Monthly Archives: July 2014

Fathers and Sons Part 2: There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood is the story of at least three pairs of fathers and sons. There is oil man Daniel Plainview and his adopted son H.W.. Opposite them are poor Abel Sunday and his preacher son Eli. The strangest pair is Daniel and Eli, between whom an abusive father/son dynamic develops throughout the film.

Daniel and H.W. Plainview

As with all good beginnings, the opening scene of There Will Be Blood perfectly encapsulates the character of its protagonist, Daniel Plainview. Daniel chisels for ore in a mine shaft. A brief shot of him huddled by his camp fire emphasizes his utter solitude. He lights some dynamite and climbs out of the shaft. After the dynamite goes off, he descends back down the shaft. One of the rungs of his ladder breaks, however, and Daniel falls down the shaft, breaking his leg. Through sheer force of will, Daniel hauls himself out of the shaft with the help of a rope. He then drags himself on his back to the nearest town where he can sell the ore he has found.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnRf_jbQ1pg

Just a few short shots convey Daniel’s greed, ambition, determination, and isolation. His broken leg reflects the injuries that he inflicts on himself in his greedy pursuit of wealth. His dragging himself back to town signifies his unflappable will that never relents in the face of opposition. His being alone reveals the isolation that results from these traits. Daniel’s greed and isolation feed each other, as he admits, “I want to earn enough money that I can get away from everyone.”

Daniel Plainview has no wife, yet he has a son. He inherits his boy, H.W., when the boy’s father, one of Daniel’s workers, dies while digging for oil. After H.W.’s father dies, Daniel is shown staring in consternation at the helpless baby. One might assume that Daniel raises H.W. as his own son out of compassion or benevolence. As the film unfolds, however, it becomes increasingly clear that Daniel is not an altruistic person. Daniel wants a young man to shape in his own image. He realizes that having a young boy at one’s side makes a salesman’s life much easier. In his first speech in the film, when Daniel makes a sales pitch to a rowdy group of villagers, he introduces “my son and my partner, H.W. Plainview.” When he introduces himself to the people of Little Boston, most of whose land he has recently acquired, he says, “I work side by side with my wonderful son, H.W,” and goes on to emphasize the value of family.

The people Daniel seeks to swindle–the towns folk whose land he wants to buy–find a single man much more predatory than a widower with a young son. Referring to H.W., a rival in the oil business tells Daniel that “Life must be easy when you’ve got such a cute face to carry around with you.” A single father raising his boy on his own is a far more noble figure than a profiteering bachelor. The same man even jokes with H.W. about his share in his father’s business: “I’ll be your lawyer if you need to draw up some contracts. Make sure you don’t get swindled, boy. Get half of what your dad’s makin’.” Daniel accepts the obligation of raising H.W. with an eye to the long-term payoff. Adopting H.W. is not an act of charity, but an investment. When he is asked about his wife, Daniel readily replies, “She died at childbirth . . . It’s just me and my son now.” What Daniel seems to enjoy most about H.W. is having a sidekick, a younger version of himself to share his scheming. Daniel cannot abide those who oppose him, however, and as a schism develops between father and son, Daniel’s apparent affection for H.W. turns to spite.

Early in the film, Daniel obviously enjoys teaching H.W. about the oil business. Yet, once H.W. is cut off from Daniel’s commanding voice, their relationship fractures. Too close to the derrick when it first erupts with oil, H.W. loses his hearing. As H.W. realizes “I can’t hear my voice,” the geyser of oil catches fire. Despite the protests of the terrified H.W.–“Don’t leave me”–Daniel leaves his son to deal with the burning oil. Yet, no one is in immediate danger from the fiery plume. In fact, when Daniel leaves H.W. all he does is give a few orders, and then watches the fountain of burning oil with glee. He triumphantly exclaims, “There’s a whole ocean of oil under our feet, and no one can get at it except for me.” The infernal image of the flaming jet of oil seems to embody Daniel’s insatiable envy, always burning with the desire for more. As they watch the oil burn, Daniel’s right hand man, Fletcher Hamilton, asks if H.W. is okay. Daniel replies, “No he isn’t,” without a trace of tenderness in his voice. Fletcher immediately rushes off to check on H.W.; Daniel remains fixated on the geyser of oil, and all the wealth it will bring him.

