Review of Gangs of New York (2002) by Michael Y — 11 May 2011

The master of mobster movies, Martin Scorsese, takes his style to the next level. He has done movies about violence in New York. He has done movies about gangs. He has done true stories. Now he combines them all in this compelling and powerful historic pic and revenge tale.

The year is 1863 and America is struggling through its Civil War. But this movie tells of a different story, the story of the famous New York riot. A young man, Amsterdam Vallon returns to New York City seeking revenge against the man who killed his father in a gang battle, Bill "The Butcher". Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, that's how Amsterdam plays it. He becomes a loyal subject of Bill and his dealings. But Amsterdam becomes too close to Bill, and his fueled rage fades as he sees that Bill is not exactly the man he thought of killing. Gangs of New York is a very nice play on history, using elements of history that are true and building a very dramatic revenge story around it. And it's done in a much better way than most films that play around with history. It leaves history as it is and plays an original story with it, right under the shadow of history, as though it doesn't matter to history at all. Leonardo DiCaprio is a fantastic lead in this movie, Cameron Diaz's performance is my favourite of hers in this movie. But the real show stopper is Daniel Day Lewis, (as always), playing a very hardcore patriot who hates all immigrants and anyone who isn't a white christian for that matter. And he's not afraid of killing anyone since he has the power to do so. This movie has it all, a revenge story, a love story, a very nice character driven drama, and not to mention lots and lots of violence and blood. Remember, this is Martin Scorsese, his movies are always the most gritty and brutal.

Gangs of New York is Scorsese's most elaborate and biggest movie he has ever done, and he does it so flawlessly. This movie looks incredible. Of coarse, you're going to see a highly detailed movie full of elaborate costumes and set designs that look amazing. The art direction is truely magnificent in this movie. Full of detail, but also very dark and muddy. This is spacifically a time in New York when (believe it or not) it looked even worse than it does now. Even for such a huge city setting, you really get a sence of claustrophobia because there are so many people on the streets and in the buildings everywhere. This is a really huge cast we're talking about here. Bu the cinematography, the lights, camera angles and all the wonderful shots that are captured makes this movie look like art. And the huge amount of extras is used to it's fullest too. There are some wonderfully gruesome riot scenes and gang battles that go on, infront and behind the main scenes. Everybody is doing something, and they're all doing something that one would imagine would happen during those times. The historic detail in the society, the different actions and events that would happen, the hostile inviroment with the various different types of people, everything you see in this movie is a truely enlightening and thorough experience of what the times where like. And for an even better touch, this movie has some incredible music scores that both combine a little taste of the times and bring out the fullest amount of terrific dramatic moments.

I don't know what everybody's problem is with this movie. Critics say it's flawed but never seem to give a real answer as to why it's flawed. I tell you this. Gangs of New York is an amazing cinematic experience, a very compelling and thoughtful revenge story, great performances, extremely well designed and directed perfectly by a perfect director. Highly underrated and an interesting look into history, Gangs of New York will leave you breathless after the final shot.