Remembered as the film where Scorsese finally got his Oscar, The Departed is a slick and extremely well-written crime story with a high-concept premise taken from the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. It’s the film where critics stopped saying DiCaprio was punching above his weight, solid success for Damon, an eye-opening performance by Mark Wahlberg, and incredible actors all the way down. UK born Ray Winstone may seem like the least Boston thing about this movie, often listed as one of the best film set in Boston, but the real movie magic is how little of it was actually filmed in Boston.
This isn’t about Scorsese wanting to stick to his familiar neighborhood. He wanted to shoot in Boston, but he also wanted breathing room with the budget. The choice was either film in Boston and get less days on the schedule or film mostly in New York, where the tax credits would buy the production more time. This is the part of the process I’m most interested in. Location Manager Carla Raij – who after this made the jump to Unit Production Manager – went through the script with Scorsese and Department heads to determine how to maximize Boston locations in as few weeks as possible. Filming began in April 2005 with 3 weeks in Boston in June and 3 more weeks in August to wrap the shoot.
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