Simply Magnificent

Rating: 10/10 (8 March 2006)

This was a project of Martin Scorsese's which he had been trying to make since the late 1970s but there's no denying that the delay was very much for the best. If he had made it in the late 70s/early 80s it would not have done as well at the box office, he would not have had the talents of Mr Di Caprio and Miss Diaz, and he would not have been able to use the marvellous CGI effects of the early 21st century. It captures the period beautifully and the look of the film is very much like the contemporary news drawings that punctuate the action. It is certainly a violent film but it makes violence look repellent. There is one bit that is slightly clichéd, namely where Amsterdam removes Jenny's bodice and discovers a scar. The closing scene, where Jenny and Amsterdam are in the graveyard with burning 1860s New York in the background and they fade away and then there are scenes going through the decades with the New York skyline changing and the graveyard becoming progressively more overgrown is tremendous and haunting. There's no way a scene like that could have been done in the late 1970s.Well done to Bono, U2, and Andrea Corr (who should have been given a cameo role) and Sharon Corr for such a marvellous end titles track, The Hands That Built America. And congratulations to Mr Scorsese for such a great film that tackles a little known piece of US history.