MovieChat Forums > The Departed (2006) Discussion > did costello want billy to live a normal...

did costello want billy to live a normal life?

posted 8 years ago by moretzfever
5 replies | jump to latest

you know, there was a scene at the restaurant where billy and costello were having conversation about jacky costigan and billy's father.

there, costello told billy that billy's father would kill costello if he saw them together, implying billy's father was a law abiding citizen and billy's involvement with mob business is not something his father would consider ideal.

and then costello says " did you ever think about going back to school?"

to me it felt like costello wanted billy to get out of this mob business and carry on with normal life.

well. some says costello only said that so that he can use billy costigan as spy among the cops, or use as a lawyer.

I don't see it that way.

how do you guys see it?

at that scene costello looked almost like a father figure.

I thought costello had grown to like billy and wanted billy to have a normal and safe life.

[–] tokyostreetkiller 8 years ago

I see it more as Costello kinda being let down to see Costigan turn to a life of crime. Since it's implied in the movie that Billy is a smart guy. It seems Costello respected Billy's father and may have felt a little disappointed on his behalf at what his son was doing. That might just be me though.

"Let's get out of here before one of those things kills Guy!"

[–] plumlogan 8 years ago

Not just you - that's exactly as I read it

[–] erockdh11 8 years ago

Frank has the line in the movie "if I can slander my own environment it makes me sad to see this regression" so I think he's definitely disappointed to see Billy show up. Through the whole movie Frank talks about the community and genuinely cares about the people as long as he can be in power and do whatever he wants. He harasses the priests about abusing kids, he's always interested in how people's relatives are doing, and of course there's the interactions with Billy. And when you look at the parallels they wanted to make with Whitey Bulger it makes total sense. And honestly I think The Departed did a better job at representing Bulger than Black Mass did.

[–] MiltonWaddams 8 years ago

Great topic, I feel like Costello was actually showing a sliver of humanity here, and does feel some loyalty and respect to Billy's father. Interestingly enough though, a couple of times it almost seemed as though Costello knew that Billy wasn't as dumb as he was pretending to be, especially when he asks "Well you do know what a bookie does, don't you?" or something like that. And also his reaction when Billy answers that John Lennon was "the president before Lincoln." Billy was trying to appear uneducated yet I feel as though Costello might have picked up on this but couldn't bring himself to believe Billy was working against him. Again Billy's family might have had an impact on Costello's judgement.

[–] dmariat55 8 years ago

Well put.