The Rewatchables - ‘The Departed’ With Bill Simmons and Chris Ryan

Episode Date: August 17, 2017

HBO and The Ringer’s Bill Simmons is joined by Chris Ryan to revisit and examine the Oscar-winning ‘The Departed,’ directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio. They break down everything from who was in the original intended cast to the film's most memorable moments, as well as what the movie is trying to say about society through DiCaprio’s and Damon’s characters. And, of course, they unpack Jack Nicholson’s memorable Boston accent. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Rwatchables is brought to you by Seekek. That is the presenting sponsor of the Bill Simmons podcast. Also, as you should know by now, the easiest way to shop for the best tickets, thanks to their revolutionary grading system. Download the Seekekek app today. Go right to Seekek.com. Baseball, football, college football, college hoops coming up, concerts, everything. Let's go there now.

We love Seekek. And if you've missed the rewatchables, the first one we did was a few good men, me, Chris Ryan, Amanda Dobbins. We put a whole bunch of old ones on the feet as well. The Departed, 2006 classic coming up, me and Chris Ryan, right now. We are an elite unit. So we're after. Frank Costello.

So what do I do? You will not ever know the identity of undercover people. Do you have anyone in with Costello presently? Maybe. Do you know who I am? Maybe not. We are well convinced that Costaello has at least one mode inside the special investigations unit. You better get organized, quick.

Hey, last time I checked, I tipped you off and you're not in jail. Getting the feeling we got a cop with my crew. A single lady's going to find out who I am and he's going to kill me. How's your brother? She's on the way out. You all are, act accordingly. Right, I'm here with Chris Ryan. We've been circling this.

I don't even know what the analogy would be. It's like two boxers. Yeah, it's like two boxers who've circled each other for 10 years. Before the movie was made, I think we were ready to do a podcast about The Departed. Do you remember seeing this? Yeah, of course I do. I saw this on a Friday night at the Chinese Man Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. Pre-social media, movies felt like it meant a little bit more back then.

Yeah. Was not a good movie year, which I think is one of the reasons to win the Oscars. And I remember it really did feel, I felt like this for this movie. And the other time I remember feeling it was gangs, gangs of New York in 2002, of just like, you know, New York and L.A. I think there's an appreciation. There's a film snobbery. Yeah.

And this movie is like Nicholson, Leo, Damon, Scorsese directing. Like, it was like, when is this coming out? There's a really weird sensation when you're watching this movie. I had it too when I saw No Country for Old Men because I love that book so much. But when you see something that is so exactly what you want, and that kind of sometimes is weirdly unsatisfying. It's like if you make a movie about Irish gangsters in Boston, starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, and Alec Baldwin.

I just want you to kind of inject it into my jugular. Yeah. But then I also feel weird afterwards. Like, it's like I didn't work for it. It was just too satisfying. Yeah. But, I mean, still, just one of my favorite movies for all its flaws. I think the bar was so high for it.

I remember leaving and nitpicking about a couple different things. I didn't like the rat at the end. I didn't like Nicholson's accent. And it wasn't really until, you know, it always takes five years with a rewatchable. this movie has been on a lot. Yes. Yeah. There has, there's 238 swears or variations of the F word in this movie.

And it, which makes it a tough AMC, T&T. Yeah. But it'll make the rounds. It'll be on Cinemax for two months. It'll be on T&T. And it's, it's one of those movies. And it's one of the reasons we started this podcast where it's like, I've watched this 58 times. Uh-oh, the roof scene's coming up.

I'm in. Yeah. I'm in for the last 45. Wait a second. Walberg's about to talk. Right. Well, we're like what we did with the fugue men, we have a whole bunch of categories that I wanted to get to. I will say, though, I want to talk about two things coming out of the gate. There's something to be said for the great movie with the big famous cast, which I feel like they don't do as much anymore. This is just like, I think they spent half of the budget on salaries. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And then they, because they didn't do hardly any exteriors in Boston. They didn't save all this money by using New York tax credits afterwards. Right. Yeah. And, you know, when you have Walberg and Alck Baldwin and Martin Sheen and people like that,

and those are just supporting people that you don't even, you know, normally they would throw away those roles. And now the model is basically build around the two big people or the one big person. And then you kind of take chances with the rest. And for most genre movies or a lot of genre movies, they're like, we'll get Patrick Wilson to be in this. And then like the hook will be whatever the concept of the movie is. Right.

He'll be the new guy. Yeah, sure. And Vanity Fair, GQ or whatever we're read about. Patrick Wilson's big break. Their partner was like, no, no, no, we're going to have Jack Nicholson and Damon. Who are the five most famous people alive during this movie? So interesting points of four careers for this. Because you could argue that Leo, Damon, Nicholson, and Mark Wahlberg, 97, was a much better

year for them career-wise. Wahlberg had boogie nights. Damon breaks out goodwill hunting. Leo had Titanic, obviously. And then Nicholson won his last Oscar for as good as it gets. So there was still like some real star power with them. But I don't think this was the highlight of their career. It's like we did Apex Mountain for a few good men.

We don't need to do Apex Mountain. This was the apex of nobody's career. Can I interject though? Yeah, please. Because there's something you're saying about the idea of these movies being Star Fest and how like sometimes that's just like the best way to do it. Yeah. One of the secrets ingredients to this movie is I'm pretty sure that DiCaprio, Damon,

Nicholson and Baldwin and Walberg all think they're the star of this movie. Walberg definitely. Because they're just like, as much time as I get on screen, I'm making the most of it. And Walberg is out of his mind in this movie because he's just like, you guys have me for four days, but I'm going to make it feel like 40 years.

Damon 0105, he does Oceans 11 and 12, the first two born movies, Grimm and Siriana. So he's in full Matt Damon, A-List Superstar Mode. Absolutely. Leo at a slightly different point of his career. He's the biggest star in the world after Titanic, disappears for a little bit, comes back, does the beach, and then does gangs of New York. I don't feel like that movie was a 100% win for him.

I don't think anybody does. Then he does, catch me if he can. Good movie. Yeah, and a great use of his talents. Solid. The aviator, it's good. We had no idea if he could do this part. I know I didn't in 2006.

Martin Scorsese, he had Brad Pitt in the role first. Right. Can Leo play a kid from the streets of Boston who asked to pretend to be an undercover cop? I had no idea. Nicholson's coming into this weird post as good as it gets, Oscars part of his career where he did the pledge about Schmidt, anger management. Something's got to give. Hadn't really played a bad guy? Well, actually, Pitt was going to play the Damon part, but go ahead.

