The big city

Rating: 6/10 (17 November 2015)

Martin Scorcese has wanted to make the Gangs of New York for several decades. Elaborate sets were built at the Cinecitta studios in Rome for this Dickensian yarn and Scorcese spent many months editing this film down to a manageable length as well as smoothing out the violence at the behest of the censors.
In 1846, the noble Irish Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson in an all too brief role) leader of the immigrant gang the Dead Rabbits goes to battle with the xenophobic protestants, the Natives led by the vicious Bill 'the Butcher' Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) who plays him like murderous Bill Sikes crossed with the more bluff and charming Fagin.
Vallon is slain by Butcher's blade. His son escapes and grows up angry and intent on revenge and calls himself Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio in almost Oliver Twist mode.) Many years later after reform school Amsterdam returns to the Five Points and plots to get close to Bill in order to kill him but thinks get a lot complicated.
Bill Cutting has risen in power, he holds sway with various corrupt politicians and lawmen. Bill has dreams of his new America and it does not include it being a melting plot. Amsterdam worms himself into the Bill's inner circle and almost becomes a surrogate son to him. Amsterdam also takes the pickpocket Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz who might as well be Nancy) who was once Bill's mistress.
However despite the cruel and nasty things Bill has done and his expertise with the blade, Bill is not a caricatured villain and Day- Lewis makes him empathetic and Amsterdam finds respect for him. Just hope that Bill never finds out who Amsterdam really is.
Scorcese wanted to make a film about the rise of New York. We know this because the final shot dissolves from the ruins of a riot ridden city to that of skyscrapers in the beginning of the new millennium. The story mixes a revenge tale with the insertion of real life characters to acknowledge a city that is going to advance rapidly from the nineteenth century slums with low life characters.
In making this epic which took three screenwriters the focus is on Day-Lewis making his character complex and dominating leaving other characters more vacuous and the film out of balance. Priest Vallon is interesting but is dispatched too quickly.
It is a big performance from Day-Lewis but I once read that if you examine it closely, it is almost as if he is doing a Robert De Niro impression. An observation with some substance.
The film is long but it is not an epic. The broad strokes of a young city growing up entwined with a young man growing to take revenge is lost in the finer details with uneven pacing and too many sketchy characters.