Debating movies is part of the fun of watching them in the first place. People always have different opinions and perspectives and so talking out the different aspects of film is a lot of fun for many of us. What do you think the final scene of Martin Scorsese's The Departed? At least one person really hated it, to the point he started a Kickstarter campaign to raise the funds to digitally alter the shot. However, Warner Bros. has now stepped in and killed the idea, and kept the rat alive.
The Departed is a film about mobsters and cops. Matt Damon is cop working for mobsters. Leonardo DiCaprio is a mobster working for the cops. Mark Wahlberg is a cop who's also an asshole. Jack Nicholson is...well he's basically just Jack Nicholson. In the movie's final scene, spoilers for the over 10-year-old movie by the way, Damon's character is shot and killed by Wahlberg's character, and as the camera pans up from Damon's corpse, a rat crosses a windowsill, because the movie is full of rats, you see.
The shot is, clearly, unsubtle in the point it's trying to make. Some appreciate that point-of-view, but for others, the rat is a groan inducing addition, which led one fan of the movie to raise money via Kickstarter so that he could buy several copies of the movie on Blu-ray, and then digitally remove the rat. Unfortunately, Warner Bros. doesn't take kindly to the idea of somebody altering its film, and as the Rat Remover has now revealed on Twitter, Kickstarter has removed the campaign at the request of Warner Bros in order to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
The Departed is, itself, a film that has led to many debates. The movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture and finally won Martin Scorsese the coveted Best Director prize. Few would argue that Martin Scorsese deserves a Oscar for directing, though some might take issue that The Departed is the film that finally won it for him. Some would certainly argue that The Departed is far from his best work.
As for the final scene of The Departed. Is the rat too much? Check it out and see what you think.
The Kickstarter campaign was over half way to its $4,000 goal when it got shut down so clearly there are other who had a real issue with those final moments and wanted to see the rat gone. They'll just have to watch the existing version and squint I guess.
What do you think of the final scene of The Departed. Is the rat too much or is it just right? Let us know in the poll below.
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