我一直不懂香港電影「無間道」片名的意思，直到下筆寫文的此刻。

（格友詌譙難止說，「無間道」佛家語，難怪我不懂。我寫文的「懂」是我自己的「拆字」獨門解讀。無所謂對醋了。 ）

我看了電影英文片名「Infernal Affair」，然後去查中文意思，然後推論出，原來是「離間」道。這下子，我總算弄清楚了，「無間」、「離間」文字與文意都有那個意思。（我個人的說法，請略過。）

最近再看好萊塢電影「The Departed」， 很有感慨，很有感想，也想著這個英文片名的真正意思。 「Departed」明眼看是「死者」，電影的最後，關鍵人物一個一個死了，旁白用了「Departed」統稱「死者」。此刻我在打字，才注意到 Departed 不就是「無間」也是「離間」嗎？

呼！這個自從電影開播至今一直讓我腦子打結的片名，我的腦子終於豁然開朗。好萊塢的 「The Departed」的的確確是跟香港的「無間道」買了版權重新翻拍的，連中文片名都是直接翻譯的。我沒有看香港片，只看美國片，覺得美國片拍得真好，演得真好。但是很多西方影評甚至更推崇香港片。

（以上格主自說自話，請略過不讀。）

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（以下是摘譯自名影評 Roger Ebert 的電影評論 - 精采）

好萊塢版的「無間道風雲」The Departed 是關於兩個與他們的真實身份背道而馳，「臥底」的故事。「臥底」就是「身份偽裝」，長期「偽裝」、「偽冒」與良知相牴觸的結果，威脅著他們的心靈一直徘徊在「自我毀滅」的邊緣。

導演：馬丁史可西斯

主演：麥特戴蒙、李歐納多、傑克尼克森（強大卡司）

導演馬丁史可西斯拍的 「無間道風雲」不僅止於翻新劉德華與梁朝偉的「無間道」，每一部電影因為「演員」、「故事地點」、「能量」、「暗藏主題」的不同，自有他的特色與獨特性。電影吸引人的關鍵，劇情也許是電影的內容，但不是最重要的，重要的是導演的技巧，也就是「如何說故事」才是重點 - 這就是導演馬丁史可西斯之所以為馬丁史可西斯的特色。

「無間道風雲」不是談論兩個孩子夢想自己長大成為黑道。而是兩個孩子長大當了警察，一個是潛入黑幫臥底的「真警察假黑道」。另一個是坐鎮警察局執行辦案的「真黑道假警察」，他們從來沒有想過，計畫過要有這樣的人生，這樣痛苦的人生。

麥特戴蒙演的是「克林.蘇麗文」，小時候有一天在被黑道勒索的超市與黑幫劫匪發生遇緣。那是黑幫老大，他對不曉世事的孩子示好，兩人成為忘年交，他供給孩子衣食溫飽，成為義父義子。克林在黑幫義父的支持下，不負所望考入警官學校，成為警察，也成為被黑幫義父遙控的「假警察真黑道」。（這就是認賊作父的例子。）

李歐納多演的是「比利.克斯提根」，警官學校畢業後，不情願的接受上級安排潛入黑幫臥底的秘警。他的任務就是爭取獲得黑幫老大信任的「假黑道真警察」。

麥特戴蒙與李歐納多兩個角色，在他們偽裝的世界中成功了。一個步步高升成為高階警官，一個獲得黑幫老大的賞識成為紅人。麥特戴蒙與李歐納多不認識彼此，更不知道彼此的真偽。他們接觸的黑幫老大是同一個人，血腥的傑克尼克森。

經過長期的臥底、偽裝，終究是要與真實攤牌的。警察單位與黑幫都察覺自己有內奸，開始設法追查。「偽裝」與「真實」時時發生擦撞，在當事人心裏不斷發生矛盾與糾結。這跟國家政治的圈子裏的運作是一樣的，政客實際為自己的權力爭奪，美其名是「為人民做事」，其實是「人民的賊」。

你要當黑道，你就必須下水。你是警察，你就必須與黑道勢不兩立。你是假黑道，你無法在黑道之前保護你的警察上級，否則你的任務可能功虧一簣。你是假警察，你跟黑道的關係是不見天日的秘密，否則你的警察工作飯碗就丟了。

