Martin Scorsese and the City of God

I'll try to avoid major spoilers here.

I've read several reviews of The Departed that gush over its stylistic achievements, yet decry its lack of overall relevance in that it fails to speak to a "larger theme." In fact, some have cited that as the sole reason it will fail to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

I call bullshit on that one.

Scorsese's central thematic content is a flawless exercise in Augistinianism, ripped directly from the pages of The City of God. The kernel of Augustine's masterwork is found in the final chapter of the 14th book:

Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self.

And thus is the entire history of mankind summed up - as a struggle to survive (and if it all possible mold for the better) the Earthly City, in order to align oneself more perfectly with the Heavenly. It is a struggle to find and establish a right relationship between the two.

Scorsese wastes no time in establishing Costello (Nicholson) and Queenan (Sheen) as the prototypical residents of their respective cities. The first spoken words we hear are Costello's, the local crime boss: "I don't want to be a product of my environment; I want my environment to be a product of me." He is the center of his own universe. Queenan, on the other hand, is the police chief who is as equally devoted to stopping Costello as Costello is to himself. His defining line, "We deal in deception; what we do not deal with is self-deception," should send your mind racing back to the Oracle at Delphi.

Serving as the personal link between these two men are two young police troopers, Sullivan (Damon) and Costigan (DiCaprio). Whereas Costello and Queenan are firmly established in their respective cities (again to be clear, the Earthly and the Heavenly, not physical cities), these two have just begun their residences, one in each. Costigan goes undercover for Queenan to try and rat out Costello, while Sullivan works as a mole for Costello in Queenan's office.

Scorsese spends the majority of the film then observing the consequences each must bear as a result of deciding to plant their faith in one city while having to work to survive in the other. The consequences of that decision, after all, are the most relevant and most interesting aspect of any individual's life - and afterlife, for that matter. For lest we forget, those bearing the namesake of the title are dealing with the ultimate, eternal consequence of their decisions. Scorsese constantly reminds us of that grim reality as repeatedly he intercedes on behalf of the deceased: "may the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace."

Now, the characterizations alone in the film are enough to warrant criticism toward Scorsese for perhaps being too overt in his symbolism (a scene in which Costello is bathed in red light, indulging in drugs and other pleasures of the flesh sticks out in my mind as being especially egregious). This to say nothing of the way the dualism aspect is none too nuanced (he practically screams "TWO CITIES" at us in the final shot). His overreliance on explicitness, along with a couple other technical plot holes, are my only criticisms of the film, however, and are really the only ones that are justifiable.

Whether or not you subscribe to Augustinian theology or not, his contributions to both the philosophy of history (he invented it) and politics (he influenced Western political thought more than any other of the patristic writers) in The City of God and his other writings are immeasurable. Thus, to claim that The Departed - a textbook case study of Augustinianism - is irrelevant in terms of "significance" (as opposed to films like Babel or Letters From Iwo Jima) proves that a) you are a historical and cultural cretin, 2) you are a Modernist, and d) you are an idiot.