Fumarama

ok, so if i was Will (Leonardo Dicaprio), when Matt Damon brought me into the police station, I would have just taken the money and my identity and left and gone and lived my life, perhaps convincing the pretty shrink to come with me. Even after i found out that Matt Damon was the rat, I still would have done the same. There are two possible reasons for Leo DiCaprio to try and bring Matt Damon to Justice.

1. He feels like he has not quite finished the job. But here is the thing. Costello is dead. His whole crew is dead. And without them, Matt Damon is completely neutered. He would probably just go ahead and become a regular old cop and a pretty good one at that. So really neutoring Damon without killing him is doing the city of Boston a favor. But even if that is wrong, and there are still plenty mobsters out there that Damon can rat for, then the mob problem in Boston is so big that taking Damon out is pointless. If it can go on after Costello dies, then it sure as hell can go on after Damon dies. DiCaprio won't solve all the crime. He did his bit. Take the money and leave.

2. He has some sort of sense of justice, Damon is a bad guy, he must be punished. I am not much of retributivist so the argument does not have much emotional resonance with me. But it was pointed out to me that going after Damon proves that DiCaprio was not in it for the money, he was in it for to help the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Ok, I am willing to buy this as motivations, but then there are two subproblems with the movie.

a. What are Damon's motivations for joining the Mass state police. I mean as Dingle points out at the beginning of the movie, DiCaprio is not very good at it, but it seems clear that he is very smart and would be good at other things. But we never really get an explanation as to why DiCaprio does what he does. Sure, you can venture to guess based on your own assumptions as to why people join police officers. But it is an aspect of this character not the least bit developed.

b. Why is Matt Damon such a bad guy? It seems really unfair to demonize him. It is a poor kid for the South Side of Boston. The first scene of the movie makes it clear that people were terrified of Costello. If Costello took interest in a poor boy like Damon (sullivan) do you think that Sulivan could really stay away without serious reprecussions. And if Costello asked Sullivan to join the police force and be a rat, could Sullivan really say no without being killed? So really Damon is a victim here at much as anything. Plus, he never showed any inclination for violence or cruelty, except the fact that he worked for Costello. I bet if out from under the thumb of the mobster, he could be a good cop. Point is, no reason to kill him