10 Classic Movies That Are (If Anything) Underrated
7. The Departed
Why Do People Think Its Overrated? The Departed is the movie that finally won Martin Scorsese his Oscar. Not Taxi Driver or Raging Bull or The King Of Comedy or Goodfellas or Gangs Of New York or The Aviator, but The Departed. What gives? A prominent force in New Hollywood, and one of the few to only grow larger with its demise, Scorsese was eventually honoured for a gangster film that isn't even the best of that sub-genre in his filmography. The common perception is that the Oscar for Best Picture/Director was really just a consolation prize, honouring a lifetimes work. It would be criminal that so many great films could slip by unrewarded, so the Academy jumped on the next worthy offering that came along. Some even claim people were overly kind to the film upon release with the explicit hope things would lead in that direction. Why Isnt It? Comparing any crime movie to Goodfellas is like comparing any up-and-coming filmmaker to Scorsese himself; it's a totally unfair fight. The Departed barely cracks the top ten of Marty's back catalogue, but that's less a mar on the film itself and more a celebration of how bloody brilliant a director he is. It's not just an expansive crime film with a very strong cast either. With the ever-spiralling network of moles, the film shows an alternate, political take on crime and creates distinction between the moral and the "good"; it essentially marks an end to the era that Scorsese so best defined with his Wiseguy adaptation.