Daniel quickly becomes frustrated that H.W. can no longer understand him. “Can you hear me? Can you hear me in there?” Daniel says. Because he cannot explain to H.W. what is happening, he has to wrestle with him so that a doctor can examine the boy’s ears. H.W.’s deafness is the true test of Daniel’s feelings toward his adopted son. His impatience and lack of empathy reveal that his affection for H.W. only lasts as long as H.W. is useful and submissive to him. He tells H.W., “I can’t stay here with you all day. I have to take care of our business.” In a scene parallel to an earlier one in which Daniel dips the baby H.W.’s bottle in whiskey to quiet him, Daniel forces H.W. to drink milk mixed with whiskey, so that he will sleep. H.W. clearly does not want to drink it, but Daniel forces him to do so, holding the bottom of the glass.

When Henry suddenly appears, claiming to be Daniel’s half-brother, H.W. realizes that he is not the man he claims to be, but Daniel does not. Perhaps Daniel accepts Henry’s story because he is so accustomed to lying, to bending the truth as he wishes, that he can no longer discern between truth and falsehood. Or, perhaps, he is so glad to have a new junior partner to replace the now useless H.W. that he relaxes his suspicion. Henry’s arrival perfectly coincides with H.W.’s deafness. Daniel is glad to take Henry under his wing because the man is a lesser version of himself. He relies on Daniel fully, and thus Daniel is not threatened by him. H.W. cannot tell his father that Henry is an imposter, so he shows him symbolically by creating a trail of oil to Henry’s bed and lighting it on fire. Daniel does not perceive the meaning in H.W.’s sign-act, however, and soon puts him on a train to a school for the deaf. Daniel boards the train, but leaves before it departs. When the train rolls out of the station and H.W. realizes that his father has abandoned him, he calls out to him. Daniel walks away, deaf to his son’s plaintive cries. Henry now fully replaces H.W. as Daniel’s sidekick.

Even after H.W. returns, the rift between father and son remains. Daniel embraces him, but H.W. hits his father several times, clearly still angry at being sent away without explanation. Daniel makes no effort to learn sign language. He simply wants his son to be fixed, and grows increasingly impatient with H.W.. Mary Sunday, however, learns sign language eagerly from H.W.’s tutor. When they grow up, H.W. and Mary are married. While Daniel, like many hearing people, stigmatizes his son’s deafness, Mary embraces it.

As the film nears its end, the adult H.W. visits his father. Daniel has descended into decadence. He lives in a luxurious home, shooting at household objects with his pistol out of some combination of rage and boredom.

H.W. sits across from his father. He says, “This is very hard for me to say, but I will tell you first: I love you very much. I have learned to love what I do because of you. I am leaving here. I’m going to Mexico. I am taking Mary and I am going to Mexico . . . It will only be for a time. For me to do my own drilling and to start my own company.” Daniel responds to H.W.’s honest, loving sincerity with scorn. Instead of recognizing his son’s legitimate desire to go out on his own, he says, “This makes you my competitor.” Earlier, in a rare moment of self-understanding, Daniel admits to Henry: “I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.”

This sense of competition, that life is a zero-sum game in which there can only be one winner and no cooperation between allies or true friendship rules Daniel’s life. It is the result of his boundless ambition. This animosity toward others allows Daniel only two possible relations with other people: enemy or subordinate. His enemies, such as Eli, he treats with contempt. He is only capable of showing affection toward those who remain utterly subordinate to him. Therefore, when H.W. announces his desire to go out on his own, he irrevocably moves from the category of subordinate to that of enemy in Daniel’s mind. Although the film does not reveal the events between this scene in 1927 and the earlier parts of the film taking place in 1911, it is clear that the relationship between Daniel and H.W. has deteriorated in the intervening years.

Whereas H.W. “would rather keep you as my father than my partner,” Daniel refuses to even remain H.W.’s father. Daniel maliciously disowns H.W., saying “You’re not my son” and “You’re an orphan.” Daniel projects himself onto H.W.: “I should have seen this coming. I should have known that under this all these past years you’ve been building your hate for me piece by piece. I don’t even know who you are because you have none of me in you. You’re someone else’s. This anger, your maliciousness, backwards dealings with me. You’re an orphan from a basket in the middle of the desert, and I took you for no other reason than because I needed a sweet face to buy land.” Here Daniel admits what the film has already suggested: he adopted H.W. out of opportunism rather than charity. Daniel’s words, though directed at H.W., are an accurate assessment of his own character–he is angry, malicious, and double-dealing. He is a creature of spite and envy with no loyalty even to H.W.. While Daniel accuses H.W. of being hateful, it is Daniel who builds up his hate piece by piece until it is an impenetrable fortification. Earlier, he admits to Henry that “I’ve built up my hatreds over the years little by little.”

