Hey, there! Log in / Register

Man more than halfway to money goal to digitally remove a rat from the ending of The Departed

Rat scurries in front of Boston State House

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.

Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


Ad:


Like the job UHub is doing? Consider a contribution. Thanks!

Comments

that kind of rat

up
Voting closed 0

they buried him in st joseph's cemetery with the limping coyote.

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

Does that balcony even exist?

up
Voting closed 0

top floor of the library at Suffolk University Law School

120 tremont

up
Voting closed 0

Press "stop" on your media player.

up
Voting closed 0

It was filmed from Suffolk Law's library.

up
Voting closed 0

When Ralph Wiggum calls you on the cheap symbolism, yeah.

up
Voting closed 0

"Infernal Affairs" the original film, made in Hong Kong, is a better film and made more logical sense, too.

up
Voting closed 0

Who asked?

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

Somebody's going to be walking around with $3,900 in their pocket. (credit).

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

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

up
Voting closed 0

of Bob DeLeo.

up
Voting closed 0

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)

up
Voting closed 0

"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!"

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

up
Voting closed 0

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.

up
Voting closed 0

do somethin' else with yer time bro

up
Voting closed 0

This guy is privileged. Someone has always gotten what they want in life...

up
Voting closed 0