Yeah, yeah. Nicholson hadn't really played a bad guy, I guess, since the shining? Is it possible? Yeah, I mean, a few good men. He's a bad guy, I guess, obviously. Or San Diego's Death Save Lives, We'll never figure it out. Listen to rewatchables to find out. Scorsese from 97-0-5, bringing out the dead, Cundon, gangs of New York Aviator,

looked like his ship had sailed for winning an Oscar. And he even says when I was doing the prep for this, he never thought this was an award movie. He thought it was too violent. It's a remake. Yeah. It was a remake. No remake had won an Oscar before.

and the ship had kind of sailed on Martin Scorsese winning an Oscar and was like Goodfellows was going to be the Oscar he should have won and did it or Ragey Bo, whatever, and he never won it. And then this movie happens. Do you feel like this is a makeup Oscar? Because that was something that used to happen a lot more of the 90s, early 2000s.

Well, I'm going to give you the other nominees that year. Babel, the Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, and letters from Iwo Jeeba. No, I'm very fine with the party winning out of that group. Departed, definitely. It feels a little makeupy, but it really wasn't. It was just a really, really, really bad movie year. The kind of inexplicable one, I did some research on this one, too.

So Walberg's the only one who gets nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting. Leo does not get nominated. Nobody gets nominated. Nicholson did not deserve to be nominated, which we'll get to. Forrest Whitaker won for the EADMEA movie. Leo got nominated for Blood Diamond because the same studio did Blood Diamond and The Departed. It's so wild. They wanted to put Leo best supporting actor.

Leo didn't want to campaign against everyone else in the movie. So they basically put all their chips into the Blood Diamond thing. I think that was a mistake. Imagine saying that in 2000. We're putting all of our chips on Blood Diamond. Yeah. Also, Leonardo DiCaprio. Sure, but his accent is like Nicholas Cage YouTube montage.

Yeah, you're not winning an Oscar for the Blood Diamond accent. Yeah. And I think he's really good in their part. I think as the years have grown, I have a real appreciation for him in this movie. I would say it's one of his three best performances. Yeah, I'd say this wolf and Django are my three favorite Leo performances. Oh, interesting. So you wouldn't put Revenant in that?

No, no. He won the Oscar for a. So was that a makeup Oscar? I think Revenant is like an award you give to somebody because they do something so physically challenging. We're going to rip through some categories. Most rewatchable scene is where we're going to start. Here are the candidates. Feel free to add one.

Are you still a cop? Are you still a cop? No! swear on your mother's grave, you're still not a cop. I am not a fucking cop. Are you still a cop? The Nicholson DiCaprio showdown, which is great. And there's something to be said for these movie moments where it's just these two giant stars in a scene together.

We talked about it when we did our heat podcast when it was like this anticipation of Pacino and De Niro finally being in a scene together. It didn't have that quite level of this, but it's still cool to see these two guys doing their thing. Martin Sheen's death scene off the roof The body Hey kid you go get out of there And the body coming off the roof landing right in front of Leo Walberg killing Matt Damon at the end

The Damon Leo phone call You're calling it dead guy's number And then finally the roof scene When Leo gets killed So you don't think that the first meeting with Dingham and Koskin At LRB Is the most rewatchable scene

Let's put it on there I didn't know if there's like a full other category I figured you'd have I think that that is the most rewatchable scene. I orient my rewatch around how far back I have to rewind or fast forward to get to that scene. So Dignam is going to be the big winner of this podcast on Chris Ryan's mic. Lace Curtains. Okay.

I will say this about the scene when Leo gets killed. In the moment, in the theater, not knowing that was going to happen is one of the only times I can ever remember the theater gasping like you would during a sporting event. Yeah. it's the red wedding of this movie. It's great. Now you know it's coming when you watch it in the 40th time. But that first time was like, it's also how he goes out.

Yeah. It's Anthony Anderson. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? It's like, it's just, it's a random character who's only been in a couple of scenes. It has only like kind of like a tertiary relationship to the plot, right? Right.

Well, Anthony doesn't shoot him. He's just in the, in the mix. Right. But like in the mix there when they like show up at the end. It feels like it's, the wheels are coming up. It's like, what's happening here? Yeah. So you think most.

most rewatchable, you basically the sweet spot of this movie for you is Leo Baldwin and Walberg when they're all together. That's when you're ready to roll. This is not a good movie. In the sense that you would not teach this screenplay, even though I love the screenplay, William Monaghan, you would not teach this screenplay in like a film school course. The structure of it. It's in a lot of ways is a lot of things that Scorsese have been doing camera-wise over the course of his career. It's kind of like a greatest hits album. Yeah. It's like it feels cool, but you're like, there's not one single shot in The Departed that you would put up against like the Copacabana tracking shot or any of the slow-mo freeze frame stuff and Goodfellas or Raging Bull or any of that stuff. It's mostly like it's kind of like a greatest hits anthology.

It's like the YouTube Beautiful Day album, whenever that album was called. It was nothing new from YouTube, but it was like, oh, I like these guys. It was the A sides and B sides with like one song that we were like, oh yeah, I never, I forgot about that. this is a perfect rewatchable because it is a great bad movie. And it's not bad in the way that like snakes on a plane is bad. But it's bad in the sense that it doesn't make any sense. And there's plenty of places that you could just raise your hand and be like, what's, why are you doing this?

There's some nitpicking to be had. But the dialogue, the performances, the music, the sense of just like complete abandonment of like everybody's going for all the time and hamming it up and just on Coke and screaming at each other. It's just such a, it's a blast to watch. Leo is the only one to me. I don't feel like he's going for it. I think Leo took this as the most seriously out of anyone in this movie.

I think he's like, I'm in a movie with Jack Nicholson and my rival Matt Damon and Martin Scorsese directed me for the third time. And I'm having a good career, but I haven't really proven my chops yet. And this is the movie I got to do it. And it's a pretty nuanced performance by him. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's also like, I always think about this when he's sitting on the, the balcony with Kevin Costigan and they're talking about like they're going to get an eight ball to start selling. And he's got his backwards baseball hat, his black red socks hat on. And I was

like, that is literally Leonardo DiCaprio in every Getty photo. I'm going to walk into lunch. Like in a lot of ways, I'd like to imagine that this is barely acting from DeCaprio. Yeah. You know, it's like it feels very close to who he is. is. And I think that has a lot to do with why it doesn't feel like he's he's overreaching it at times. He has good scenes with Vera Farmerga in this, who's a character that probably shouldn't work and isn't as bad as it probably could have been.

But some of the therapy scenes with them, which should have been just terrible. And they're actually like pretty compelling. And then also the comfortable, like the, you know, I think I have an overarching theory about this movie. Do you want to hear it now? No, save it. Okay. I think the most rewatchable part of this movie is meeting Mark.

and sheen on the roof. Did you get tailed? Oh, God. I will watch that every single time and the body falling and the where were you? I was just showed up. Yeah, yeah. And then Boggs from Shawshank realizing that he was the turn. Best casting, what ifs?

This is, I had to create a category for this because there's so many. I don't even know if you know all this. Brad Pitt was supposed to be Damon's part dropped out and ended up producing the movie. Ray Leota was supposed to be Dignam. Wow. Couldn't do it. Dennis Leary, second. second choice. Also couldn't do it.

