8 - Conclusion: Criminology of Narrative Fiction

Summary

The Departed

I have used seven case studies in this book, the first six to demonstrate the aetiological value of narrative fiction for criminology and the seventh to demonstrate the pedagogic value of narrative fiction for criminology. My weighting among these case studies reveals my primary interest in narrative fiction from a criminological perspective, which is in the cinematic mode of representation in general and feature films in particular. As discussed in Chapter 7, my focus has been on the Hollywood film industry and within that industry, for obvious reasons, on the genre of crime films. Within that genre, I have nonetheless neglected the single most famous director, Martin Scorsese. Scorsese has directed Taxi Driver (1976), Goodfellas (1990), Casino (1995), and many other critically and commercially successful films, but did not win the Oscar for Best Director until The Departed in 2006. The Departed is a remake of Andrew Lau and Alan Mak's much-lauded Infernal Affairs (2002), a product of the Hong Kong film industry. Scorsese tells the story of two young Irish American men growing up in precarious circumstances in a deprived part of South Boston. Colin Sullivan (played by Matt Damon) is groomed by crime boss Frank Costello (played by Jack Nicholson), who persuades him to join the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) as a spy for Costello's organised criminal enterprise. Several years later, Billy Costigan (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is recruited direct from the police academy by Captain Queenan (played by Martin Sheen) to join Costello's enterprise as an undercover officer. In order to maintain operational security, Costigan will be dismissed from the MSP during his initial training, with only Queenan and his deputy in the Undercover Section, Staff Sergeant Dignam (played by Mark Wahlberg), privy to the information that Costigan is still a police officer, on a covert operation. The drama, pace, and tension of the narrative fiction are all underpinned by the comparison and contrast of Costigan with Sullivan and the attempts of each to discover the identity of the other – beginning with Sullivan's promotion to detective in the Special Investigation Unit (SIU), the MSP's organised crime task force, which is coincidental with Costigan's recruitment by Queenan.