) and writers William Monahan, Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong. 

I hope they don't try to justify the homophobia and hatred in their movie with the sad assumption that poor and uneducated guys are homophobic in real life.  If they do think that that is the case in real life, shouldn't they at least try to end, not reinforce, that hatred and homophobia?

Comments

[Jon]

so what part of the movies point to matt damon being gay? the departed is one of the greatest movies i've ever seen and i have watched it many times, but never saw this aspect. What scenes hint to him being a closeted gay?

[Christian]

A sizable portion of the queer community, myself included, enjoys this film and Scorsese's work in general. I think we can all agree that Scorsese is fascinated by the world of men - can anyone remember the name of the one female lead actress in the film? The film focuses on the complexities of living a double life and of hiding one's 'true' identity (if such a thing even exists) in order to operate within the context of our society and its more homophobic institutions - which seems to me to be a very queer thematic concern. Just because a film's characters use the word faggot or cocksucker does not mean the film is inhospitable to a queer reading or "bad" for "us".

[Queer Beacon]

Hey Paula, that's pretty deep stuff. I can see your point but still think that, at the end, the movie is bad for us.

[Paula]

yeah, aaron is right, damon's character was gay the the whole point of all the gay slurs was to provide a reason why men like damon stay in the closet. it brings forward the notion that a real man can't be gay. the film actually portrays the way in which men bond with other men without ever admiting that there's a bond. even jack's character came across as gay at time... when he says to his gf that he's got a boner and she asks if he's sure it's her... also when he has a threesome with all the cocain... there's nothing sexual in taht scene and cocaine decreases you're sex drive...

so i don't think that it brought forward anything negative about the community i feel that it brought forward the notion of a man's inability to comprehend an attraction to another man whether sexual or not.

[jeffmcm]

You guys completely misunderstood this movie. Damon's character is closeted and hiding the truth from himself.

And yes, guys in Boston do talk this way.

[Aaron]

Interesting that this film won Best Picture, especially the year after the big "Brokeback Mountain" upset.

[Dan]

I think the use of the F-word and other slurs was really the result of lazy writing. If you can't write real dialogue and want to give your story some cred use hate language. I think it is some of the most common and dispicable bigotry and should be called out. these people know better and have the power to influence and they use it in the worst ways.

[thumbs down]

I didn't like this movie. Great for a teenage boy with A.D.D. I really didn't like the fact that every actor had to say "Ckscker" about 5 times in the movie. Shame on the actors and director. I thought about aspects of Matt Damon's character being gay but the direction never went that way. Won't watch a Scorcese film again or will think twice about watching the actors in this film again.

[Queer Beacon]

Hey Eric. I've heard about that theory. Matt's gayness would explain his lack of an erection with his girlfriend...but still, that doesn't put a positive light for the gays ;-)

[eric]

hey, i just finished watching this, and i think they did it for a reason. i think damon's character was gay. if you have a chance, go back and watch it with that in mind. it culminates with leo, who by that time knows the truth.