Fell into Mark Wahlberg, had to film all the scenes at the beginning of the filming because he only had him for like four days. It feels like that. It feels like that. Yeah. That's wild. Can you imagine? I mean, Leota would have been phenomenal, but a little too old compared to Baldwin, I guess.

I think Scorsese is just like, you're my guy. Yeah. I got a part for you. Yeah. You just have to come in hot for four scenes. Nicholson, second choice for Frank Costello, who's choice number one? Was it Pacino? Who was it?

It was Al Pacino. Yeah. Totally different movie. But we're going to talk about that. In one second, when I get through the rest of these, De Niro turned down Martin Sheen's part because he wanted to be in the Good Shepherd. Mel Gibson couldn't do Alec Baldwin's part. He was the first choice for that. He was filming Apocalyptic.

The Riza was offered Anthony Anderson's role. Really? Couldn't do it. Why couldn't he do it? I don't know. Working on that ghost dog expanded soundtrack? This universe, you have Leo Dammit. Nicholson, Sheen, Baldwin, Wahlberg, Anderson.

Alternate Departed Universe. Leo Pitt, Al Pacino, De Niro, Mel Gibson, Ray Leota, and the Rizzo. I love it. I think I like that movie more. This is one of those movies that I'm like, why don't we just reshoot the Departive of that cast? It's like another cast.

Every 10 years, they should just make it. It's like a Broadway play. I think Costello's better with Pacino. I don't think Nicholson's a better actor than him. I mean, I think Pacino's better in that part. Al Pacino, Irish Mob boss. You're going for that? I think I would have enjoyed it.

Okay. I think he would have been over the top. I think the scene when he smashes his cast, which is a potential rewatchable, but him in that scene, Pacino really would have owned it. What do you got? Are you a cop?

He would have gone to tell me what you got! I don't think I would have enjoyed it. What about Pacino with the prosthetic in the movie theater, though? Well, that was at Denier, that was a Nicholson improv. You only get those when you work with Jack. Apparently, who knows that this is true, but he had some crazy hooker scene with dildos

that he wanted to shoot. and they talked him out of it, but he kept the dildo that he brought in, and then just ad lib that in the porn theater. That speaks a lot to like the stability of the story of this script, if they've just got people being like, I need to do a scene with prostitutes in a dildo. And it's like, why? It's like, trust me, I'm Jack.

Is Brad Pitt this really super smart guy? Or is he just a stone jackass? Because sometimes I hear stories like this where he's producing the party, wants it to get done, but realizes he's too old to play the matter. Matt Damon part and passes up this great part because it's better for the movie. That's like this magnanimous, awesome, super smart intellectual gesture. And then half the time he seems like Floyd and True Roadman.

I don't know. Brad Pitt's a confusing guy. Matt Damon later paying it forward in that same way, given Casey Affleck, Manchester. Yeah, there you go. What's age the best? Leo versus Matt Damon. That's one. The title sequence coming in 18 minutes in with Dropkick Burfis.

Love that. With Leo doing jail workouts. Baldwin and Walberg running a department together. Really could have been in any department I would have enjoyed it. He's like, oh, these guys are going to have access? Also, the fact that their department is like, where the cops, watch the cops, watch the cops. What the fuck are you looking at? What fucking department is this?

It's like triple internal affairs. Yeah. Internal, internal affairs. The cranberry juice scene. Cranberry juice. Snatch for Barry Reddick. My girlfriend drinks it when she's got a period. What do you get your period?

Which is arguably, should have been in the most rewatchable too, but that whole pick. What's age the best? Cranberry juice. Well, one last one. The Nicholson death scene. Cranberry juice.

Cranberry juice is a perfect movie scene. Everything from the music to the way it's shot to Winstone's delivery of the joke is so amazing. So I have the exact dialogue. It was going to be in the greatest exchange. section, but Leo goes to the bar. He orders a cranberry juice.

Some guy at the bar next to him says, cranberry juice, what's that? Leo says, who says it's a natural dietic? The other guy does cranberry juice. That's a natural diuretic. When she's on her period, what do you have your period?

And Leo takes a break, inhales on his cigarette, and then smashes a highball glass on the guy's head. And then Ray Winston comes in, and they have this great fight where Leo's like kind of mad at the guy he just hit, but is also like, do I have to get in a fight with Ray Winston.

Yes. And he's like, don't get your hands off me. Right. So Ray Winston comes in and says, I'm the guy that tells you there are guys you can hit and there's guys you can't. Now that's not quite a guy you can't hit,

but it's almost a guy you can't hit. So I'm going to make a fucking ruin on this right now. You don't fucking hit him, okay? Great scene. Ray Winston, who's also, by the way, English. Yeah. But somehow pulled off the Boston thing. I love the cranberry juice scene too.

I also think Scorsese, that's when he set the record for most times. somebody hit somebody else over the head with a highball glass or a beer thing, right? How many times has that been in a Scorsese movie? So many times. So nobody ever gets out of a bar alive in a Scorsese movie. Every time somebody goes to the bar, it's get your shine box. Bars are bad.

What's Age the Worst? Sure. We should mention in the What's Age the Best. The title sequence coming in 18 minutes in that has to be a record. There can't have been a movie that had just the title of the movie come in later than 18 minutes. And that's one of the things when you're watching this movie, is there like, there's no structure.

Is there a mistake here? Did they forget to put the credits in? Yeah. And they've got like, you know, this is coming after a five, five minute Jack Nicholson monologue about race in Boston.

Yeah. That barely comes back up again. Right. You know what I mean? Like they have the theme. And then it just moves on to these other two guys. And then Leo's doing pull-ups in jail. And it's like,

the departed. Like, what the hell? They're halfway through the movie. The Nicholson monologue in the beginning feels like, we have Jack Nicholson in this movie, we got to write some more scenes for him. It also feels like Jack Nicholson's like,

you have me for a day of voiceover? What do you want? It's like, I got the Wikipedia page for Boston open. Let's dig in. It's a great when the Dropkick Murphys come in. Yes. And that, you know, Papoban,

that was the year he became the closer. That became, you know, and then 2007 World Series. So there's some real Boston ties to it. Which soundtrack do you prefer this or Goodfellas? Oh, good fellas. Okay. What's age,

the worst. Nicholson's entire performance. Frank Costello is the Joe Galloway of departed. Mark Wahlberg's hair. I think this was before he did the Tom Brady, made the hair super long, but then put the plugs underneath and that. But it's like a very, like the last relic of Mark Wahlberg hair before his hair really fell off the mountain top.

Leo immediately panicking at the end after his identity is about to be raised by Matt Damon. Hey, Trooper, comes in. I'm going to erase the identity. We'll get you paid. And then Leo's in his office. Seized a citizen bank envelope that he knows was given from Custello to whoever the mole was. And it turns out to be Damon.

