Okay, I saw the Departed. If you saw it, tell me

Was Matt Damon's character supposed to be gay, and if so, how many more sociopathic gay killers do you think he's going to play in his career?

Because he called the firemen "homos"??

First he says it when they're leaving the rugby field, which to me seemed like typical macho posturing, but then there's a separate scene where he's sitting on a bench with the guy he ends up killing at the end and he says it again, seemingly out of the blue. What was the point of hammering home the fact that he was homophobic?

Then apparently he was having sexual problems with the shrink. So much so that she was driven to DeCaprio. Later when she shows him the ultra sound she goes to great lengths to point out it's a boy, seemingly to boost his manhood.

And then, when he was at the porn movie he was looking at the screen - if I remember right it was two women on screen - like he was looking at an autopsy movie.

So it was the three things combined, homophobia, dysfuntion with his girlfriend, discomfort watching women having sex.

I thought the bench scene was right after the rugby game, and he was still pissed at the firemen.

I have seen this movie many times (I work at Warner Bros.), and missed all of your observations!!

While I am not super-sensitive to homosexual issues, I am quite liberal and supportive of alternate lifestyles.
I didn't get this connotation from the movie either.

Thanks for your observations. BTW, you may know that the movie is up for the "Best Picture" award during the Oscar presentations on February 25th.

is then his crying in the elevevator. Not that his crying is one of the sublte cues that he is gay, but, if you were to belief that the character was, even if in a subliminal way - well then he cannot even face the consequences of his actions without appearing weak and cowardly.

character, but it's not plainly drawn. I wasn't sure if the Damon character was supposed to be gay or just psychologically beholden to Frank Costello, the Nicholson character.

Stop here if you haven't seen the film and don't want a plot detail revealed.

I don't usually like gangster films, but I think Scorsese makes films worth seeing. In THE DEPARTED Frank Costello initially impresses Damon's character as a child in the drugstore, ordering the manager to turn over groceries and a comic book, and includes a quart of milk. At the end of the film, Wahlberg's character guns down Damon, who has just returned from the market, and a quart of milk spills on the apartment floor.

Ordinary detail of life writ large.