Daniel Plainview vs Eli Sunday

The relationship between Daniel and H.W. is contrasted with that between Abel Sunday and his son Eli. Daniel is domineering, controlling, and ruthless; Abel is weak-willed, foolish, and impotent. Daniel always speaks firmly; Abel has a perpetual quiver in his voice. Daniel controls H.W. for most of the film, but Abel cannot rule Eli.

After being humiliated by Daniel, Eli finds someone weaker than himself–his father–to humiliate. Still covered in the mud through which Daniel dragged him, at the dinner table, Eli calls his father lazy and stupid, mocking him for being swindled by Daniel and letting him “walk all over us.” Eli tells Abel, “Do you think God is going to come down here and save you for being stupid? He doesn’t save stupid people, Abel.” He then crawls across the table to assault Abel, who can only cower helplessly. Eli forces his father to the ground, berating him for being gullible and allowing Daniel to buy their land. Abel begs Eli to stop, but Eli covers his father’s mouth with his hands. In this scene, Eli actually imitates Daniel. As Daniel humiliates him, so he humiliates his own father. Daniel has become Eli’s role model and father figure, albeit an abusive one.

Daniel and Eli are more alike than either would care to admit. Each tries to manipulate others to gain the greatest advantage for himself. Daniel is simply better at it than Eli. While Daniel uses his expertise in drilling for oil to get rich, Eli uses his rhetorical ability to gain power as a preacher. His church is called the Church of the Third Revelation because he has crafted the persona of a prophet; his words ostensibly come directly from the Holy Spirit to reveal truths not found even in the scriptures. Eli speaks of the “new spirit” inside of him, and purports to cast an arthritis-causing demon or “ghost” out of an old woman. He softly chants, “Get out of here, ghost,” over and over, his voice gradually growing louder and his gestures more exaggerated. At the crescendo, Eli pantomimes throwing the evil spirit out of the door of the church, and triumphantly announces its departure. He then dances with the old woman to the adoration of his congregation. Daniel’s commentary–that the exorcism was “one goddamn hell of a show”–is apt.

Daniel and Eli alike use their words–and a pliable relationship with the truth-to cajole and coerce others into doing as they want. As Eli uses religious language to control his congregants, so Daniel uses the language of commerce to manipulate the people of Little Boston. Daniel, too, uses Christian rhetoric to manipulate the pious people of Little Boston, frequently referring to God’s blessings in his public speeches. When Eli’s brother Paul asks Daniel what church he belongs to, he says, “I enjoy all faiths. I don’t belong to one church in particular–I like them all–I like everything.” To like all faiths is to follow none of them. Daniel believes in nothing but his own self-interest. He will adopt whatever jargon or buzz words necessary to ingratiate himself to those around him. He could fake devotion to any religion. If Daniel adopts Christian language to please those around him, then so does Eli. The film’s ending reveals his devotion to God to be no less of a charade than Daniel’s.

The power struggle between Daniel and Eli begins as Daniel negotiates the purchase of the Sundays’ land from Eli’s father, Abel. While Abel acquiesces to whatever Daniel suggests, Eli seeks to get more money for their land. Abel has no idea what a fair price for his land would be, but Eli knows the market value–$6 an acre. Abel does not realize that Daniel is fleecing him, but Eli does. Eli wants $10,000 for his church, though more to enhance his personal prestige than out of piety. Daniel offers $5,000. Daniel speaks to Abel coaxingly, but his tone grows spiteful when he addresses the interloping Eli, who is costing him money. Abel believes that God has sent Daniel to them, and that his offer of $3,700 for their land is a gift of Providence. Daniel plays off of Abel’s feelings, claiming that “the good Lord’s guidance” brought him to the Sunday ranch.