Leo, what's established? Super smart guy. Doesn't panic under pressure. 1,400 SATs. Too smart to be a cop. Completely panics. Runs out of there. It's like it couldn't have been more.

It leaves the envelope in a different place than where it was. Damon comes right in, sees it. Like, for the 1400 SATs, not great. Not great, Leo. No. That is not age well. Leo's plan to trap Matt Damon's character on the roof. See, whenever you get into ply, it's just going to, these are all going to not ageful because none of them makes sense.

It's a tough one. Yeah. I have all the goods. I have tapes from the lawyers. Here's what I'm in do. We'll meet on this random roof where Martin Sheen's already fallen to death. Where's a safe place to meet? The roof.

With an elevator and no outs. And I'm going to handcuff you and bring you down. Like, can't you just handcuff them on the street? Yeah. We have to go to a roof. And then finally, this is the winner in my mind. Damon sending a whole complicated text in his pocket. Yeah, this is mine.

I mean, you could make the Chinese microchips thing. The whole subplot just is. What are they? What are we talking about here? What are the microchip industry? The T9 texting in your pocket. Unbelievable. It's like the triple crowd.

It's the triple crowd of texting. If e-sports has really taken off, I would watch a gold medal event of people texting in their pocket with old flip phones. The first three stanzas of leaves of grass from your pocket, you know? Nowadays in the iPhone, you couldn't do that. There's just no way your fingers would know what was whatever. No, and also your iPhone would lock every five seconds and you'd have to like unlock it. Flip phone, I get it. You could practice for days on it.

and press the button. You know the screen comes up. You scroll down twice. You click it. I know. I used to be able to type on my bike barrier in the car. Like at a stoplight and stuff, I would not look down. Yeah, but that's, he literally is up.

In the pocket with one hand? Yeah. Come on, Matt Damon. Yeah. That's unhappening. That age the worst. Oh, and then this doesn't win, but it's a nominee. Scorsese using Gimme Shelter a third time.

He isn't, he isn't a good fella. It was great. Home run. Yeah, casino. Home run. Do you use the casino? It's like, ah. Okay. Maybe the ties.

Yeah. Then he brings it back. It's like cheap trick, play, and surrender three times in a concert. Come on. We know it's a great Rolling Stone song. Like, Scorsese's fascination with the Stones is arguably his Achilles heel as a director. There's more music. He uses Robbie Robertson from the band for these soundtracks where, like, Robbie will do a little bit

of music, but for the most part, he's the music supervisor. And you think if you're going to pay big bucks for a guy with the repubes of Robbie Robertson, you could do better than every classic radio radio station in America is like, now give me shelter. Right. And it's like, Robert Robinson's like, you know what we work here. Now, that being said, there are some amazing stones in this movie. And there's some good, the comfortably numb remake version on the therapist finally hook up with Leo is good.

Like the scene with let it loose is awesome. Comfortably numb is great. It would be funny if Scorsesey. made another movie and used Gimmie Shelter again. Yeah. He really loved the Stones. That's why if you learned anything about Scorsese, he loved Bob De Niro, called him Bob,

the Stones, and people getting hit over the head in a bar with a glass. So there's three things. All right. Best performance by that guy, new category for this pot. Good. Ray Winstone, you mentioned him. He played Mr. French. You could argue if they're going all in with the Yankees level payroll for the cast.

Maybe you go a little bit bigger with Mr. French? Maybe get somebody who won like... He was pretty bigger. He had done sexy beast. I think he had like a lot of momentum. You wouldn't have gone bigger? How big can you get?

I don't know. Mark Wahlberg's in the four scenes. He's a huge star. So here's what I learned while I was Googling Ray Winstone. Turned down the role of Jimmy McDowley in 2002. Did he? Yeah. Turn it down.

Could have been the lead of the wire. Didn't want it. James Dale. You know that? James Badgedale. Yeah. Trooper Carrigan. The guy who shoots Leo at the end.

Yes. Right. I've never really remember seeing this guy again. He was in a show called Rubicon. Okay. Don't watch it. And then he has been, he was in 13 hours, the Michael Bay Benghazi movie. I did see that.

Yeah. So he shows up from time to time. I think he's in Black Hawk Down. I'm not sure. Every single actor was in Black Hawk Down. So you can just say. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony Anderson was that guy in 2006? Yeah, that guy. Now he's Anthony Anderson, but at the time he's of that guy. The guy who plays Fitsy is such of that guy that you wouldn't even know his name. His real name's David O'Hara. Fitsy's the guy. He gets... Fitts.

He gets arrested. Damon goes in, turns the camera off. Nobody thinks anything of this, by the way. Matt Damon's turning the camera off, goes in and tells the guy, call your dad, tell me you'd be late for dinner. That's the guy who puts Fitsy. And then last but not least, the winner of this award. my opinion. Mark Rostin. Oh, I disagree.

You better known as Boggs from Shawshank. How is there better that guy than Boggs from Shawshank? It's Kostigin's cousin. Oh, you're going him for the next? Yeah, absolutely. Can we make co-winners? Kevin Corrigan, I think he's in dazed. I think he's in dazed and confused.

I'm pretty sure. Oh, you're right. And he's been in tons of stuff since then. He was in a community. He's like on a bunch of stuff. He was in a movie called Results a couple years ago. But he is the perfect cousin. I mean, can you imagine a better.

I imagine a better Costigan cousin. Pretty good cousin. But I just want to point out that Boggs from Shawshank has a key role of this movie. Boggs, the leader of the sisters. Rape the Indy multiple, multiple times. Yes. Multiple times. Yes.

Led to Red's best rhyme in the movie when he goes, I do believe those were the worst two years for Andy. Yeah, I think they were. I think when he was getting gang raped for two years. That was probably the nadir for Andy. Boggs gets out, gets beaten up by Viking. Yeah. From Bad Boys.

Yeah. And then became Boggs from that point on. And for the rest of his life, people go out to him. Hey, you're the guy from Shawshank, the leader of the sisters. Now at least he had this other movie to go to. I just think any time you can describe someone as an idiot fucking cop magnet of a cousin, they're going to win to that guy. All right.

We'll agree to disagree. Half-assed Internet Research Corner. Ray Winstone said him and Jack Nicholson did not get along during the filming. I bet there was a lot of testosterone on this set. I think Jack, the fact that Jack wasn't crushing these scenes either, which we're saving for near the end. Nicholson refused to wear a Red Sox hat during the filming and banned all Celticats on the set.

Come on, Jack Nicholson. That's hilarious. Go fuck yourself, Jack Nicholson. Leo dropped out of the Good Shepherd to do The Departed. Was the Good Shepherd a good movie? Yeah, that Damon's in it. This is so weird. All these guys are just like trading roles at this time.

Is the Good Shepherd ever on? I think I saw it once. There was a bunch of CIA movies around that time. Leo's Boston accent coach was named Jay Giannone. Boston accent coach. Can I have that job? The ringer can do that in our spare time. I want to be Jay Giannone's competitor.

