‘The Departed’ is coming back to the big screen for one night only at a local theater
The theater will screen the quintessential Boston crime movie one day shy of its 13th anniversary.
It’s been almost 13 years since “The Departed” hit theaters, cementing the enduring legacy of the Boston crime movie genre and showcasing Hollywood stars’ attempts to nail the local dialect, both good (Matt Damon, Cambridge native) and bad (Martin Sheen, not from around here). If it’s been too long since you caught Martin Scorsese’s crime drama classic on the big screen, you may want to ship up to Boston — or Somerville, more accurately — where a local movie theater is holding an anniversary screening for one night only this weekend.
On Saturday, Oct. 5, the Somerville Theatre will present a 35 mm film print of “The Departed” just one night shy of the film’s anniversary (it premiered on Oct. 6, 2006). The screening is part of the theater’s “Jack Attack Rep Series,” a retrospective dedicated to the works of Jack Nicholson.
“It was triggered by the idea of how Jack Nicholson is so ever-present in our culture — since my parents were teenagers, through their lives, and all through my life. Jack Nicholson’s always been just someone that everybody knows,” said Ian Judge, director of operations for Fraiman Enterprises Inc., the company that owns Somerville Theatre. “It’s been a long time since we’ve actually had a Jack Nicholson movie, and so I thought, people always do a retrospective once actors die. Well, why not do it while they’re alive?”
The series kicked off way back in March with 1963’s “The Raven,” a horror-comedy directed by B-movie maestro Roger Corman that features Nicholson in one of his first big-screen roles. Since then, the retrospective has progressed mostly chronologically through Nicholson’s career, so five of the six films remaining in the retrospective are from the 2000s. Along with “The Departed,” you can see 2002’s “About Schmidt” and 2003’s “Something’s Gotta Give” on Saturday, while 2007’s “The Bucket List” and Nicholson’s final role to date, 2010’s “How Do You Know?”, will screen on Sunday, Oct. 6. The series concludes on Friday, Oct. 11, with a showing of 1969’s “Easy Rider.”
“We tried to be as complete as possible,” Judge said. “While we weren’t able to play every movie he was in, I think we nailed about 90 percent of them.”
In case you’ve somehow forgotten the plot of “The Departed,” Nicholson portrays mob boss Frank Costello, a character that was partly based on Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger. The Boston-set story follows what happens when Costello sends in his man Colin Sullivan (Damn) to infiltrate the Massachusetts State Police, while the police simultaneously send in South Boston cop Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) to go undercover in Costello’s gang. When both sides are informed there’s a mole, Billy and Colin must figure out the other’s identity. The all-star cast also includes Sheen, Alec Baldwin, and Dorchester native Mark Wahlberg.
“We’re just happy to be able to show these movies on a big screen for people because there’s nothing like seeing a movie with an audience,” Judge said. “It’s a social experience.”
Tickets for “The Departed,” as well as the rest of the “Jack Attack” series are available on the Somerville Theatre website.
“The Departed;” Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7:15 p.m.; Somerville Theatre, Somerville; $8 – $11; rated R.
