Vitals

Jack Nicholson as Francis “Frank” Costello, sadistic Irish-American mob boss

Boston, Spring 2007

Film: The Departed
Release Date: October 6, 2006
Director: Martin Scorsese
Costume Designer: Sandy Powell

WARNING! Spoilers ahead!

Background

With 12 Academy Award nominations (and three wins), today’s birthday boy Jack Nicholson remains the most-nominated male actor in Oscar history. Following a prolific career that began in the late 1950s, Nicholson delivered one final characteristically intense performance in The Departed (2006), his first—and, given his decades-long retirement from acting, only—collaboration with director Martin Scorsese.

A loose remake of the 2002 Hong Kong action thriller Infernal Affairs that incorporates elements of the real-life Boston gangster Whitey Bulger and his FBI contact John Connolly, The Departed stars Nicholson as Bulger-like gangster Frank Costello, whose corrupt connection with Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) is threatened by the undercover work of Costello’s latest recruit, Sullivan’s fellow MSP trooper Billy Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio).

After Costello greets Sullivan with a large black dildo during their covert meeting in an adult theater, Sullivan gleefully explains his new assignment being tasked to look for Costello’s mole inside the Special Investigations Unit. “Hey, Frank, I gotta find myself,” Sullivan laughs, to which Costello responds, “you’re tellin’ me, sonny boy,” before also sharing that he suspects an informant in his own organization.

Back at his bar, an increasingly paranoid Costello corners Costigan to flush out if the young ex-cop is the “cheese-sniffin’ rat” among his crew.

Costigan: Frank, look at me, look at me. I’m not the fuckin’ rat, okay? Okay? I’m not the fuckin’ rat.
Costello: Start with you agree there is a rat.
Costigan: You said there’s one, alright? I base most of what I do on the idea that you’re pretty fuckin’ good at what you do.

Costello takes his interrogation to the extent of drawing his gun—an improvised moment from Nicholson designed to elicit genuine shock from DiCaprio. “He didn’t tell me he had a gun. It was great…we took a lot out, but Leo’s reaction is real-time,” the director explained to Richard Schickel for Conversations with Scorsese. “I still get chills… It’s so real to me.”

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What’d He Wear?

In one of the last instances where he dresses in anything that doesn’t get gruesomely blood-stained, Frank Costello wears a seersucker sports coat in the traditional navy-and-white “hickory” stripe associated with this puckered summer-weight cloth. Possibly orphaned from a suit, the single-breasted jacket has notch lapels that roll to a conventional two-button stance. The rest of the design follows the typical signatures of men’s tailored jackets, with a welted breast pocket, straight hip pockets (with flaps that occasionally tuck into the pockets), and a single vent. The four “kissing” buttons on each cuff are made from the same off-white pearl-like plastic as the two on the front.

Costello’s short-sleeved polo shirt is made from a cotton piqué in a cool, deep shade of lavender that channels a chaotic confidence when paired with his seersucker jacket. The shirt has a three-button top placket, with Costello wearing only the bottom button fastened.

Only seen when he leaves to meet Sullivan with the “Citizens Trust” envelope in hand, Costello wears what appear to be the same dark-blue denim Lee jeans and black leather sneakers that he would later wear with his more dressed-down windbreaker and Notre Dame T-shirt.

Donned as part of his disguise in the porn theater, Costello pulls on a full-length raincoat made from a dark taupe-brown water-resistant microfiber, likely polyester. The raglan-sleeved coat has a full-buttoning double-breasted front like a trench coat, its ten buttons arranged in two columns of five—plus an additional set of buttons that secure the lapels over the chest, leaving only the convertible storm collar. Costello’s coat is otherwise simple in its design, lacking the storm flaps, full waist belt, and epaulets that characterize a classic trench coat.

He adds a degree of sleazy anonymity with his presumably reversible canvas bucket hat, worn with the navy-blue shell outward, presenting two ventilation eyelets on each side of the crown and a beige band matching the fabric on the underside of the brim.

Costello’s array of jewelry includes his typical twisted metal rings: a white-gold ring on his ring finger, joined by a yellow-gold pinky ring. On his left wrist, he wears a unique and sporty Nike Big Al “D-Line” wristwatch, distinguished by its rectangular green-figured analog display that runs flush with the silver-toned aluminum links on an expanding black urethane band.

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The Gun

Frank Costello’s typical sidearm is a Beretta Model 84 “Cheetah” pistol, which he memorably draws on Costigan during his intimidating interrogation into the “cheese-sniffin’ rat” in his outfit.

While there has been some theorizing that Nicholson drew “a real gun” on DiCaprio, this is almost certainly just sensationalizing the fact that almost all firearms featured in movies and TV shows were at one point “real” guns; while revolvers can typically just be loaded with blank ammunition, semi-automatic pistols—like Costello’s Beretta Cheetah—require a full conversion to then exclusively handle the lower pressures of firing and cycling blank ammunition. This would undoubtedly have been the case with Nicholson’s screen-used Beretta (serial #B88920Y), as we later see this is the exact same pistol when Costello fires it into the air during his final scene.

The weapon’s presence on set would have been cleared by the prop master, as DiCaprio later explained during a contemporary press conference that he was warned in advance: “The prop guy told me, ‘Well, be careful he’s got a fire extinguisher, a gun, some matches, and a bottle of whiskey’.”

Beretta launched its compact Series 81 handguns in 1976, beginning with the .32 ACP Model 81 and following the next year with the .380 ACP Model 84. While Models 83, 84, and 85 are all chambered in .380 ACP (9x17mm Short), the Model 84 features a wider grip to accommodate a 13-round double-stack magazine, whereas the slimmer Models 83 and 85 use single-stack magazines.

Though operating via blowback rather than recoil, the Series 81 pistols share many external and internal design elements with Beretta’s full-sized 92 series, which would later be adopted by the U.S. military as the M9. As the 92 evolved into the 92F and 92FS, the compact line followed suit with updated models like the 84F and 84FS. The Beretta 84 carried by Costello in the film can be identified as an early variant by its rounded trigger guard—later models feature squared trigger guards.

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How to Get the Look

Unlike the sharply tailored—and sharp-collared—gangsters elsewhere in Martin Scorsese’s filmography, Frank Costello rarely dresses with more intentionally than you’d expect from exact the man he is: a crude Boston schlub. His wardrobe chaotically evolves to match his violent paranoia, as when he’s sporting a seersucker jacket over a pastel polo and jeans while drawing rats and drawing guns during his tense interrogation of Billy Costigan.

• Navy-and-white hickory-striped puckered seersucker cotton single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 4-button “kissing” cuffs, and single vent
• Lavender cotton piqué short-sleeved polo with three-button placket
• Dark-blue denim Lee jeans
• Black leather sneakers
• Dark taupe-brown microfiber polyester raincoat with convertible storm collar, 10×5-button double-breasted front plus throat latch buttons, and raglan sleeves
• Navy-and-beige canvas bucket hat with ventilation grommets
• White-gold twist ring
• Yellow-gold twisted knot ring
• Nike Big Al “D-Line” aluminum sport watch on expanding link bracelet

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Do Yourself a Favor and…

Check out the movie.

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The Quote

The only one who could do what I do is me. A lot of people had to die for me to be me.