And then finally, the winner, which I already mentioned, I spilled it. But the F word and its derivatives used 238 times. Yeah, this was a pretty profane script. Yeah, I don't know how it's on Titi. Speaking of accents, we have to tackle seven accents in this movie. Then I'm going to put in the camp of yes, maybe, and no fucking way. Yes, Damon, the best ever at it. Oh, yeah.

Goodwill hunting departed like just the best. His whole life. But Walberg said to everybody, I'm actually the best that I have the best Boston accent. If you just the accent off, Damon versus Walberg, which one did you like more? I just had this, I just said this in the office and I was met with derision that I, I think that Damon is better and I think Wahlberg overdoes it. That's the right answer, Chris Ryan. I'm glad a kid from the streets of Philadelphia could come to the right conclusion.

Just one man's opinion. Yeah. I just think that Walberg is like, I can't believe I'm playing a Boston cop in a Martin Scorsese movie and overperforms. Yeah. You know, he's like, it's like his Dion Waders game. Yeah. I agree.

But that's one of the reasons I love. It's like he's always sticking up and this for me. You're like, I'm open, I'm open. He's got his hand up. Yeah. Damon, he did this in Goodwill Hunting too. He figured out the Boston accent, the key to it. I've talked about this on another podcast, but not this one. The key is the attitude and the hiss of it.

And that's why when these people do the, when they're like, somebody like Nicholson, I don't even know what the fuck accent he's doing this. We'll get to him in a second. But Dame's like, what the fuck are you talking? You know, it's like there's an anger to it. And both Damon and Walbert got it. Wahlberg took it to a whole other level. I think, I don't know, to my delight.

There was also, like, I think I remember reading that Walberg was a real swinging dick on this set. Yeah, it was like, really like, you guys don't know shit about Boston. I got arrested 28 times. Yeah, it's like, and it's almost like weirdly, like, he's way too out in front of his own wheels there. There was one of the things I read said that he based his performance based on a compilation of all the different people who are wrestling. when he was a youth. That's a lot of baggage to bring in for a four-day shoot. All right, I'm going to put these on the maybe list.

I'll let you decide. Alec Baldwin, good Boston accent or bad Boston accent? Good. It's for the most part good. He goes New York a couple of times. It's good. It's good character work. The world needs playing bartenders.

Leo. I think it's good because his character, he brings it in and out, and that works for Costigan, because Costigan is, is supposed to be a little bit of a chameleon, spent time on both the rough side of town and the nice side of town. So I think it works for his character, although I know that I'm in a minority in my opinion. It's okay.

I put it in the maybe thing. It's fine. It's better in the first hour of the movie for some reason. It kind of fades away as the movie goes along, but it's fine. It never totally goes away like some other people when they struggle with the accents. They kind of like by the 60% mark of the movie, they've just said fuck it and have gone to their normal voice.

All right, the no way group. I don't know why Martin Sheen couldn't do this. I feel like he's done Boston accents in the back and maybe he's just too old. It's just really wild. Maybe the drugs from Apocalypse now like ravaged his brain. I don't know what happened to him. He's like Saigon. He just really botched it.

And they almost would have been better off just using a local, like Lenny Clark. There's this show on Netflix right now called Ozark and there's an actor in Ozark. He's very good. His name's Peter Mullen. He was on top of it. Lake. He's an awesome actor. But I'm pretty sure that something happened with his accent on the show because every time he's talking, they cut to a reaction shot of someone else. And they're dubbing it? It feels like it. It's just a theory. I almost think they should

have done this from Martin Sheen. You get all the hang dog Martin Sheen acting, but then as soon as he starts talking, cut, cut to another actor being like, oh, okay, Martin Sheen and get, you know, Jay G. and Oni in there to do his accent. There's a lot of people who could have played that role, too. like it was that important of a role. I think he's very, very paternal, and he's loving. He has, like, a certain warmth that most of the other characters in this movie lack. Vera Farmiga. She kind of quit on it.

Yeah. So I'm not going to, at least she admitted she was wrong, but in the beginning she really brings it in. Yeah. And then she just kind of, she, I think Scorsese must have been like, hey, I'm going to smash a glass on the side of your head unless you don't. We're going to go bar over there. I'm going to get an eight ball ready. And then Nicolson. I don't know.

There's just no way to even know what accent he's going for this. So do you want to have a larger conversation about Jack Nipuss in here? I still want to save it a little bit later. I don't know what accent he was going for. He's basically playing Whitey Bulger. Yes. He's playing this kid who grew up in the streets of Boston and became Boston's biggest crime lord.

He refuses to wear a Red Sox hat. That's not a crime. He refused to wear a Red Sox hat and doesn't have a Boston accent. This is supposed to be the most evil person who's ever come out of the If he wore a Red Sox hat, wouldn't you be like this is a little on the nose? No, I just at least try to pretend you're from Boston and you're playing a Boston crime lord. What are you doing? It would have been good if he had wore a sweatshirt with the sleeves cut off.

Want to do a quick break to promote Talk to Thrones? Sure. Sunday nights, we have two more left. Yeah, Sunday nights after the East Coast area of Game of Thrones after the scenes from next week. Yeah. Myself, Andy Greenwald, Mallory, Rubin, Jason Concepcion. We go live on Twitter. Sometimes some special guest.

T-Pain. Teapain. He was hilarious. Another special guest before the season is out. Okay. We have a blast. Talk for like about an hour about the show, about the history of the stuff that's going on,

takes on what we thought happened. And it's just been really fun. Great. People really enjoy it. I'm enjoying it. I know my wife is because she doesn't understand anything that's going on. And then you also, you co-host the watcher.

I do. Mondays and Thursdays. And then the Ringer FC, our new soccer podcast. Tuesday. Yeah. There you go. All right. The Unintentional Comedy Award. Scorsese's stones

fetish we covered It's still funny though It's just funny to hear Give Me Shelter Could we should make a video A YouTube video Of Martin Scorsese movies That couldn't have the stones

But put Give Me Shelter over like silence Give me shelter over Kundin Gags in New York Daniel Day Louis An American plaque And then all of a sudden He loves that song man Nicholson's a

Dildo. It's just so weird. It's such like a weird move. It's such a weird choice. That's what it gets weird when you're watching the departed on a plane. You're like, I'm sorry. Sorry about the dildo. The flip phones are just funny now.

It's funny that we use flip phones and everything about it. It's great. Damon's weird impotency issues. I think it's really good for the character. Supposedly he brainstormed it. Great. Threw it in there. I'm glad so many people had input on this movie.

It shows. It seems like they're writing it as it goes along. Yeah. What does he say when Baldwin says about the... Mine's working overtime. Does that, that cracks me up. But the winner, and I urge everybody to watch for this, the end, when Damon realizes that Nicholson has been working as an FBI in format

and that eventually he's going to get sold out by Nicholson. So he backstabs Nicholson, does the raid. Nicholson leaves his car and starts running, and there's this three-second scene of Jack Nicholson running. That's the funniest moment in the movie. I don't know. He got to look for the sex time. His body's just going all different.

