Heavy-handed symbolism or wry comment on how rats are endemic to Beacon Hill?
So this guy who says he really loves "The Departed" is trying to raise $4,000 to buy some equipment an software and hire a digital-effects specialist to digitally remove a rat that scurries across the screen at the end in what he considers too much heavy-handed symbolism for a Scorsese film about human rats.
As you might expect, Adam Sacks does not have permission from Warner Bros. to do anything to the film. So instead, if you want to see the ratless version, you have to contribute $70, which he will use to buy a legit DVD of the film, throw it away and send you his digitally altered version as a replacement
Sacks says if he raises the money - and doesn't get a cease-and-desist letter from Warner Bros. - that rat will soon be just a bad memory. As of 1:25 p.m. today, he has $2,701 in pledges.
Naturally, people have started asking him to go even further than raticide.
"How much extra for you to remove that stupid Dropkick Murphys song?" one person asks on his Kickstarter page.
"How about we digitally erase Martin Sheen's Boston accent instead?" Pat Miguel Tomaino asks.
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Comments
oh
By geep9
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 1:40pm
that kind of rat
the rat is already dead
By bostnkid
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 1:54pm
they buried him in st joseph's cemetery with the limping coyote.
Another approach
By redlinerider
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:10pm
It's been a while since I've seen the movie (once was enough), but here's another approach: could you find the balcony where that view is shot from and ask the tenants nicely if you could shoot a view for a few seconds? Then you could just insert that clip over the ending.
Does that balcony even exist?
By ZachAndTired
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:55pm
Does that balcony even exist?
departed/rat/balcony location
By bostnkid
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 4:14pm
top floor of the library at Suffolk University Law School
120 tremont
Another approach
By Scratchie
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:55pm
Press "stop" on your media player.
It was filmed from Suffolk
By anon
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 3:49pm
It was filmed from Suffolk Law's library.
He has a point
By Will LaTulippe
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:11pm
When Ralph Wiggum calls you on the cheap symbolism, yeah.
https://youtu.be/Mn9AYyjS_Es
By schneidz
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:16pm
https://youtu.be/Mn9AYyjS_Es?t=15s
Infernal Affairs
By Ishmael Jones
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:46pm
"Infernal Affairs" the original film, made in Hong Kong, is a better film and made more logical sense, too.
Who asked?
By Scratchie
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:54pm
Who asked?
Adam Sacks is the critic
By Waquiot
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 11:02pm
Perhaps he'd prefer to see the rodent free version.
Jones is right. The love story complicated the American version, which is typical. The Hong Kong version had 3 completely different endings, all of which were plausible. I couldn't see that happening with Scorcese's version.
Four thousand dollars?
By Refugee
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 2:57pm
Somebody's going to be walking around with $3,900 in their pocket. (credit).
Balcony
By downtown-anon
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 3:05pm
The whole time I am watching the movie I kept thing that apartment doesn't exist. There is no apartment with that view.
Probably why I don't remember the rat.
Why get so worked up about something that doesn't exist. Using the State House I guess was a metaphor for power, but I don't know. The scenes with the balcony look like the outdoor backdrop for a movie from the 40's.
There is an apartment building
By apartmentswhat
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 3:33pm
right next to the state house. I can't say it's that exact view + bricks + balconey... but I think it's close enough to be plausible. It's that unit across from the athenaeum.
Suffolk U says IMDb
By FrankSolensky
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 4:44pm
From the film’s trivia page (caveat emptor):
<<Colin Sullivan's apartment does not exist. The view of the Massachusetts State House was an effects shot from the roof of Suffolk University, which is the law school where Sullivan says he is taking night classes. Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus evaluated the shot during pre-production.>>
Also noted by bostnkid above
What a spitting image
By Coyote137
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 3:03pm
of Bob DeLeo.
Mel Gibson shot a lot of his
By anon
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 3:35pm
Mel Gibson shot a lot of his "Edge Of Darkness" in Western MA. there's a scene where he is in the office of the main bad guy and it's overlooking a bend in the river. It's a very iconic view of the Connecticut River from Mt. Sugarloaf in Sunderland, but there's no corporation or any kind of office there.
Hollywood does all kinds of things with digital editing, why care so much about a rat? (I guess he might get a couple grand out of it)
My favorite disorienting Boston location shot is from
By MC Slim JB
Thu, 02/21/2019 - 9:18am
"Gone Baby Gone", the scene late in the movie set in Murphy's Law, which moves outside of the bar via foot chase to include some cool shots of the L Street power station, but then bewilderingly moves to the rooftop of a non-existent-in-reality adjacent building. I remember watching it the first time and cackling, "Hey, I've wasted hours in that place!" but shifting quickly to "WTF, that ain't right!"
Here’s a cheaper idea
By Waquiot
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 7:38pm
If one doesn’t like the film, don’t watch it.
The director put it there. It’s his film. As someone else noted, perhaps watching the original is a better idea. No rodents in that film.
Lookee here: Somebody's digitally deleted the rat
By adamg
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 8:25pm
We can do better
By BostonDog
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 10:48pm
I want to see the version where they keep the rat but replace the statehouse with a shot of the burnt out building on Mt. Ida Road.
fuck bro
By Luke Warm
Wed, 02/20/2019 - 9:53pm
do somethin' else with yer time bro
This guy is privileged.
By anon
Thu, 02/21/2019 - 10:40am
This guy is privileged. Someone has always gotten what they want in life...
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