Incomprehensible Junk from a Hollywood Sellout

Rating: 2/10 (10 March 2004)

This film pretends that it is historic, but it does not deal with history, at least not real history, what is portrayed in the film instead is amiable "hollywood-ization" of a marginal topic. Scorsese makes the gang wars more brutal than they were, perhaps resembling some choreographed knife fight at the local dance hall. I find it incredulous to believe that 600 drunk Irish hooligans were at each other's throats near the lower East side, there is no recorded document of the event, oh, he made it up to please the masses. How fun is it when a man gets an axe in the head, well, according to the director, very fun indeed. It is sick, not only that he uses a serious issue of race violence in early American urban landscapes, but he makes it look cartoon-like. I found the film too long, predictably played by terrible actors in folly-like roles and the end is a complete disaster that no one can decipher. A below average piece of junk from a once mild director....