He's running like... When is the last time you think Jack Nicholson had run? I don't think he had run for 25 to 26 years. Maybe since The Shining. I would love to know in a movie. I don't even think he ran in the Shining. But the whole thing with the Shining is it's that serial killer thing where like the guy is walking and catching up with a woman who's doing a dead sprint.

Yeah. It's like Jason Voorhees. Right. I am trying to think right now when is the last time. Did Jack Nicholson run on the beach in terms of endearment? I don't even know. My guess is. that they had probably a three-hour discussion about this.

The day they were filming that scene, they were like, Jack's going to have to run, and Jack's like, I haven't run in 38 years. And they were worried that he was going to die of a heart attack. He runs as he like ran across the forum to hug Diane Cannon in 1982. Right, 1987. Yeah, so he has to run because it would be crazy for him not to run. The cops are there.

He's running to get away. And he runs, and he runs like a 9.340. His body's going in nine different directions. It's great. I highly recommend looking for that. All right. We're going to pick some nits. Okay.

Let's start early. Why would Leo agree to this undercover deal? No idea. It's like you're too smart to be a cop. We know you want to be a cop. You can't be a cop. You're too smart. Instead, we're going to erase your identity.

You're going to commit a crime and go to jail. You're going to come out. You're going to rough up some people, getting some fights, and establish yourself as a tough guy and get inside Costello's crew. And Leo's like, I'm in. That sounds great. Yeah. it's not clear why he's so out of options.

I mean, you get the impression, you know, obviously, like, he's got this really tumultuous family. Yeah. This background. But, man, like, really, like a bad career choice on his part. Terrible. Just as a Boston guy, watching this movie for 10 years, it always struck me that no apartment that I had ever heard of had such a great view of the statehouse. Would that be like a $10,000 a month apartment? It would be that.

I left Boston in 99. That would be inconceivable to have an apartment that had that view of the statehouse. There's that. And then there's also, there's no real part of the city that has that view. So it actually online, they said they made it up. They made up the apartment. Then that annoys you, of course. Blown away with Jeff Bridges, which has its own just severe violations of Boston.

I love blown away. A downhill chase scene that's downhill for 15 blocks that ends up on this part. But an incredible U-2 sequence in that movie. Great U-2 sequence. But he's on his honeymoon when somebody blows up and he sees the explosion from far away. Yeah. There is no part of the four seasons that has a view of any part of Boston like that. Good luck.

Good luck finding that few. Would Leo and the doctor actually get together? I do definitely think so. Okay. We're okay with that. Yeah. Because she's actually frustrated. Do you want me to explain this to you?

No, it's fine. Okay. I just want to make sure. No, I'm not explaining like romantic relationships, but I have a big thing about Leo. Okay. So one of the reasons why this movie is so interesting to me on repeated viewings is that if you take out all the gangster stuff and all the cop stuff, there is an element to which the DiCaprio and Damon characters are basically a metaphor for the two sides, the two ways in which you can live in America. It's like about capitalism. And you can either compartmentalize everything and rationalize everything and basically be blindly ambitious and go after the golden goose or whatever.

or you can feel everything and make yourself vulnerable to everything. And either way, no matter which road you choose, America will destroy you. Like your ambition or your lack of ambition, your honesty or your lies ultimately crushes you. And she's attracted to both things. She's attracted to his vulnerability. There's that scene, the comfortably numb scene where she's like, I can't tell if your vulnerability is an act. and he's like, I don't know either. Like, he's like, I'm so out of it.

Like, I don't even know who I am. But Damon is so controlled and the impotency and all the, you know, all the other stuff. But it's like basically you get this vision of the two sides of living in America. And they're both attractive to her. They're both interesting to watch. But they are both ultimately crushed. And it's guys like Dingham move forward in the world who survive. That's my theory.

What you think of that, Zach, Mac? Wow. I just feel like we have to throw to another commercial. That was really good. I enjoyed that. Why didn't Vera Formiga turn Damon's character in? I don't know. I haven't issued that.

Okay, you go. Why is it? She should have. Just point blank. She knows that he's a liar. She knows that he's a bad cop. Not a client of her. So it's not like she's violating some patient doctor.

Do you think she's attracted to this idea that he's like sort of like life he's laying out or it's like this, then this, then the state Senate? You know, like this idea? I'm saying at the tail end. Leo's dead. She's at the funeral. She's crying, won't look at Damon, and then Damon says, what about the baby?

And she's walking away and won't talk to him. Why don't just turn them in? Come on. Come on, Vera Formiga. Why didn't a more famous actor play Leo's killer? This is my biggest flaw of this movie. So watching this live for the first time, you know, there's a million faces and plots,

and it's a two and a half hour movie. It's hard to follow everything. and then Leo arrest Amon they're going down the elevator. Elevator door opens, boom, and gets shot by this cop that we've seen a couple times who's been established as a character but as a forgettable face.

It's behind the desk. He's not like in the mix, yeah. In the moment, I was like, I didn't even know who that guy is. Where'd that guy come from? There's a lot of that. Now you see it 50 times. Like, oh, that guy, he's the guy who's going to shoot Leo. That should have been like a Ryan Gosling. So if it is...

They should have used a more famous younger actor. So even if it's Josh Hartnett, it's a nothing role, right? But if you do that, you're like, why is Josh Hartner in this movie? Well, I was like that with Mark Wahlberg the whole time. Yeah, but if you do it, you're always, it's basically the checkoffs gun. It's like you can't cast somebody that doesn't then have a reason for being in the movie. But then I'm confused that when he was like, who's this guy who shot Leo? And then it's like, oh, you watch a movie again.

Oh, yeah, they planted the seed here, here, here and there. I like, but I still think it's like, I think it works. I think it works. but I think if you have a famous actor. What if it was the Rizza who shot him? That'd be good. Yeah. Yeah.

All right. So you're against that. All right. We disagree on that one too. We disagreed a lot on this one. More unrealistic. Nicholson not suspecting Leo or Sheen not suspecting Matt Damon. It's Sheen, right?

Has to be Sheen. Sheen runs the internal, internal affairs unit. This guy who's constantly like, oh, we've changed our plants. Hold on. I've got to call my dad and told him out. You're fired. Chase that call. He's turning off cameras.

Nobody's suspecting anything like that day. We got a rat in this thing. Oh, it can't be this guy. The guy who's on the phone all the time. Switching his thing, car. And then finally, why didn't anyone talk to Orsays he out of the rat on the balcony at the tail end? Do you think that's like I better win my Oscar,

just in case anybody doesn't get it? Do you think they argued about the rat? Because if I was like his assistant director, I'd have been like, Martin, if you put that rat on there, I'm quitting. Take my name off the credits. I don't want to be involved in this thing. I have never read a really good explanation for why they did it. You know, there are sometimes, though, when people really feel the need to hammer home the point, you know, and they're just like, just in case nobody gets it. They certainly hammered it home.