Their rivalry continues as Eli seeks to make converts of Daniel’s workers. Eli wants to bless the first oil well in Little Boston. Daniel agrees in order to appease Eli. During the ceremony, however, Daniel does not call upon Eli to bless the well, which he names after Eli’s sister, Mary. Eli asks Daniel to introduce him as a “proud son of these hills,” and Daniel mocks Eli by referring to his sister as a “proud daughter of these hills.” Daniel finishes with “God bless these honest labors of ours,” and sends H.W. to start the drill.

The contest of wills between Daniel and Eli escalates to physical violence when Eli tries to hold Daniel to his promise to give $5,000 to the Church of the Third Revelation. Eli asks for the money; Daniel slaps him in the face several times. Daniel continues to hit Eli, taunting him about claiming to be a “healer and a vessel for the Holy Spirit.” Eli’s voice becomes shrill as he continues to demand the money. Eli crawls away, but Daniel drags him by the hair into a pool of mud. Daniel pushes Eli down into the mud. He straddles the shrieking Eli and covers his face and hair with mud. He says, “I’m gonna bury you underground, Eli.”

Eli gains a victory over Daniel, however, when Daniel’s ambition to build an oil pipeline forces him to acquiesce to Mr. Bandy’s desire for him to be “washed in the blood of Jesus Christ.” Since Bandy owns the land on which Daniel needs to build his pipeline, he is forced to endure humiliation at Eli’s hands. Bandy will only let Daniel use his land if he is baptized by Eli at the Church of the Third Revelation. Despite offering first $3,000 and then $5,000, Daniel cannot negotiate with Bandy. He insists that Daniel be baptized by Eli.

This scene is a performance for Daniel and Eli alike: Daniel performs a false contrition; Eli performs the role of the charismatic preacher. Eli makes Daniel get on his knees before the church, and hits him repeatedly to expel Satan from his body. Eli forces an obviously furious Daniel to admit that he is a sinner, and to beg for the saving blood of Jesus–“I want the blood. Give me the blood, Eli.” Eli makes Daniel admit that he has abandoned his son. Something cracks in Daniel a bit when he confesses that he has abandoned his son. This is one of the few moments in the film during which Daniel expresses a hint of remorse. Three times he yells loudly that he has abandoned his son. For an instant, the power of the ritual seems to draw Daniel into a genuine confession of sin. Eli drags Daniel’s conversion on as long as he can, continuing to slap him to drive out the devil. He clearly relishes his moment of triumph over Daniel. After they pour water over Daniel to baptize him, Daniel mutters, “That’s a pipeline.”

Their final confrontation comes years later in the film’s final and most chilling scene. Eli leaves Little Boston, achieves some measure of success only to apparently lose all of his investments when God “failed” to warn him of a “panic in the economy,” and returns to Daniel desperate for money. Eli has been working in radio. He is more worldly now, dressed in a suit, with a gaudy cross around his neck. He pours himself a drink, though he condemned the evils of alcohol when he was younger. Mr. Bandy has died, and Eli seeks to negotiate the sale of Bandy’s land to Daniel. Eli thinks Bandy’s thousand acres will be tempting to Daniel. Daniel uses the opportunity to humiliate Eli one final time. He demands that Eli admit that he is a “false prophet and that God is a superstition.” Moreover, Daniel wants Eli to say it with the theatrical voice he uses in his sermons. He prompts Eli to say it over and over again, each time with more zeal. Eli speaks to the empty bowling alley in Daniel’s mansion as if he were preaching to his congregation. Daniel then reveals to Eli that the oil from Bandy’s land has already drained into the surrounding areas, which Daniel has long owned. This is Daniel at his purest–rejoicing in the humiliation of one weaker than himself. His last trump played, Eli seeks Daniel’s pity. Daniel exults, “Did you think your song and dance and superstition would help you, Eli? I am the Third Revelation!” Eli begs for Daniel’s forgiveness, but Daniel will not be deterred. Daniel relishes his final victory over Eli, mocking him relentlessly before beating him to death with a bowling pin. In this final scene, Eli is not only unmasked as a false prophet, but as a failed imitator of Daniel. He is a lesser version of Daniel, who seeks the same control over others through rhetoric and deceit, but lacks Daniel’s skill. Just before Daniel murders him, Eli declares the he and Daniel are old friends and even brothers–father and son is more like it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKoLsqnKRKw

The last two scenes–Daniel’s disowning of H.W. and his murder of Eli–essentially parallel each other. Neither H.W. nor Eli is Daniel’s son by blood, but each has stood in that relationship to him, and he has betrayed them both. H.W. and Eli each imitate different aspects of Daniel’s life: H.W. goes into the oil business, while Eli emulates Daniel’s penchant for deception. Yet, H.W. understands and rejects that which is evil in his father, whereas Eli does not.

