We hope we not spoiling anything for you by saying there are one or two criminals in The Departed. Yeah, well, sorry, but there are. They might be drug dealers, murderers, or informants for the mob, but they all break the law, and they all have their reasons for doing so. Sometimes they want money and power; sometimes they're just being loyal to someone else who helped them out when they were young.
There are lots of reasons a person would break the law, but for someone like Frank Costello, there is only one reason—because you want to do whatever the heck you want, without anyone telling you what to do. As you can imagine, the police aren't always fans of this outlook, but Costello doesn't care. For him, criminality and pride are the same thing. And he's a proud dude.
Questions about Criminality
- Do you think that this movie paints the criminals as bad guys and the cops as good guys? Why or why not?
- Does this movie ever suggest that it's morally okay for Frank Costello to be a criminal? Why or why not?
- Why don't Queenan and Dignam want Billy Costigan to become a full-time police officer?
- How does Colin get his start in the world of crime? How responsible is he for his actions when he first starts hanging with Frank?
Chew on This
The Departed shows us that there really isn't much of a difference between cops and criminals. They just live by different codes.
In The Departed, we learn that criminals tend to come from bad backgrounds that make them hate the world.