Character Investigation

Character Investigation Of Social Status: The Departed

• In the trailer of "The Departed" we see various changed and range in social class and achieved status. We see achieved status through police academy training, showing a more middle/upper class status of the main character.

• Clothing is a use of iconography used to deconstruct the social class of characters in the trailer. We see men in suits in a Police Station and what is allegedly a court through the use of a crane shot looking down onto the walkway. Racial features are also a convention code to signify social status. In the trailer the characters are white which show them to be more upper class which exploits the stereotype of white people being innocent/law abiding and of a higher status and black people, for example to be of a lower status. Even though in the trailer we see a white convict which subverts  to common depictions of white people.