Review of Gangs of New York (2002) by Davef — 02 Sep 2005

Picture that friend of yours who falls asleep during action movies. He's always complaining about the clichés, the watered-down plot, the hackneyed action sequences. Gangs of New York is what that friend might dream up given a Hollywood cast and limitless freedom.

I was expecting a gaudy, eye-rolling showcase for Diaz and DiCaprio's pretty faces. Instead I witnessed a down-and-dirty masterpiece with inspired acting, dazzling writing, and bold camerawork. The script doggedly avoids empty-headed clichés, instead inventing classic lines for future copycats.

One memorable scene takes place on a body-strewn battlefield in the Five Points. Bill the Butcher, folding a blood-stained knife into the hands of a fallen priest, says with dutiful respect: "you'll need this to cross the river.

" Even the voice-over work in Gangs is fresh, binding the meaty chaos with barbed-wire eloquence. It's a pity some critics label the movie "indulgent", simply because it dares to sustain virtuoso vision for nearly three hours.

We should be so lucky to have this-a Hollywood movie that bleeds when pricked. It is rare to have characters we not only care about, but whose conflicts and relationships are unapologetically human. Here is a conniving monster with a heart, and a hero who becomes his son.

And why was it news to some that the film is not 100 percent historically accurate? This is a story. A story that ignites as grisly, glorious nightmare the way only film can.