在假警察麥特戴蒙追蹤臥底的真警察假黑道過程，真警察李歐納多的直屬上級警官「奎南」被害死亡。李歐納多面臨的切身問題是，此後，誰能證實並還原他的真實警察身份？

「手機」與「電腦」是劇情中身份追蹤辨認的另一個關鍵工具。（在此不贅言了。）

在影片中我認為最戲劇性的對白是，一個在槍戰中中彈臨死的黑幫份子對李歐納多說的，「出事那天，我發簡訊通知你前往的現場地址是錯誤的，但是你竟然沒有錯誤的到達。」（這是臥底身份的穿幫的有力指控，但是他說完這話，斷氣了。李歐納多的身份保護有驚無險。）

故事曲折，最後黑幫老大死了，李歐納多死了，麥特戴蒙也死了。

「無間道風雲」的故事情節基本上跟港片相似，導演馬丁史可西斯所以是馬丁史可西斯的關鍵，在於他對「罪」的主題的深入瞭解。不管劇中人的真實身份，是警察還是黑道，是教徒還是非教徒，即使不用宗教的教條來牽制，沒有一個人逃離得了「罪」的煎熬。（所以死亡是合乎正義的安排。）

思考一下，一個人同時進行這兩件事：

（1） 犯著罪行，又

（2） 欺騙身邊信賴你的人

麥特戴蒙與李歐納多兩個角色都是如此，都是罪人，但是也許只有神學家可以定他們的罪。莎士比亞有一句名言，「出於良知的行動的真實性，遠遠勝過出於因為身份地位而做的行動」。（就好像公開行善得好名，就不是真正的善人，）

「海明威」曾經說，「如果你事後感覺好，那事就是好。如果你事後感覺不對，那事就是不對。」

麥特戴蒙與李歐納多兩個角色從頭到尾都自己覺得不對，他們痛苦，他們需要心理師，因為他們的生活本身就是謊言。這就是麥特戴蒙與李歐納多兩個人的演技必須傳遞的關鍵信息。電影中兩個角色心中充滿掙扎。他們沒有搖旗吶喊說他們背叛良心，但是我們觀眾感覺到了。這就是演技。

劇中角色最忠於自己的心的三個人是

1. 黑道頭子，演員傑克尼克森，明白自己是惡人，行的是惡事。

2. 比利的警官上級，演員Martin Sheen，安排臥底是職責，沒有違背良心。

3. 黑道老二，演員 Ray Winstone

還有一個有倫理道德觀念的人，就是替警察工作的心理師。麥特戴蒙與李歐納多碰巧都成為她的病人，她的工作職責不是忠於雇主警察單位，而是忠於病人。她感覺 something is not right,但是她不是偵探辦案。她根本不知道這兩個病人的心理病因就是「偽裝」帶來的罪惡感與痛苦，她雖然覺得不對勁，也不會有心機去調查「偽裝」背後的真相。

這個電影會讓你檢視自己的良知，就好像你徹夜思考，你該如何向神父告解？你說，你知道你做的是「罪」，但是你不知道有什麼其他路可走。

［後記］

這個電影太好看了，真是一部值得推薦的優質電影。非推不可。

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The story is inspired by "Infernal Affairs" (2002) by Alan Mak and Andrew Lau, the most successful Hong Kong film of recent years. Indeed, having just re-read my 2004 review of that film, I find I could change the names, cut and paste it, and be discussing this film. But that would only involve the surface, the plot and a few philosophical quasi-profundities. What makes this a Scorsese film, and not merely a retread, is the director's use of actors, locations and energy, and its buried theme. I am fond of saying that a movie is not about what it's about; it's about how it's about it. That's always true of a Scorsese film.

This one, a cops-and-gangster picture set in Boston rather than, say, New York or Vegas, begins with a soda fountain scene that would be at home in "GoodFellas." What is deliberately missing, however, is the initial joy of that film. Instead of a kid who dreamed of growing up to be a mobster, we have two kids who grow up as imposters: One becomes a cop who goes undercover as a gangster, and the other becomes a gangster who goes undercover as a cop.

