Mark Wahlbergs Spenser Confidential Mocks The Departed

Mark Wahlberg’s Spenser Confidential Mocks… The Departed?

Does Mark Wahlberg take a potshot at Scorsese’s The Departed for its depiction of the Irish Mob in his new Netflix movie, Spenser Confidential?

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Mark Wahlbergs Spenser Confidential Mocks The Departed

Mark Wahlberg’s latest movie Spenser Confidential has dropped on Netflix, and the film may contain a surprising, mocking comment about one of his previous movies; The Departed. Wahlberg’s latest team-up with director Peter Berg (Mile 22, Patriots Day, Deepwater Horizon), Spenser Confidential been released to less-than-stellar reviews, although audiences have been slightly warmer to the action/crime comedy (gifting the film a slightly above-average audience score of 59% on Rotten Tomatoes).

Spenser Confidential is an adaptation of the character Robert B. Parker’s series of Spenser novels. Following Parker’s death, the series has been penned by Ace Atkins; the source material for Spenser Confidential actually (very loosely) comes from his novel, Robert B. Parker’s Wonderland, released in 2013. Mark Wahlberg has gone on record saying how much he likes the Spenser character; more specifically, the Spenser for Hire series that was produced by ABC in the mid-80s, the first TV show where he saw his own neighborhood depicted on screen.

Spenser Confidential sees Mark Wahlberg’s disgraced ex-cop (Spenser) investigating the suspicious deaths of some of his former colleagues on the force following his release from prison. Teaming up with his newfound roommate Hawk (Winston Duke), Spenser winds up tailing a local Irish mob enforcer by the name of Tracksuit Charlie; explaining who the small-time gangster is to his cohorts, Spenser says;

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“Tracksuit Charlie Bentwood. Irish mob throwback, back when the Irish mob existed out of all those sh*tty movies.”

For any Mark Wahlberg fan, the first film they’re going to think of when Spenser drops this pearl is going to be The Departed; arguably one of his most memorable roles, which happens to be about the Irish mob. In the Martin Scorsese movie, Wahlberg plays irate, smart-aleck Staff Sergeant Dignan, who frequently taunts Leonardo DiCaprio’s undercover cop, Billy Costigan. Wahlberg’s role in the movie is fondly remembered, giving The Departed some of its best lines. It’s surprising, then, that Wahlberg appears to make a jibe at the movie in Spenser Confidential. So was The Departed the intended target from the jab in Spenser Confidential? Or is it aimed more at ‘Irish mob’ movies in general?

The screenwriter of Spenser Confidential is much-lauded writer Brian Helgeland, who is also responsible for such modern classics as LA Confidential and Mystic River. The latter features Sean Penn as a local Irish mobster; could Helgeland be making a dig at his own body of work? Penn scored himself an Oscar for his role as Jimmy Markum in that prestige picture back in 2004; it seems unlikely that it should be the target of any kind of zippy one-liner from Mark Wahlberg in Spenser Confidential. Could it be Helgeland throwing shade at The Departed?

Helgeland actually shares writing credit on Spenser Confidential with a newer writer to the industry called Sean O’Keefe; the dig at Irish mobsters on screen could just as easily as come from him. Whether fans want the line to be an offhand joke or a specific volley at a particular movie, ultimately, is up to them.

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Link Source : https://screenrant.com/spenser-confidential-movie-mark-wahlberg-departed-reference/

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