The Departed

***SPOILERS***

I am mostly avoiding R rated movies lately but when I saw previews for Martin Scorcese's THE DEPARTED, I got excited and decided to see it.
The cast is amazing. Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen etc.
The story was great. I really liked how it flowed and liked the twists even though they were predictable. Scorcese used the predictability to actually heighten the suspense. That worked really well. The performances were great. All the way around. DiCaprio finally looks grown up and played a grown up part. Nicholson was AMAZING. That guy could do Dial soap commercials and make them interesting.
However. You knew that was coming. Yes, there is a 'however'. The violence was excessive. Yah, yah, I know that the organized crime underworld is violent and there are killings etc. But, this was just too much. I'd have to watch it over again but I believe every character that got killed in this film was shot in the head. Even Martin Sheen being thrown off of a building had his head pop and cover DiCaprio with blood. I feel it actually got in the way of this film. Could have been soooo much better if the violence was ratcheted back a smidge. Even the profanity didn't bother me so much and I have become more sensitive to that in recent years.
Oh, and the only character left at the end of this one is the cameraman. Everybody else is dead. Everybody. I started to look around the theatre and wonder if someone was coming for me next.