Leonard Dicaprio bulks up in The Departed…
I haven't seen the lastest Scorcese flick yet but I've seen lots of great reviews. Anyway, received this in my email the other day.
A reader writes in:
“I saw ‘The Departed' this weekend and was surprised to see that Scorcese uses the words ‘nigger', ‘fucking homos', ‘fucking queers' and ‘two-faced faggot' at face value.
The movie is arbitrarily set in Boston because Scorcese cannot do one more movie about the NY Mafia, so this is set in some fantasy world of Irish-American organized crime. The slurs are used unneccessarily by the three main characters, including Leonardo, who plays the hero of the movie.
Considering that this is not one of Scorcese's period pieces, and that the entire plot is way outside the realm of plausibilty, it seems strange to inlcude these words when the movie is so plainly unrealistic (It gets downright satirical by the end). It is not as though Scorcese was making a thoughtful film about cultural differences, although he hints that the movie will be about that during the beginning. Anyway, nobody on the internet or the in the press has said anything. I think someone should say something.”
Since I haven't yet seen the film, I can't really comment, but if anyone out there who has would like to offer some insight, please feel free to do so in the comments…