Review of Gangs of New York (2002) by Adam U — 24 Feb 2012

Well, I just finished watching the movie. I've always been fond of Martin Scorsese and his films, they're just legendary. Who could ever forget gems such as Casino, Goodfellas, and Raging Bull? Gangs of New York, I've been reading about this film for quite some time. It's Scorsese's passion, his personal project. Even though I hadn't seen the film, I was rather surprised at the ratings on this site. While in the percentage of 70s from the critics and audience is still pretty good, it's rather low for a Scorsese film. But dang, it's nominated for 10 Oscars? I knew I was in. As usual, I set my expectations low like I do with every movie. So here I was, sitting on my bed with my laptop on me. I held the CD and slid it through the slit.

By the time the movie immediately began, I knew I was in for a movie that had the word "passion" written all over it. Scorsese really did put his heart and soul into this film. The set designs, costumes, art direction, production value, that was all stellar! Really captured that mid-1800's feel of the film. In addition to that we are treated to a really good and bloody gang fight, very powerful stuff. What really impressed me was the acting. As usual we have a great performance by Leonardo DiCaprio. I was surprised that Cameron Diaz was in this, she usually acts in crap films, she did a good job. What really made the movie was Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher, his performance was a marvel to behold. He's supposed to be this big, violent, savage, fearsome bad guy, yet we can see that he is actually still a human being with feelings. The characters developed as the movie went on, that's always good. The plot was great and so was the ending.

That's it for the good things, now about the bad. Knowing before watching that the film was going to be like, 2 hours and a half, I expected to be in for a lot of talking. But the problem was that it dragged on for almost too long. The movie felt longer than it was supposed to be. I know, Scorsese's films are long, but somehow they fly by because the talking is very interesting. While the talking in Gangs of New York was initially interesting, it started to become a little boring. A lot of these scenes could've been removed. If that was done, the film would've been almost perfect. I'm giving this film an 8/10, but honestly if it wasn't a Scorsese movie I would've rated it a bit lower. Gangs of New York is a good movie, but if you came in expecting non-stop bloodshed, you might end up disappointed (however those scenes are pretty awesome and gratuitously violent). Give this movie a shot, it's got terrific acting, excellent production values, a great plot, and a good message to boot. It's definitely Martin Scorsese's weakest film though.