martin scorsese's crime thriller the
departed gave the veteran film director
his first and as of yet
only oscar win the movie follows
leonardo dicaprio's billy and matt
damon's colin
as they look to navigate their way
through life avoiding detection and
exposure as
undercover agents billy an undercover
cop in jack nicholson's irish gang
and colin an officer in the boston
police force
secretly working for nicholson's frank
costello
both moulds lead stressful lives given
the sheer amount of danger they're
constantly in and both end up seeing the
same psychiatrist romantically speaking
colin actually settles down with her and
they have a successful relationship
that is of course until she finds out
all about his actual job
now scorsese's film is a very detailed
picture
one where there are many things going on
in the background that only become
apparent upon multiple viewings of the
film
for example similar to how the
appearance of an orange
marks the death or near-miss of a
character in the godfather
characters are marked for death in the
departed through the use of
x's in the background another example
would be that
eventually towards the end of the film
it is revealed that mob boss franco
stella was most likely
impotent and this is foreshadowed in a
scene where his wife
is reading a book on how to get pregnant
one such detail that some fans
of the movie have speculated on is the
sexual orientation of colin sullivan
that's right in and amongst the
shootouts the betrayals the lies and
deception
an all-important question has arisen was
colin
a gay this is actually quite a popular
fan theory
and one of the most discussed aspects of
the movie another being
whether the gangster dele hunt was
actually an undercover cop something
which i've already made a video on
despite being married to vera farmiga
many do believe that colin was in the
closet
so let's take a look at this claim and
see if we can come up with an answer
first of all let's collate the possible
evidences which point to colin batting
for the other side
number one when he was a kid he was an
altar boy at a boston church
uh okay i'm not even going to touch that
one actually i will say that costello
does actually bring up abuse in the
church to a priest
maybe colin was abused as a child and it
messed him up sexually
anyway early on in the film during a
sports game between the police force and
firefighters
colin repeatedly uses homophobic slurs
calling the firemen [ __ ] queers
and then [ __ ] homos and a while later
after the game he repeats the slur
saying [ __ ] firefighters are a bunch
of homos
seemingly with no provocation or reason
to do so
this obviously doesn't instantly label
colin as a gay but it's worth noting as
it's a cliche character trait of
extremely homophobic characters in
movies and tv shows to be secretly gay
themselves
later on there's an awkward exchange
with a real estate agent when colin is
checking out the place that will
eventually be his new home
the estate agent asks if colin is
married after mentioning that he's a cop
signaling that this is a big apartment
colin gets noticeably irritated
snapping back that he has a co-signer
and there's multiple ways to interpret
this scene
one of course being that colin is
annoyed at the idea that he wouldn't be
able to afford the place on his own
with the pay of a cop and his cosigner
or the guy putting up the cash for the
place
is of course frank costello however if
you subscribe to the gay theory this
could be one of the many clues
of colin's hidden homosexual tendencies
given his irritated nature at the
question of marriage being brought up
and the realtor saying oh i get it you
tend to have a house guest
can also imply that he has clicked that
colin is gay
and then there's this exchange between
colin and captain ellerby played by alec
baldwin
how was your wedding coming along great
great she's a doctor oh that's
outstanding yeah
marriage is an important part of getting
ahead let's people know you're not a
hormone
and every guy seems more stable people
see the ring they think at least
somebody can stay on the side of a [ __ ]
ladies see the ring they know
immediately you must have some cash and
your [ __ ] must work that's working
overtime i'm glad to hear that yeah
thank you
again the term homo is referenced in
this scene with ella b
specifically stating that getting
married lets people know you're not gay
which could be the reason why colin gets
married in the first place
in that no one will suspect his gayness
and on the topic of cock's working and
perhaps the biggest indicator that
colin's favorite sopranos character is
vito
is the scene between him and vera
farmiga's madeleine
where after an awkward silent she asks
whether he wants to talk about last
night
and then says it's all right guys tend
to make too big a deal out of it
