Martin Scorsese has said he resisted demands to make a change to The Departed that would have ruined the entire film.
The 80-year-old filmmaker reflected on his six-decade career in a new interview conducted ahead of the release of his next feature, the David Grann adaptation Killers of the Flower Moon.
As well as sharing the revelation that he seems to dislike one of his many Leonardo DiCaprio collaborations, Scorsese also revealed how he faced studio pressure to change the ending of the film that finally landed him Oscar success.
The Departed, starring Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio, is a Hollywood remake of the 2002 Hong Kong thriller Infernal Affairs. Written by William Monahan, the cat-and-mouse thriller follows a mobster who is planted as a spy within the Boston police, while an undercover officer is tasked with infiltrating the spy’s mob crew.
During the film, both the spy and undercover office become aware of each other’s existence, and repeatedly attempt to escape identification despite many close shaves.
*Spoilers follow – you have been warned*
The film ends in disaster when the net closes in and, just like the story plays out in the original, both characters are killed off in shocking scenes that are among the film’s most memorable.
Speaking to GQ, Scorsese recalled a test screening of the film receiving an impressive response from the audience, who the outlet notes “walked out ecstatic”.
However, according to the filmmaker, “the studio guys walked out and they were very sad, because they just didn’t want that movie”. It’s purported that studio bosses wanted both characters to live so they could turned the film into a franchise.
Scorsese refused to give in, which led to him cutting ties with EWarner Bros.
He said: “What they wanted was a franchise. It wasn’t about a moral issue of a person living or dying. Which means: I can’t work here anymore.”
Interestingly, Infernal Affairs spawned two follow-ups, the first of which was a prequel. The third film in the series is both a prequel and a sequel, intercutting events before and after the events seen in the first film.
Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon in ‘The Departed’— (Warner Bros Pictures)
The Departed also stars Jack Nicholson, Vera Farmiga, Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg; Wahlberg won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance. The film also won Scorsese Best Director, which was his first win after six nominations.
He’s been nominated a further three times, for Hugo (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) and The Irishman (2019), and is widely expected to receive his 10th nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon.
Killers of the Flower Moon documents the string of murders that plagued the Osage Indian tribe in Oklahoma during the 1920s after oil was found on their land. The case was deemed the FBI’s first homicide investigation.
The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey, in her five-star review, said the film carries Scorsese’s “tradition fixations: the rotted core of man’s heart; how power breeds the impulse for destruction; the myths of cowboys and outlaws and the dirty truth to them”.
Killers of the Flower Moon will be the 80-year-old filmmaker’s first film since The Irishman, which was released in 2019. It’s set to be released theatrically on 20 October ahead of its premiere on Apple TV+.
