Review of Gangs of New York (2002) by Cameron J — 20 Jul 2012

I don't know what's more beautiful, the irony in English-Irishman Daniel Day-Lewis playing a New Yorker who's fighting the Irish (If this was Boston, then that would have been too much irony to take; you know what I'm saying, Fighting Irish fans?) or the friendship between Scorsese and DiCaprio that began with this film. What, did you seriously think that I was going to put Cameron Diaz up as a candidate for the most beautiful thing in this film? No, she's still very pretty in this, it's just that by 2002, alone, she wasn't quite what she was in the '90s. Granted, that's quite a standard to live up to, yet the fact of the matter is that now she has to rely on her acting chops, and let me tell you that... well, she's not that bad in that department either, just don't give her an accent to, well, not try sometimes. Speaking of Irish, if I could talk about the theme song right quick, seriously people, we travel all the way back to the 1860s, and yet, we still can't get rid of U2? Oh well, it still makes for a good song, even if the writing on it is improvable, which is pretty much the opposite of what you can say about this film, because it's awesome, even if it's really good screenplay stands to be handled a bit better in execution. Still, make no mistake, this film is a real standout, and certainly the first of quite a few awesome collaborations between the dream team of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, yet like the other remarkable efforts by such a dream team (Except "The Aviator", that was fantastic through and through, even if it did kind of dull out towards the end), Scorsese isn't without quite a few faults in his bringing the dream to life, and just enough hold the final product back a bit.

The film opens strong, but effectiveness kind of dips around the time they break out into an all-out gore-out of a gang battle sequence, which is sped-up, quickly edited and altogether hyper-stylized in a fashion that pretty much makes it look like a cheesy hard rock music video, and it doesn't help that they actually crowbar in an anachronistic hard rock-like score composition over the battle. Martin Scorsese just loves to experiment with many a unique variety of directing methods, and that typically works, though just as often trips up a bit after a while, and sure enough, while Scorsese's uniquely extreme stylistic touches help this film more than hurt it, they nevertheless still hurt the film on more than one occasion, when things become overstylized, thus doing some damage on the film's visceral value and, certainly, level of intelligence. Still, as frantic and messy as this film gets to be in its storytelling, there are a few occasions in which things fall limp, not necessarily to where the film feels boring, but still to where the film losese just enough momentum to dull out a bit, if not feel a touch aimless. These wandering moments that do a number on the film's momentum really do taint the final product's level of potential fulfillment, and yet, what might hurt the film's sharpness even more than that is the film's being tight to a fault. Sure, there's a bit of scene dragging to worry about here and there, and even when this film does get too tight for its own good, it rarely goes as far as to feel rather rushed or slam-bang in its story assembly, yet the film's being as tight as it is expends a chance to meditate more on the storyline or its dynamicity, thus diluting the film's livliness and engagement value, thus leaving the final product to further lose some steam, partially for the sake of unique story approaches that, well, quite frankly don't work as well as the story approaches we're used to seeing when it comes to films of this type. Don't get me wrong, the film will collapse into the occasional convention, and often in a good way, yet this final product generally stands to be more traditional, for although a more traditional version of this film would likely get to be a bit too traditional after a while, in that it would begin to feel a tad generic, tradition is sometimes much better than certain unique methods, and if this film had succumb more to the undeniably strong storytelling conventions of it type, it would have been a better epic, as the new moves pulled don't always work. However, on the whole, while Scorsese stands to hit harder with this film, he still hits considerably harder than he ever has with most of his other films, for although the final product is a messy epic that could have been great, it remains an excellent film that ranks up there among Scorsese's finest accomplishments, with many a stylistic move that is sharp and welcomed making this film all the more worthwhile.

