Reviewed by: Joe

Directed by: Martin Scorsese

Produced by: Harvey Weinstein, Alberto Grimaldi, & Martin Scorsese

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, & Henry Thomas

Released: December 20th, 2002

Drama and Crime/Gangster 2 hrs. 44 min. Set in New York City, 1840-1863, a young man named Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks vengeance against Bill "The Butcher" Poole (Daniel Day-Lewis), the man who killed his father. Though he secures the help of pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, the task at hand may be more dangerous than Amsterdam ever imagined when he realizes that his father was murdered as a result of gang warfare between the powerful Manhattan gangs. Amid the crooked cops and corrupt politicians of the Tammany Hall era, political enforcer Bill Poole stands out as only one scoundrel in the crime-plagued Five Points section of lower Manhattan in the early 1860s.

Gangs of New York, as good as the buzz tries to make it out to be, is a big disappointment. The story of the film is the most noticeable problem. The era of the 1860’s is a fascinating time to set a film against but the problem is that the film fails to remind people what is going on at this time. When they join the historical aspect of the script with the Amsterdam revenge plot, the whole thing just becomes too jumbled together to get a straight story out of it. How the historical aspects were handled was also a problem. The fact that the Union and the draft were shown in a bad light was probably the most upsetting part of the entire film. The three hour time length of Gangs didn’t help the story as most just seemed drag on. When one part of the story seems to be going in one direction, it ends up just being turned into another direction. Scorsese could have saved at least a hour and a half of the audience’s time by cutting out many unwanted scenes to direct us straight to the ending instead of dragging it out.

Speaking of the ending, this has to be one of the most disappointing endings in quite awhile. They built all this emotion and intensity into the characters but that is just ruined with this ending. There are good things about Gangs of New York but they are so few and far between that they can be mentioned right now. See the film by all means if you really want to see it. If not then wait for the rental on DVD.