DVD Review: Gangs Of New York (B)

Gangs Of New York (2002)
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz and John C. Reilly
MPAA: R
Grade: B

Review by Scott Standish

Fans of Martin Scorsese waited a long time for this film and in many ways it was worth the wait. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, Gangs of New York is gigantic in scale, similar in scope to James Cameron's Titanic. It also seems to suffer from the same problems as Titanic: an overreaching script and a surprisingly lukewarm performance from Leonardo DiCaprio.

Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) is a boy with one thought on his mind: revenge. His father was killed by William Cutting (Daniel Day Lewis) in the famous Battle of Five Points in the young city of New York. Amsterdam wisely sidles up to Cutting, AKA"Bill The Butcher" in order to enter his ring of organized crime. Amsterdam meets and falls for the lovely prostitute Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz) only to find out that she has her own ties to the ruthless Cutting.

There are some great acting performances in Gangs of New York: John C. Reilly is fantastic as the local police officer and Jim Broadbent is wonderful as the corrupt mayor of New York William "Boss" Tweed. Daniel Day Lewis is the best though, as he is absolutely memorizing as William Cutting and he deservedly won the Online Film Critics Award for best actor.

My only issue with the sprawling Gangs of New York is the overbloated script itself. The film seems to try and tell a back story for every character and tie way too much together into what should have been one simple story. Leonard DiCaprio also does not light up the screen at all and he is completely overshadowed by Daniel Day-Lewis's incredible performance.

With a running time of over 2 and a half hours this probably could have been more powerful if it was simply scaled down. However even with it's faults, Gangs of New York is still a very good film that tells an interesting tale of New York City's early days.

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