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Violence In Martin Scorsese's The Departed

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The Departed, directed by Martin Scorsese (2006), contains a countless amount of violence and aggressive acts. The Departed (Scorsese, 2006) is a thriller/ action movie based around two main characters, Billy Costigan and Colin Sullivan who struggle with trying to fit into the roles that have been given to them by their surrounding influences. Costigan comes from a family of mafia members and ends up going undercover for the Massachusetts’ state police to join a superior Irish mobster, Frank Costello. Costigan has an extremely hard time with the tasks that he’s given by his superior mobster, Frank Costello, such as murdering, beating, and acting aggressively towards others. Costigan uses both psychical violence and aggression to intimidate …show more content…

Over half of the violence was verbal. However, three people were killed and six people were beaten or hit in several different scenes. In one particular scene, Costello brought Costigan to a room and asked his right-hand man, Mr. French, to search Costigan to make sure he wasn’t wearing a wire. Costigan had a cast on his arm from beating two Providence men in the previous scene, but Costello consistently slammed Costigan’s hand and face into a desk to break Costigan’s cast open and make sure there wasn’t a wire hidden in there. After that horrific scene, Costigan was sent on a job by Costello and ended up breaking a man’s four teeth when Costigan suspected the man had a weapon on him. The violence during the thirty minutes segment of The Departed (Scorsese, 2006) can be easily classified into the definition of violence given by Dr. Gomes (2015). Physical force was used 58 times and it was intended to cause harm and that is considered to be physical violence. Verbal violence took place the remainder of the episode through profanity and threats that were made in attempt to “launch an attack” (Gomes,

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