An Italian director directing a star-studded crime epic is nothing new to cinema especially with Martin Scorsese at the helm. The great crime flicks like Goodfellas or the Godfather trilogy are all extensively about family and close brotherly-like bonds analyzed through the lens of a criminal organization.

The Departed is another Scorsese film in the crime genre starring big name actors including Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon. There is less intrigue in having Martin Scorsese take a complex look at “what it means to be family” instead, a more riveting aspect of this movie is the opposing forces of DiCaprio and Damon.

Films like this have existed less and less since 2006 and none has existed to that level or magnitude since then. This not only comes as a result of a lack of movies to pit movie stars against each other but a lack of new movie stars.  This movie when being watched now serves as more of an analysis of two of the few remaining acting giants handling material that matches their ability level. DiCaprio’s wild, constantly engaging eyes and Damon’s Boston charm are far more memorable than any message Scorsese is trying to send about the dynamics among people. However, viewing the movie in the climate it was made in (near the beginning of the blockbuster era and blockbusters created fewer movie stars) makes a much interesting argument for this film’s importance. It is able to set the stage for the two to show off their talents without damaging the quality of the final product.

A lot of films feature big-ego actors, but these films can’t shake the feeling of being fueled by stardom. For example, a critically-acclaimed movie like Heat that features two of the all-time great actors (Robert De Niro and Al Pacino) can’t shake the feeling that it’s an excuse for a showdown between two actors. In the Departed Martin Scorsese is able to pull off one of his greatest feats to date which is not to deliver a tour de force in technical filmmaking, but to convince us to be engrossed in a story without getting caught up with the outside biases towards certain actors. At the end there is a showdown in the elevator where a major character played by a prominent actor is killed due to the actions of another major character played by a prominent actor. The magic of the scene is that it doesn’t give off the feeling that one actor outperformed another, but that a true thespian gave a great performance regardless of the outside factors.