Fathers and Sons Part 1: The Departed

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Martin Scorsese’s Oscar-winning gangster film, The Departed, is about cops and criminals, loyalty and betrayal, and fathers and sons. The two pairs of fathers and sons around which the film revolves are not related biologically. Captain Queenan serves as a father figure to Billy Costigan, who works undercover, while crime lord Frank Costello (based on James “Whitey” Bulger) acts as a father figure to Colin Sullivan, a decorated cop who protects his gangster benefactor. These pairings are complicated by the fact that Costello and Billy also develop a close, father-son relationship while Billy works undercover. Costello’s downfall has less to do with good police work than with his failure as a father figure for Sullivan.

The film opens with Costello buying groceries and comic books for a young Colin Sullivan, whose own father is gone. Costello asks the boy if he does well in school, and then offers him a job. Costello ingrains his personal motto–“No one gives it to you. You have to take it”–into the young boy. When Sullivan grows up, he goes off to the police academy, and through his excellent performance gains a spot on the Special Investigations Unit, whose job, in the words of its supervisor, Captain Ellerby, is to “smash–or at least marginally disrupt–organized crime.” Sullivan is thus perfectly positioned to thwart the cops’ efforts to arrest Costello.

When Sullivan takes calls from Costello he often speaks to him as if he is his father. This is to avoid arousing suspicion, but also suggests the father-son dynamic between the two. When the cops plan on raiding Costello during his deal with the Chinese, Sullivan calls him to say, “Dad? I’m not going to make dinner. Something big has come up.”

If the first scene featuring Costello and Sullivan establishes their father-son dynamic, then so, too, does the first meeting between Cpt. Queenan and Billy Costigan. Billy is summoned to Queenan’s office, where the captain and Sergeant Dignam offer him the job of going undercover. Billy’s family’s connections in Southie and his uncles’ criminal records make him ideal for the task. The film’s script describes Cpt. Queenan as a “mild and scholarly man who might as well be a Jesuit history teacher.” Queenan is kind and wise, and thus makes a perfect father figure. Unlike the tough, brash, and vulgar Dignam, Queenan is meekness personified–his strength is concealed in gentleness.

Queenan treats Billy with warmth. When Queenan observes that Billy “doesn’t have much family,” Billy replies, “I don’t have any family.” His father is dead; his mother is dying. Queenan becomes the most stable paternal influence in Billy’s life, and one of the few people who treats him kindly. Queenan proposes that Billy plead guilty to an assault and battery charge, and then “serve enough jail time to convince anyone that it’s no set-up.” When Dignam comments that Billy has “already pretended to be a Costigan from South Boston,” meaning he learned how to fit in with his dad’s criminal side of the family, Queenan says, “Do it again. For me,” implying intimacy between the two although they have not known each other long.

Moreover, as the pressure of working for Costello wears on Billy, it is Queenan who encourages him. Again, speaking much like a father to a son, Queenan says to Billy, ” Hang tight for me. Just a little longer. We’re this close.” When Cpt. Ellerby suggests to Queenan that “direct access to your fucking guys would have certain fuckin’ advantages,” Queenan responds, “Not to my guy.” Queenan implies that the more cops who know the identity of his undercover agent, the more danger he will be in. Despite constant pressure to reveal Billy’s identity, Queenan steadfastly refuses to do so to protect Billy.

Although in their first meeting Costello inflicts some serious pain on Billy to find out if he is an undercover cop, the two grow increasingly close the longer Billy works for the gangster. Despite the fact that his sole purpose is to find a way to put Costello behind bars, and the fact that his life is constantly endangered by being undercover, Billy still develops a rapport with Costello. Early in their relationship, Costello seems to be constantly scrutinizing Billy, testing him to see if he is trustworthy. As the film progresses, he gives Billy greater responsibility. At one point, Costello mentions Billy’s father:

“You know if your father were alive and saw you, sitting here with me, let’s say he would have a word with me about this, in fact, he’d kill seven guys just to cut my throat. And he could do it, which is something you may not know about William Costigan, Sr.”

