he Departed is a faithful (but with a different ending) adaptation of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak’s 2002 Hong Kong high-octane crime thriller, Infernal Affairs. As remakes go, this "new American crime" story holds its own as a fast-paced, psychological cops-and-crooks saga.

The film brings Martin Scorsese back to familiar stomping grounds: Reminiscent of his classic GoodFellas and the rough and dirty Gangs of New York, The Departed chronicles a family of men and the hard streets they inhabit, ready to draw blood of anyone standing in their way.

The Departed places us in the midst of a war between the police and organized crime, with each side placing a mole in the heart of the other side.

Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are supremely cast as mirror images of each other. As two cops, they see themselves in each other, traveling in the world of an Irish-American gangster Frank Costello, (Jack Nicholson) and both eventually becoming informants: one for Costello, one against him.