Analysis of the movie "The Departed"

For my university application I needed to analyze the editing of a movie, I decided to choose the movie "The Departed" to analyze.

Rhythm and pace: the film has a special temp that is difficult to see in any other film. In this work, it is impossible to guess which scene will be next, because calm and introductory scenes can change at any moment to intense and energetic scenes.

Editing parallel events: in film are 2 main characters and many second-line characters. The story in the film develops through parallel editing among all characters. Thus, the editor was able to create a unique sense of intrigue and total destruction, as the main characters do not interact at all until the end of the film, and then both die practically without resistance.

Dialogue editing: Director Roger Dickins is famous for watching his movies on the same breath. The director himself has repeatedly pointed out that a single frame should never stand out in front of the others. Despite the fact that the movie “The Departed” was filmed by another director, he admirably follows this advice because there are no special editing scenes in the film.

Action scene editing: There are almost no shots in the movie that are less than 2 seconds long. Even the fight scenes are edited smoothly, slowly and the characters don't stop talking to each other, which makes the movie more realistic and deepens the audience.

Not to lose sight of the fact that the film is the adoption of the Chinese film “Infernal Affairs”, but it is the editing of the film “The Departed” that has made it worldwide popular, proving that any, even the most amazing, story will not be able to take shape without professional editing.

It should be noted that Thelma Schoonmaker (movie editor) is famous for her more than fifty years of work with director Martins Scorsese. This means that the director and the editor fully trust each other and understand the ideas of their colleagues.