Costello is considering truly taking Billy under his wing, making him his protege. His reflections on Billy’s father are interesting because of the obvious similarities between Costello’s portrayal of Billy’s father and Costello himself: both possess strength and determination; both are capable of great brutality. Costello seems to see in Billy’s father a man to rival himself, yet one who always “kept his own counsel.” Billy’s father was the only member of his family not to live a life of crime. If Costello considers Billy’s father his equal, then he sees in Billy one capable of becoming his heir.

While Queenan is meek, kind, and compassionate, Costello is demanding, belittling, and verbally abusive. When Costello loses contact with Sullivan because his phone’s battery dies, Costello calls him on a land-line to berate him: “What the fuck is it with your phone?” Sullivan replies, “Last time I checked, I tipped you off and you’re not in jail.” What is Costello’s response? He shows Sullivan no gratitude, not even deigning to acknowledge the he did indeed avoid going to prison because of Sullivan’s help. He forces Sullivan to constantly work to earn his affirmation. Costello then asks Sullivan if he knows about an undercover cop in his crew. Sullivan says, “It’s locked up. Queenan and Dignam run the snitches. They don’t give anybody a peep. I’m doing the best . . .” at which point Costello interrupts him to mock him some more: “Your best? What do you think we’re in, the fuckin’ haberdashery business?” Like all bad fathers, Costello forces Sullivan to work for his approval, instead of showing him unconditional love.

Costello persistently dismisses and diminishes Sullivan’s performance, even as Sullivan protects him from the cops. Later, when Sullivan suggests that Costello keep a lower profile–“Frank, for me, you’ve got to lay low”–Costello merely scoffs, saying, “Laying low is not what I do.” Sullivan says, “Lookit, Frank, what good am I to you if you don’t listen to me?” A son’s worst fear is to not be heard by his father.

Queenan offers Sullivan the affirmation that Costello consistently withholds. During the cops’ attempt to raid Costello during his deal with the Chinese, Queenan perceives Sullivan’s nervousness and reassures him. He says, “The readiness is all. You know the players, call the game.” Queenan does not realize that Sullivan is nervous because he is worried about Costello being captured. Queenan alludes to Hamlet Act V Scene II. As he prepares to face Laertes in a fencing contest, Hamlet tells Horatio

“There’s a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is ’t to leave betimes?”

Horatio worries for Hamlet’s safety, yet Hamlet himself is finally ready to embrace the moment, willing even to face death. Although Claudius’ invitation for Hamlet to fence with Laertes seems suspicious (Laertes has poisoned the tip of his sword, and Claudius has prepared a chalice of poisoned wine) Hamlet is not afraid. With a new-found faith in God’s providential ordering of things, Hamlet sheds his former anxieties and will no longer defer the moment of crisis. It is through his “readiness” to face Laertes that he succeeds in unmasking Claudius’ treachery and avenging his father’s murder, though it costs him his life. Queenan, thus, in his typically literary way, encourages Sullivan to be bold, to seize the moment, and act with heroism. Costello never shows this kind of confidence in Sullivan.

Queenan is the only man Billy can trust. When he calls Queenan, but gets Dignam, he demands to talk to Queenan. He says, “I’m gonna get on a plane unless you put Queenan on the phone.” After learning that Costello is an FBI informant, Billy, desperate, goes to Queenan’s house in the middle of the night. Inside, Queenan tells Billy, “Come and have something to eat.” Billy tries to say no, but Queenan insists, “We’ll talk in the kitchen. Come and have something to eat.” Despite how late it is, Queenan wants his surrogate son to be well-fed.

Although he reviles Costello and wishes more than anything that the cops arrest him, Billy still comes to see him as a father figure. As Billy and Costello discuss the problem of the rat in Costello’s crew, Billy speaks candidly with Costello:

“You’re seventy fucking years old. One of these guys is going to pop you. As for running drugs, what the fuck. You don’t need the pain in the ass, and they’re going to catch you. And you don’t need the money.”