This is a little bit slightly. This film is a little bit different than Goodfellas and Casino. like Scorsese's directorial style is a little bit removed from this movie and I think that the rat is almost like and now the movie is over you know it's like almost like a bow on it

like the end at the end of fugue yeah yeah and there's a couple of references in this movie to classic gangster films like the original scarface and stuff like that that are it feels like almost like a pastiche greatest exchange I only narrowed it down to three cranberry juice it's a natural diuretic

my girlfriend drinks it when she got her period what do you got your period that's one how's your mother she's on her way out we all are let's act accordingly jack nicholson good this is my favorite who the fuck are you i'm the guy who does this job you must be the other guy that's great let's start saying this in the office let's without telling anybody why mark walberg's one of his greatest moments maybe maybe not maybe fuck yourself mark walberg you called this number on a dead guy's phone who are you i don't want to be a product of my I want my environment to be a product of me.

That's basically the dialogue version of the rat. Yes. Yeah. That's the setup for the opening monologue with Nicholson. I think Moynihan wrote that on a cocktail napkin three the night before where they're like, we need a jacks says one day to do a video. As for our problem in providence, let's not cry over spilled guineas. I just really enjoyed that one.

It's kind of racist. It's good. He uses a phrase. It's all solid. The Bobbitt's whole marriage monologue. that ends about ladies see the ring and immediately you must have some cash or your clock must work.

Great advocacy for marriage there. And then finally, I think the top two, you're a black guy in Boston and you need to help for me to be completely fucked. Just a great line. Anthony Anderson takes it well. It's just good. It's funny.

And then the world needs plenty of bartenders. Two weeks with pay. That's my favorite line. What's yours? I'll throw in Costigan when he gets denied. his prescription from Vera Farmiga and he says two pills

great why did you just give me a bottle of scotch and a handgun to blow my fucking head off it's a really good wrap up of psychiatry who won the movie our choices are Leo Damon Nicholson or Mark Wahlberg Mark Wahlberg's the end waiter's performance

first three years I think you're just blown away by Walberg first few viewings you're just like every time Walberg comes on it feels like the volume of the television goes up but after a while I just think it's a Leo's movie. And it's all credit to Matt Damon for really, like, this is like, Matt Damon's best performances are always the one where he plays the creeps.

Like, Ripley, this. Courage under fire a little bit, not quite a creep, but, like, sneaky. I think, I kind of thought Weird Ocean's 11 guy, too. Even though he was a benevolent guy, he's just weird. Matt Damon plays good weird. Yeah, but like this whole new phase of him being like in the Martian and just being like America's sweetheart. I really prefer this version of him.

Yeah. And he does a great job. But DeCaprio. was just on volume 11 on this. If Brad Pitt is in this movie, I think it's worse. Yes, I agree. I don't think he could have played this. I'm with you on Leo.

I think he won the movie. And now let's have the Nicholson conversation. Because I think he loses the movie. So when you first saw the movie, you're excited. Jack Nicholson's in a movie. I thought it was like going to be Jessup all over again. And then you're in there, at what point in the movie you're like, this is going wrong? When I saw the first 10 minutes when it's Nicholson from 25 years earlier with

the badly dyed hair and it's obviously 70-year-old Jack Nicholson pretending he's 40. I got there was concerned. I heard the accent. I was really super concerned. It's annoying. And it brings up questions. You know, see Bill, like, you're the new guy.

Girlfriend. Why don't you stay in the bar? That night I got your numbers. Social security numbers. Everybody's fucking number. It felt like he was overacting in like a Joker in Batman kind of way, only this was not a comic book movie. This actually was a part that it's amazing. It won the best movie anyway because his part should have been the part.

This was like the Hannibal Lecter, even the Jessup and Few Good Men. Like this is the home run part. He didn't even get nominated for an Oscar. It's like impossible. You're doing this script and it's like this role. You get nominated for. best supporting actor and in the right hands wins he doesn't get nominated like that that's one of the most embarrassing moments his career i think yeah i mean i think that there was just a product of the fact that

i mean monahan's script is really cool but i just think that there was a lot of improving going on and a lot of like adding stuff and he just seems like he was like whereas on a few good men interesting that we've done two jack nicholson movies to start yeah on a few good men he starts out and he's just like he nails every line of sork and dialogue it's like like a watertight script. This is so all over the place. But that's what I'm measuring this against. Few good men.

And we talked about who won the scene in the last relatchables between Cruz and Nicholson. Few good men. I argued for Nicholson because I was like every nuance, every decision he made was so carefully thought out. I feel the opposite about him and the departed. It just feels like to me this is, it's funny that they played the Rolling Stones again in this movie because to me, this was like the Rolling Stones going to see them in concert in 2006.

Yeah, and it's the reason why it's watchable is that the Rolling Stone's greatest hits is still a good album, right? And it's like the Martin Scorsese's gangster movie greatest hits is still an incredible movie. And some of the loose ends of this movie and some of the raggedness of it is what makes it so interesting to watch over and over again. You're like, oh, I forgot about this whole subplot of this or like, what is this about? But that contributes a lot to the erratic nature of Nicholson's performance. Like even think about Sean Penn right now playing this role. I don't think he's fun enough.

Mr. River, Boston. You think he's fun enough? I don't think this character should have been fun. I think that's part of the problem with the movie. I think they try to make this character, this gregarity. Like, Whitey Bulger, there's nothing fun about Whitey Bulger. No, but don't you think that the difference between a movie that you watch 50 times and a movie that you watch three times is whether or not you find it like too dark and, you know,

and not entertaining enough, not like. But the fun is Baldwin and Walberg and. the accents. I think if those guys are in the movie and then Sean Penn is doing Sean Penn intense method acting, it just throws off the balance. Yeah, that you're right. That would have been weird.

But like Sean Penn doing that opening monologue would have been insane. You would have been like, this movie is unhinged. And he was like, no, I have to really like, it's just like, come on it. What about if Pacino was there?

I think you would have had the same situation you had Nicholson. De Niro? Just like off the, um, we'll see. He's making a Whitey Bouldermudder movie now. That's the thing is with Scorsese. Well, he's too old now. They're going to de-age them digitally.

What? It's De Niro Pachino and Joe Pesci. It's the Irishman. It's the Whitey Bouldering movie, and they're de-aging them digitally. Netflix is paying for this. That sounds like a dumb waste. So he's directing it. Yeah.