Matt Damon is Colin Sullivan, the kid spotted in that soda fountain by mob boss Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). He enlists in the state police after Costello handpicks him so many years before as a promising spy. Leonardo DiCaprio is Billy Costigan, an ace police cadet who is sent undercover by Capt. Queenan (Martin Sheen) to infiltrate Costello's gang. Both men succeed with their fraudulent identities; Colin rises in the force, and Billy rises in the mob.

The story's tension, which is considerable, depends on human nature. After several years, both men come to identify with, and desire the approval of, the men they are deceiving. This may be a variant of the Stockholm syndrome; for that matter, we see it all the time in politicians who consider themselves public servants even though they are thieves. If you are going to be a convincing gangster, you have to be prepared to commit crimes. If a convincing cop, you have to be prepared to bust bad guys, even some you know. Protect your real employers and you look fishy. "The Departed" turns the screw one more time because each man is known to only one or a few of the men on the side he's working for. If Billy's employer, Capt. Queenan, gets killed, who can testify that Billy is really a cop?

Ingenious additional layers of this double-blind are added by the modern devices of cell phones and computers. When the paths of the two undercover men cross, as they must, will they eventually end up on either end of the same phone call? When the cops suspect they have an informer in their midst, what if they assign the informer to find himself? The traps and betrayals of the undercover life are dramatized in one of my favorite moments, when one of the characters is told, "I gave you the wrong address. But you went to the right one."

Although many of the plot devices are similar in Scorsese's film and the Hong Kong "original," this is Scorsese's film all the way because of his understanding of the central subject of so much of his work: guilt. It is reasonable to assume that Boston working-class men named Costigan, Sullivan, Costello, Dignam and Queenan were brought up as Irish-American Catholics, and that if they have moved outside the church's laws, they have nevertheless not freed themselves of a sense of guilt. 

The much-married Scorsese once told me that he thought he would go to hell for violating the church's rules on marriage and divorce, and I believed him. Now think of the guilt when you are simultaneously (1) committing crimes and (2) deceiving the men who depend on you. Both Billy and Colin are doing that, although perhaps only a theologian could name their specific sin. A theologian, or Shakespeare, whose advice from Polonius they do not heed: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man."

Another amateur theologian, Hemingway, said it's good if you feel good afterward, and bad if you feel bad afterward. Colin and Billy feel bad all of the time, and so their lives involve a performance that is a lie. And that is the key to the performances of DiCaprio and Damon: It is in the nature of the movies that we believe most characters are acting or speaking for themselves. But in virtually every moment in this movie, except for a few key scenes, they are not. Both actors convey this agonizing inner conflict so that we can sense and feel it, but not see it; they're not waving flags to call attention to their deceptions. In that sense, the most honest and sincere characters in the movie are Queenan (Sheen), Costello (Nicholson), and Costello's right-hand man, French (Ray Winstone, that superb British actor who invests every line with the authority of God dictating to Moses).

It's strange that Jack Nicholson and Scorsese have never worked together, since they seem like a natural fit; he makes Frank Costello not a godfather, not a rat, not a blowhard, but a smart man who finally encounters a situation no one could fight free of, because he simply lacks all the necessary information. He has a moment and a line in this movie that stands beside Joe Pesci's work at a similar moment in "Goodfellas."

There is another character who is caught in a moral vise, and may sense it although she cannot for a long time know it. That is Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), a psychologist who works for the police, and who coincidentally comes to know both Colin and Billy. Her loyalty is not to her employer but to her client -- and oh, what a tangled web that becomes.

It is intriguing to wonder what Scorsese saw in the Hong Kong movie that inspired him to make the second remake of his career (after "Cape Fear"). I think he instantly recognized that this story, at a buried level, brought two sides of his art and psyche into equal focus. We know that he, too, was fascinated by gangsters. In making so many films about them, about what he saw and knew growing up in Little Italy, about his insights into their natures, he became, in a way, an informant.

I have often thought that many of Scorsese's critics and admirers do not realize how deeply the Catholic Church of pre-Vatican II could burrow into the subconscious, or in how many ways Scorsese is a Catholic director. This movie is like an examination of conscience, when you stay up all night trying to figure out a way to tell the priest: I know I done wrong, but, oh, Father, what else was I gonna do?