Despite everything, Billy shows genuine concern for Costello. He implies that Costello should quit while he is ahead, should retire before one of his own thugs takes him down. As the conversation continues, Costello implies that Billy is under suspicion of being the rat. Billy argues that the rat would be the guy who thinks he can take Costello’s place at the top. The film again emphasizes the similarity between Billy and Costello when the crime lord asks, “You want to be me?” Billy’s reply reveals at once his affinity for Costello and his refusal to become like him: “I probably could be you. I know that much. But I don’t want to be you.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8xT_afGr-c

Billy is drawn to Costello personally, growing increasingly concerned for Costello’s well-being, but he is never seduced by the criminal lifestyle. While Billy expresses the respect he has for Costello’s abilities–“I base most of what I do on the idea that you’re pretty fucking good at what you do”–he ultimately rejects him as a model.

When Sullivan is promoted to head up the internal investigation into the rat in the police department, he asks Queenan for advice. Queenan tells him to “Follow Costello and you’ll find his rat.” Ironically, Sullivan uses Queen’s own idea against him. Sullivan deploys a team to tail Queenan when he meets up with Billy. Sullivan lets Costello know where Queenan and Billy are meeting, and Costello sends some of his thugs there. Queenan and Billy talk on the roof, and Billy again expresses his frustration at still being undercover and his fear of getting killed: “I’m telling you, he’s gonna find out who I am. He’s gonna fuckin’ kill me, I know it.” Queenan tries to calm Billy down, as usual, and promises to help him: “I hear you. I’m sorry for you trouble. Look, I’m not gonna jeopardize your safety any longer. I’ll get you out. I can’t do it overnight but I’ll do it.”

By the time that Queenan and Billy realize that Queenan was tailed, Costello’s men are already inside the building. Queenan urges Billy to get out using the fire escape. When Billy asks what Queenan will do, Queenan says, “I’ll be fine. If you get made I can’t protect you. Go down the fire escape. Now. That’s an order. I’ll be fine.”

Queenan shows his fatherly love for Billy by sacrificing himself so that Billy can escape. He places himself squarely between Billy and danger. He waits for Costello’s thugs, giving Billy time to get away. The elevator opens, and the thugs advance. Queenan faces them with equanimity. With an unlit cigarette in his mouth, he asks “One of you mugs got a light?” They proceed to throw him out of the window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sbd3akiEGQ&feature=kp

After Queenan dies, Sullivan learns that Costello is an FBI informant from Queenan’s notes. The prospect that Costello will betray him, coupled with Costello’s ongoing failure to appreciate him, convinces Sullivan to beat Costello to the punch. Toward the end of the film, Sullivan warns Costello that the police are tailing him. Instead of sending others to supervise a drug deal, however, Costello insists on going himself for the excitement. He demands that Sullivan “Get rid of the fuckin’ tail!” This proves to be the last straw for Sullivan. Costello has finally alienated him enough for him to betray his mentor. Sullivan tells Ellerby and the other cops where Costello is going, and then sends a team to ambush him.

By the film’s end, Billy has taken Sullivan’s place as Costello’s favorite son. While Sullivan is in the midst of betraying Costello, Billy tries to warn him of his impending downfall. He asks Costello, “How do you know you don’t have a tail?” Costello shrugs this off, but Billy persists, “What if they took one off and put another one on, Frank?” Billy has come to genuinely care about Costello, to see him as a father figure.

After the cops spring their trap, Sullivan confronts an injured Costello about being an FBI informant. Sullivan asks if the FBI know about him, Costello replies, “I never gave anybody up who wasn’t goin’ down anyway.” Sullivan repeats his question, paranoid that Costello ratted him out. Only when he is reduced to utter desperation does Costello show signs of fatherly affection for Sullivan, but it is too little, too late:

Sullivan: “Frank, Frank, do they know about me?”

Costello: “I know about you, Colin. You know I’d never give you up. You’re like . . .”

Sullivan: “A son . . . to you? Is that what it is about, all that murderin’ and fuckin’ and no sons?”

Costello tries to raise his gun, but Sullivan shoots him. Sullivan is right that after all the sex and death Costello has engaged in, he still has no son, hence his interest in Sullivan and Billy.

It turns out the Costello felt that Billy was a better son than Sullivan. His lawyer kept tapes of Costello’s conversations, so that he could blackmail anyone who turned on him. As Billy taunts Sullivan, when Costello died, “His lawyer came to me. Costello trusted me the most.”

The Departed thus presents a tableau of fathers and sons: Queenan the loving father, Costello the abusive father, Sullivan the disgruntled son, and Costigan the loyal son.