it's actually quite common and then
colin quickly says he has to go to work
and leaves interesting maybe some
viewers also want to make something of
the apparent
phallic imagery of madeleine peeling a
banana
taking it out and eating it in another
scene
colin awaits frank costello at an adult
theater and seems to be the only person
in the audience uninterested in the
shenanigans going on
on screen in fact he actually looks
pretty disgusted and uncomfortable by it
near the end of the film it is revealed
that madeleine is pregnant and though
it's heavily implied that the baby is
actually billies
colin of course doesn't know this when
madeline tells him
his reaction can be interpreted as
genuine disbelief
there's a few other small little things
here and there also
like costello shoving a dildo in colin's
direction and joking
see anything you like that obviously
doesn't mean costello thinks colin is
gay but it might be the film
trying to tell us something some people
even think that colin whistling at a
woman's arse after ensuring that someone
is watching him do this
also signals that he is a gay man trying
to pass as straight
so as you can see there are a few
pointers that lead in the direction of
colin being gay and for the sake of
discussion is a conversation worth
having
so let me give you my thoughts on this
first of all i think
all the numerous underlying and
ambiguous clues in the film implying
that calling is gay
are substantial enough that i don't see
a problem with someone watching the film
and thinking hey you know what i think
colin was gay
and he has to hide and repress his
homosexual tendencies because of the
uber macho lifestyle he was in and
because he grew up in a catholic boston
culture
so if you think that he was gay i don't
have a problem with that and i can see
why someone would come away with that
conclusion and in some ways it adds to
the layers that this film has
and certainly adds to the fact that
everyone in the film is living a lie
and in this case colin might be even
lying to himself
there's other possible references to
homosexuality like when frank costello
says to his wife
you're giving me a hard on and she
replies are you sure it's me
not that talk about whiffing and
crawling up asses and his angry reaction
is telling
i mean you could go on and on and on
with this verifier like the wife also
saying to him
let me straighten you out when she
approaches him and the opposite of
straight is of course bent
which is a slang term for homosexuality
however
i myself do not subscribe to this theory
for many reasons i do think it's
interesting though
first of all none of the mentioned
reasons necessarily imply that colin is
gay
i don't think any of them are strong
enough to warrant this they are weird
and they do point to something which
i'll get to in a bit but jumping to the
conclusion that colin is gay is a
stretch
it's reaching and in a way does the film
a disservice by ignoring some of the
central
underlying themes to bring about a
pretty generic conclusion that all of
these little clues
simply amount to colin being gay yes
these instances can be odd like his
impotence but
the reason being he's a homosexual is
just one of the many possible reasons
and it also ignores the fact that surely
colin has had sexual relations with
madeline it's not as if
every night is like this and if he's
able to perform on numerous occasions
and then not on some
that does not in any way imply he's gay
if anything he suggests he needs to see
a doctor
during the haze code error many
characters in films were supposed to be
gay
such as peter lorries in the maltese
falcon but they weren't allowed to make
open references to this
so had to use implied subtext sexual
acts between people of the same sex
became illegal nationwide in the us
in 2003 a few years before the release
of the departed
after this and i don't have any official
statistics to back this up
this is just a personal observation but
i started noticing
many revisionist articles blogs and
opinions highlighting homosexual subtext
in movies
some of them were interesting like
whether mob boss phil leotardo in the
sopranos was gay
which i've made a video on and somewhat
downright barmy like one opinion piece i
saw about arnold schwarzenegger's action
flick predator being a study of
repressed homosexuality
like what all of a sudden everyone's gay
maybe you're gay for clicking on this
video maybe i'm gay for making it
and i think matt damon's carrick in the
departed is a victim of this outlook
where anyone who acts slightly
unorthodox in regards to his
relationship with women and his choice
of language is all of a sudden reduced
to being gay
in a way i find this offensive because a
filmmaker may have constructed a
character to be complex
and multi-layered but audiences don't