Michael Ballhaus may not be Robert Richardson, as far as Scorsese cinematographers are concerned, yet he still really captures the film's grit with a grimy, yet still thoroughly handsome lighting that catches your attention and even, to a certain degree, your investment, as it does make for a strong supplement to the tone of the film. Still, what does more than the cinematography in bringing this world to life is, of course, the production value, as every design is detailed and effective in its conveying both certain environments - whether it be broken-down spots or the relatively cleaner yet still tainted areas - and the era, as a believable whole. All of this stylistic and production dazzle certainly comes into play quite nicely during the action sequences, which are admittedly and surprsingly few and far between, yet thrill every time they arise, for although certain action pieces get overstylized to the point of losing substance, there's still generally a lot of weight and consequence to these brawls and battles, which of course makes such consistently impressive aspects as sweeping fighting concepts and staging all the more thrilling, if not just plain riveting. Still, no matter how good the structure of the world is, it's the structure of the film itself that is the most important, and let me tell you, this triad of writing talents' only failure is their failure to disappoint. True, Jay Cocks' original story concept is not terribly, well, original, yet it still has a lot of unique touches built around a plotline that may be a tad familiar, yet remains compellingly worthy and sweeping in scope. When it comes to unraveling this concept on paper, Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan really do deliver, structuring the story elaborately and dynamically while they toss in some lively dialogue and take on very clever approaches to the historical aspects, with a couple of era-setting touches that stay faithful to history without being too matter-of-fact, as well as dramatic liberties that are so blasted obvious, yet not overbearingly glaringly, being buyable enough to not be terribly off-putting, yet audaciously far-fetched enough to open doors to spice-ups for this grand fictional story, thus making for a script that belongs in a better film, yet still makes for an excellent film, nonetheless. Still, the film wouldn't be as excellent as it ultimately is were it not for the fine execution by its other fine talents, both offscreen and onscreen.

Being that this is an epic, the cast of is massive, as well as colorful, flaunting many distinct and memorable charismas, from the underused yet once again underappreciated John C. Reilly (Ooh, really good Irish accent; I didn't know he had that in him), to the in-and-out yet impression-leaving Liam Neeson. Getting to our primaries, Cameron Diaz is, as I briefly said in the opener, a mess with the Irish accent, doing a decent job here and there, yet generally feeling rather artificial, if not a touch uneven, or at least when she remembers to do the accent at all. However, the aspect of nationality is surprisingly underexplored in the Jenny Everdeane character to begin with, and when it comes to the aspects that really do define Everdeane, Diaz surprisingly steps up, not to where she impresses all that terribly, yet enough for you to feel Everdeane's slick exterior, as well as her internal ambitions for a more comfortable and happy life. Still, it's the main men who steal the show the most, with Daniel Day-Lewis being, as the consensus put it, "electrifying" in his portrayal of an almost classfully powerful, yet still pretty brutal antagonist, boasting firecracker charisma that leaves you to fall in love with the Bill Cutting character, though not to where you don't feel the weight of his cruel intentions and evil deeds, as Day-Lewis dons a gripping, moderately layered and mysterious atmosphere of disturbance, as well as enough competence to feel like a force to be reckoned with, thus leaving Day-Lewis to seem as though he's transformed into an entirely different person. As for my man Leonardo DiCaprio, he is with only so much material to work with, yet works past that, doing a fine job at the Irish accent (For those who felt that he could have done better, Vallon was born in America to an Irish family, so his accent wouldn't be terribly thick; DiCaprio's restraint without abate over the accent makes it all the more buyable I feel), and an even better job at cutting to the core of Amsterdam Vallon, a flawed but generally good-hearted young man who's not afraid to get his hands as dirty as possible if he has to, and considering what he's seen and is to see, you can expect those hands to dirt up something fierce, which is a process that DiCaprio charismatically and comfortably conveys with subtle depth and a fair bit of emotional range that steadily pulls you deeper and deeper into the essence of the Amsterdam Vallon character, until he and, by extension, DiCaprio's performance become among the most memorable strengths in the film. Still, it all comes back to Martin Scorsese, who may not deliver as well as he should have, yet delivers all the same, playing with the hit-or-miss stylistic touches in a fashion that hits more than misses and gives this film a kind of entertaining intensity, while poignant moments of deep visceral exploration give this film dramatic weight and thorough compellingness, and when Scorsese ties all of these tones together with a lively epic sweep, the final product all but transcends its missteps through its truly magic moments. Scorsese grows more and more inspired as intrigue builds in this film, and thus, the film grows more engrossing as it progresses, until by the time we reach the absolutely phenomenal ending, Scorsese had wrapped everything up neatly and left a final product that stands to be better, but still stands strong.

In the end, the film gets to be rather overstylized and occasionally slow, yet is, worst of all, generally tight to a fault, not taking enough time to absorb enough exposition and depth to deliver on the full potential that could have been reached if this film wasn't so hamstrung by its missteps and ambitions, yet through that all, the film still triumphs with many an undeniably powerful strength, whether it be the fine style and production designs or the strong story, really brought to life by Jay Cocks', Steven Zaillian's and Kenneth Lonergan's excellent screenplay, as well as by a slew of colorful performances - the most upstanding of which predictably being by leading men Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel-Day Lewis - and Martin Scorsese's mostly inspired direction, which provides enough livliness, depth, high points and epic sweep to ultimately leave "Gangs of New York" to stand tall as a stirring epic that falls from great, though not at all so far that the final product fails to go rendered as a still remarkable effort.

3.5/5 - Solid.