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All The Right Movies

@alltherightmovies.com

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The account on classic and hit films. Details provided in our making of stories is direct from cast/crew or 3+ sources. Listen to our podcast for the best movie show out there at alltherightmovies.com

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 19d

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS | OUT NOW

Michael Mann meets the frontier. We're talking DDL's method madness, the devastating score, and why a period film still hits like a tomahawk. We're in on one of the 90s epic with the standard big opinions and laughs.

www.alltherightmovies.com/podcast/the-...

The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - All The Right Movies

Discover how Michael Mann created The Last of the Mohicans with ATRM. Epic filmmaking, that iconic score, and DDL at his most intense.

www.alltherightmovies.com

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Enjoy this thread? The All The Right Movies podcast is full of deep dives, laughs and opinions as we tell “the story of Hollywood, one film at a time.” Listen now.
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Listen to All The Right Movies - All The Right Movies

Listen to All The Right Movies podcast. 2.5-hour dives into classic films with real research, insights and laughs. Start with any episode.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

If you liked our making of story of THE DEPARTED, please share the opening post
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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

THE DEPARTED was released 19 years ago this week. Acclaimed as one of the great Hollywood remakes, and the movie that finally gave director Martin Scorsese Oscars success, the story of how it came to be will have you seeing rats everywhere…

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Finally… not everyone was a fan. Infernal Affairs director Andrew Lau prefers his own film to Scorsese’s, and said: “I think the version I made is better, but the Hollywood version is pretty good too. Scorsese made a version more attuned to American culture.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

William Monahan had a sequel idea where Dignam was the main character . He said “I’d love to bring back Dignam, and I know how the picture would open. With The Departed Tango and snow falling on the Boston Common. It would focus on political corruption.”

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

The film won two other Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Fil Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker). And on a budget of $90m (half of which went on the cast’s salaries), the film grossed $291.5m at the box office, so was a hit.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Scorsese had been nominated for 7 Oscars without winning. The Departed won Best Picture, the first foreign film remake to do so. It also won Best Director, which was presented by three of Scorsese’s old pals: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Ford Coppola.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

In the final shot of the film we see a rat scurrying along the balcony of Sullivan’s apartment. Some fans thought the shot ‘too obvious’ and an online funding campaign was set up with the intention of digitally removing the rat from the shot. (It never happened).

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Madolyn finds out the truth when she listens to Costigan’s CD while Sullivan is in the shower. We see three quick shots where Sullivan turns on the shower. All three are taken from the famous shower scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Scorsese also took a visual element from Hawks in foreshadowing main character deaths. At some point in the film, before they’re killed, the characters are seen next to a prominent ‘X’ in the frame. Scarface does the same thing.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Scorsese makes a nod to Howard Hawks’ 1932 gangster classic, Scarface. In that film, whenever Tony Camonte kills somebody, he whistles music from opera Lucia di Lammermoor by Gaetano Donizetti. This is the same opera that Costello goes to watch in The Departed.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

LDC and Scorsese loved working with Nicholson, but Ray Winstone (Frenchy) said: “Me and Jack did not get on too well. Maybe he was going through a funny time … Everyone else loves him to death — I just wanted him to be a great guy. … We just did not click.”

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

We see Costello wearing a New York Yankees baseball cap. It was supposed to be a Boston Red Sox cap as that was a signature look of Whitey Bulger. However, Nicholson refused to wear it because, he says, he doesn’t like the Boston Red Sox.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Not the whole film was shot in Boston. The view from Sullivan’s apartment of the Massachusetts State House was not taken through that window but from the roof of Suffolk University. And then visual effects did the rest.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

The “I got this rat” moment when Costello points a gun in Costigan’s face was improvised too. DiCaprio wasn’t expecting it and called shooting the scene, “one of the most memorable moments of my life.”

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

We also see some Jack Nicholson improvisation in the scene in Costello’s apartment, where he’s surrounded by prostitutes. Costello throws a handful of cocaine on the bed, which was an idea that came from Nicholson.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Scorsese said the production of The Departed was one of the most arduous he worked on: “I hardly did any press as I was tired. I like the picture but the process of making it was highly unpleasant. I don’t care how much I’m being paid, it’ll kill me and I’ll die.”

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

The film is scored by classic pop songs and an original score written by Howard Shore. It was performed by 4 classical guitarists, and Scorsese called it "a dangerous and lethal tango" inspired by noir classics Murder by Contract and The Third Man.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

The Director of Photography was Michael Ballhaus, working on his 7th Scorsese production. It would be the last time the two men would work together before Ballhaus’ passing in 2017.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

The film has roots in reality. Costello is based on notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and his Winter Hill Gang. And Scorsese hired former police officer Tom Duffy as a consultant. He had been the chief investigator into Bulger.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Wahlberg’s brother, Robert, also shows up as FBI Special Agent Frank Lazio. FBI Captain George Ellerby was reportedly offered to Mel Gibson. He was busy directing Apocalypto, so the part was offered to Alec Baldwin.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Wahlberg later said he and Scorsese didn’t have a great relationship, saying “I had problems with Marty. He was pushing me in different ways.” It didn’t turn out too badly, though. Wahlberg was the only cast member nominated for an Oscar, his first ever nomination.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Queenan’s deputy is Staff Sergeant Sean Dignam. Scorsese discussed the part with Ray Liotta, but he was unavailable. Denis Leary and Ethan Hawke were also reportedly considered before Mark Wahlberg was cast.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Casting Boston cop Captain Oliver Queenan, Scorsese considered Robert De Niro but he was busy with The Good Shepherd. Gerard McSorley was also reportedly up for the part but there were scheduling conflicts. Instead, Scorsese turned to experienced head Martin Sheen.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

To prepare for the part, Farmiga talked to a psychiatrist who worked for the LAPD. After the psychiatrist read the script, her first note was that basically everything Madalyn did in the movie was unprofessional and wrong.

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All The Right Movies @alltherightmovies.com · 1d

Instead, Scorsese offered the part to Vera Farmiga. She later said she was nervous about meeting Scorsese and LDC: “You expect there to be a chasm between you and them, but there wasn’t. They’re just really, really lovely people.”

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