give the character the required critical
thought
and instead come to the conclusion oh
he's gay
and in doing so water down the
character's complexity
i believe the reason for colin being
unable to perform
is actually quite simple leading a
double life i mean not as a gay man
pretending to be straight but as a
criminal living a life as a cop
is putting a tremendous amount of stress
upon him and that can be one of the side
effects
and all of the other evidences pointed
out have reasonable explanations
like the adult theatre for example
there's going to be numerous straight
people out there that would be
uncomfortable in such a place
not to mention colin is a respected
police state detective who would not
want to be caught in an adult movie
theater
the clues pointed out by people are good
sports there's quite a few things which
probably means it isn't nothing
but the conclusion is incorrect in my
opinion it misses some of these central
themes in the departed which are
impotency
masculinity and manhood in this ultra
macho film with practically every male
character hardcore
played by some of hollywood's most
testosterone-filled actors like mark
wahlberg jack nicholson and alec baldwin
the movie makes a strong link between
the criminal lifestyle and impotence
the villainous damon isn't the only one
with such issues
as it's later revealed in a crucial
scene that franco stella was firing
blanks
when damon remarks all that [ __ ] and
no sons which infuriates costello
with an added implication that daemon
was the closest thing to a son he had
with him being raised as one as early as
his childhood
suggested by the line that's my boy
early on in the film
it's also like diamond has got one over
costello in this scene
as in frank costello has been trying to
have sons and failing
and madeleine's pregnancy showing that
colin will have a son
but of course we as the viewer know that
the baby's probably billies
so it's quite ironic costello being
sterile
is also implied in another scene where
he's with leonardo dicaprio and he says
i don't need [ __ ] anymore and another
as mentioned
where his wife is reading a book called
getting pregnant
both of these characters costello and
sullivan are incapable
of having children it appears while
their counterparts on the flip side of
the coin
clearly are with martin sheen's captain
queen and having a grown-up son
and billy being the father of
madeleine's child who is revealed is
a boy both costello and sullivan's lines
are ended with their deaths but the
heroes with their virility
live on through their sons in spite of
all four characters dying in the film
there's interesting references made to
both their fathers as well with it being
said that billy's died
and queenians wasn't around billy
costigan is simply superior to colin
he's a better cop he's a better gangster
he's even more trusted by costello as
proven by frank
giving him the insurance tapes he's a
better man
in more ways than one and even bangs his
girlfriend
surely the ultimate macho move matt
damon's character is attracted to
madeleine
the film makes this clear on numerous
occasions but he can't perform
that doesn't mean he's gay he's
homophobic sure but it's hardly
something to note
in such a culture that he's in where
you'd expect most characters are
and you could argue instead that colin's
homophobic rhetoric
is a deflection of him trying to project
his manhood in front of other men
it's one of the reasons why the realtor
touching a nerve with colin is so
significant
colin is a man who likes to think he's
made his own way in life
that he's come up the hard way from
south boston and now has an apartment
with an extraordinary view
women want him men want to be him he's
made it but as the realtor's
probing highlights he would in fact be
nothing without costello
costello probably even paid for his
education he's got him on a leash
throughout his
life colin's misses has no idea that he
isn't the man he really is
and it's manifested feelings of
emasculation he perfectly fits queen in
the description of people who want to
appear to be cops
rather than be cops with masculinity and
virality
such prominent themes in the film it's
perfectly plausible that sullivan is
simply insecure about his masculinity
a trait which has come about as a result
of him living alive
the evidence presented can point to him
being gay
it can point to him being molested as a
child it can point to him suffering from
anxiety from being caught
it can point to this stress of having to
deal with costello pressuring him to
find the rat
or else it really is quite ambiguous was
colin gay
maybe maybe not maybe [ __ ] yourself
so what's your opinion on calling let me
know in the comments below
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watching
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