So you're pro-Nicholson in this movie. In the context of the entire movie. I completely acknowledge. So you're using the Hannibal Lecter defense. A grim movie, but Anthony Hopkins makes that role fun enough that when he bites somebody's face off. I've watched Silence of the Lambs. At this point,

probably equal amount, but I watch Science the Lambs more than Manhunter, partially because Anthony Hopkins is like almost delightful to watch, whereas Brian Cox is just terrifying in Manhunter. And you know what I mean? Buffalo Bill is another one. Buffalo Bill. Yeah, it's got great music playing. Are you a big fat person? I can't wait until we do that one.

I have a lot of thoughts. That's Silence of Lambs. The big showdown, Leo versus Damon. Yeah. You think Leo won the movie. I think I agree with you. you. Okay. The last question I'm going to ask. They switch parts. What movie is this? They switch parts. Leo is Colin. I don't know if, I think that Damon could have done Billy. I don't

know if Leo could play it straight and do Colin. I don't think Leo could have done Colin either. Has Leo ever played other than Wolf of Wall Street? You could make the argument that Catch Me if you can has like an element of the con artist like I'm everybody's perfect son thing. But Colin is such an obvious dick and is so clearly like a striver. And Leo just kind of seems like unless he has like an accent or he's like I'm playing Hoover or whatever like he needs like a project. He can't just be these subtle characters. He has to be over the top.

Damon does subtle really well. But I think he could do Billy. I just don't think Leo could do costigan. I don't think Leo could do Colin. I agree. I think Damon would have been an incredible costigan. I actually think there's there's a chance he could have been better. than Leo was in that role.

Because the Boston would have felt a little more authentic. I thought Leo was great in that movie, but I think Damon would have played that part a little bit better. I'm with you. I don't think Leo could have played the Matt Damon thing. We didn't really talk about Walberg shooting Damon at the very end. Yeah, what do you think of that? So a couple of things I love about it.

The outfit. His outfit's great. Out of control. The slippers. Everything. The DNA proof outfit. I like that he didn't wait for Damon to close the door for some reason. Yeah.

If I'm going to do that, I have my silencer. Maybe let him close the door before you splatter his braids all over the hallway. There were rumors about a Departed 2 five years ago in 2012. That was going to be a prequel. I think you could argue Departed 2 could have been afterwards with like Walberg and you just bring people in. And Walberg tried pitching that out there for a while. There are more stories to tell in this world. Me and Marty are going to do it.

And it sounds like it was like a nice dinner that he had Scorsese. Scorsesey was like, sure, sure, departed too. One of the reasons I love Wobberg shooting Damon is I feel like that was cathartic for some ways in Walberg in real life. He was just like, I'm the real Boston guy. Damien had taken his Boston quarter and Wobbigs like, fuck you. Just grabbed it and shot him and really like, because Damon punches him earlier in the movie.

Yeah. Which the rule of A-Lister's is that if somebody gets punched, you get to punt, it always ends even. It balances out. But Damon punched him. Walberg doesn't get him back. Yeah. So that was kind of there.

He's lower in the poster, less scenes, but then he gets to shoot him in the end. So that's how he just... It's just amazing how much... I mean, if you talk and think about that, though, like the way he just dresses down, Leo, for like five straight minutes. He gives him the Alec Baldwin-Gland-Gland-Gerry speech. I think you like this movie less than I do. No, I love this movie. No, you're down on a little.

No, I'm not. You're down on the script. I'm explaining the variance within the rewatchbook. Do you think it's a little choppy? No. I think the script is amazing. Like, ask anybody how much I love this movie. I'm saying, what do you think?

Part of the reason why it's rewatchable is because it has flaws. Perfect movies aren't always rewatchable. That's an interesting point. I like watching movies that I get upset about or like Castaway, which I'm going to, even though it's an honorable mention, it's not a Hall of Famer. They keep you asking questions. Why do they do it like this? What is this?

What would it have been like if they had fixed this? Castaway, I've watched that scene when he goes back to Helen. and the husband doesn't wake up. I could do an hour on that. Just that whole scene. Why does she have the maps on the table? I could go on that forever. The flaws do make it more rewatchable.

You're right. There are movies that are no perfect. Like, No country is a perfect example of a movie that is just like actually is just shot for shot, moment for moment, at performance performance. A great one. Perfect. And I have watched it 80% less than the departed because the departed, it actually feels like like a roller coaster ride when you're on it.

And you are, and rewatchable movies need parts where you're not actually watching, where you can be like, okay, I'm going to check out for a couple minutes while they're talking, you know, and look at my phone. No country from men, you watch it. You're just watching it. It's not like a fun movie to watch. No country from the moment he checks into the hotel and puts the suitcase into the air vent all the way through when he gets killed, but we don't see it, that's about as rewatchable as it gets.

Yes. If that scene, it's like, oh. Oh, Josh Burland's checking into the hotel. I'm in. Cancel my next half hour. That's a great one. And it's probably, you know, it's the peak of that movie, too. Because the first 40 minutes isn't that rewatchable.

And then it's like they actually do a lot of different stuff with like how they do the cathartic ending. But, but yeah, to me it's like just because a movie is rewatchable doesn't mean it's flawless. I love the departed. But like, it's definitely got problems. And it's fun to kind of talk about those problems because it's part of what makes it so good. It's amazing that I won best picture and best director. And neither of us feel, both of us feel like the potential of this movie was probably a little bit higher. Yeah.

And I think it was mostly because of Nicholson and maybe Scorsese about 12 years too late. But don't you think this has some similarities with heat in terms of its length and it's like clashes of huge? I thought the difference for me is, I mean, both of us love heat. So we're a little biased. But I felt like heat was crafted. every decision he makes is really well thought out. It's almost like he's invading a country with how he made that movie.

Yeah. And even the stuff like we talked about when we did our heat podcast about the whole Natalie Portman subplot and the whole wingro kills a hooker subplotting. Yeah, there's all choices that he made. Departed, it does feel like they're flying by the seat of their pants half the time. Yeah. But as somebody who loves movies, I kind of like movies that feel that way sometimes.

Did you see their original one? It was called Infernal Affairs, the Hong Kong. Is that good? It's great. It's really entertaining. Yeah. It's tighter than this. For sure.

Chris Ryan, the rewatchables, we have a whole bunch of ones coming up that are going to be hosted by a whole bunch of different people. We made a list. We narrowed it down to the 50 most rewatchable movies of all time, but also a bunch of honorable mentions too. The 50 will be called Hall of Famers on this feed. And this was a Hall of Famer. I mean, to me, this is everything that you'd want from a

from a rewatchable. It's funny. It's thrilling. It's emotional. It's great. And it's got big ass stars. Yeah. It's good times.

All right. Chris Ryan. Always fun. Bill Simmons. You can check out the rewatchables. You can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, Art 19. Where else are we, Zach Mac? Those are the, those are the biggest.

There's some other good ones, too. But subscribe to this. Pass the word along to your friends. hit us on Twitter if there's a movie you feel like very passionate that we should do on the at ringer Twitter feed or our Facebook page whatever let us know we'd love to hear from you until then the next one is Bill Simmons with Chris Ryan for the rewatch of us