'The Departed' Gets X'd

Can an X mark the Oscar?

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Tuesday, January 30th 2007 at 1:08 AM

Many people don't realize what makes good directing and what separates a good director from a bad. Of course we can all say that Uwe Boll is an example of a bad director, but a good director is very hard to find and sometimes some of the things that make them good are not even recognizeable.

Thanks to an article over at JoBlo my attention was turned to a very cool article at the Miami Herald's Reeling blog by Rene Rodriguez. Rene took his screener copy of The Departed and found a little nugget that I did not even notice, but I sure will be paying close attention when it hits DVD.

Apparently, in an homage to Howard Hawks' classic 1932 Scarface, Scorsese scattered Xs throughout The Departed (some more subtle than others), using them as a symbol of impending doom. What, what, what? Really?

If you think this is a joke or a gimmick, just check out a couple of the screen captures Rene took below and click on either one of them to check out the rest and read his full article.

Is something like this enough to earn Marty the Best Director nod at this year's Oscars? I don't know, but subtle nuances like this certainly won't hurt his chances.