Departed, The (Blu-ray)

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Video:
"The Departed" is presented in a 2.40:1 widescreen transfer that is mastered with a VC-1 codec at 1080p resolution. Now that the technicals are out of the way, I will simply say that "The Departed" looks almost perfect through most of its running time. The level of detail is quite strong and textures and patterns are perfectly handled. There is one or two minor moments when Nicholson is on screen during a dark scene and the level of detail takes on some muddiness, but this represents about five minutes of the 151 minute long film. Detail is simply very good. Death scenes, for some reason, are among the highest detail moments. Just take a look at the pebbles when the dead girl falls funny. It is stunning. Colors are also rendered with perfection. Every color of the rainbow is represented in the film and director of photography Michael Ballhaus brings a bright and natural look to the film. Blacks are deep and true and if it weren´t for the rare scenes where detail drops, I would have had not complaints whatsoever.

Sound:
Uncompressed PCM 5.1 sound. Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. This is the first time I´ve been able to write a review for a Warner Bros. Blu-ray release and been able to proudly proclaim that the coveted Uncompressed PCM 5.1 soundtrack is supported. I´m quite happy about this fact and thankful that the Blu-ray was provided with a next-generation sound format after the HD-DVD release featured a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes are tossed in as well, and the Dolby Digital mix sounds good, but the PCM mix is exactly where it´s at. Unfortunately, "The Departed" is not the most impressive sounding film. It is good, but it is the least impressive of any of the films released in either Dolby TrueHD or Uncompressed PCM. Bass is deep and impressive, though sparingly used. Dialogue lives nicely in the center channel and there is good separation between the channels. The rear surrounds are quiet for very long periods and "The Departed" suffers in not being very enveloping. The mix is clear and it is clean, but this is a dialogue heavy film with background music and occasional bouts of gunfire to break up its tame nature.

Extras:
"The Departed" features Pop-Up menus that allow the bonus featured to be browsed while watching the film. HD-DVD has been doing this for some time and Blu-ray is finally learning some of the same tricks. Regardless, "The Departed" is an award winning and important film, but without any great wealth of supplemental material. What it does have is good, just not lengthy. The 9 Additional Scenes with Introduction by Director Martin Scorsese (19:24) are MPEG-2/480p segments where Scorsese educates the viewer on exactly what a deleted scene is. These scenes add minor pieces of character building through there extended moments. The short documentary Stranger than Fiction: The True Story of Whitey Bulger, Southie and the Departed (21:07) looks at Whitey Bulger, the man whom Jack Nicholson´s character was based on and the criminal activity in the Southie section of Boston. While short, this was a very nice little feature to watch and seeing the genesis of the film was quite interesting. The second and final documentary, Crossing Criminal Cultures (24:08) looks at the mob boss films created by Martin Scorsese and look at how "The Departed" is part of a class that includes "Casino" and "Goodfellas." With more interviews and feeling promotional, this was interesting, but not nearly as good as the first documentary. The list of features concludes with a Theatrical Trailer.

Closing Thoughts:
I absolutely love "The Departed" and this was one of my favorite films of 2006. I´m not going to say it was my absolute favorite film, because it is just to hard to decide between the two or three others I loved. If I had to choose just one, this might be it. Martin Scorsese finally won a Best Director Oscar with this picture and he deserved every ounce if the gold statue. The cast he assembled is a cast that other actors would dream of or perhaps offer their first born for. Nicholson, Damon, Wahlberg, Sheen and DiCaprio is an amazing combination of talent. This story kept me glued to the tube the entire time and I was mesmerized by its great filmmaking and stunning visuals. The sound quality wasn´t quite up to par with the visual quality, but the Uncompressed PCM 5.1 mix still sounded quite good. The features run for just over an hour, but I imagine a bigger and better release will one day see light of day. With no commentary and nothing overly special, "The Departed" could have used a better selection of value added content. This is still a must have title for the film and the actors alone, so this is a case where extra material is just icing on the cake.

---

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---