Review of Gangs of New York (2002) by Stephen B — 21 Jun 2011

Absolutely brilliant film.

Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York introduces today's world to the Five Points, a dark corner of the city know to New Yorkers of long ago as the centre and vice of chaos. Into this frontier of extreme lawlessness arrives the young Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio). Amsterdam is the orphaned son of the slain Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson)- once chief warrior of the Dead Rabbits gang that rallied the Irish Immigrants of the Five Points. Amsterdam has returned to hunt down his father's killer. His target is William Cutting AKA "Bill the Butcher" (Daniel Day Lewis), who has since become the merciless new leader of the neighbourhood, a Nativist who detests newly arrived immigrants and is determined to fend off all so called "foreign invaders". Amsterdam works his way deep into the Butcher's inner circle, a world of alternating honour and cruelty from which he can only hope to escape.

I really did not want to enjoy this as much as other Scorcese work like Raging Bull or Taxi Driver but I did. I thought the story was deep, complex and utterly brilliant to watch. For the best part of three hours, this story remains compelling and interesting all the way through. I did not want to change any part of the story and that is the reason why it got 100% from me. Not one character, not one conflict and not one aspect of anything else is wrong. Every one part seems to suit every other part in some way as if the plot were a metaphorical jigsaw.

I loved the characters. If I had been a film fan back when this came out, I would have been rooting for Daniel Day Lewis to get the Best Actor award that he did because his acting was, to put it bluntly, spectacular. Leonardo DiCaprio also put on a stunning performance although his Irish accent seemed to be slightly thin in various parts of the film's narration. Cameron Diaz was pretty good too, surprising me with her really good Irish accent. All in all, the characters surprised me in how good they were. I was even able to take John C Reilly seriously after Step-brothers.

I'm a new Scorsese film and I have only seen this and then Raging Bull and Taxi Driver before it. But I love them all equally. After watching this film, I can still say that Scorsese's talent has never faltered after any of those three, especially this one. As much as I do not really want to say it, I preferred this over the other two. I didn't want to, but I simply did because it was so awesome!