A masterpiece of direction, cinematography and acting

Rating: 10/10 (20 January 2003)

Anyone who has seen this film can be in no doubt of the skill of Martin Scorsese as a director, or Daniel Day Lewis as an actor. Both perform superbly in what surely must go down in history as a (slightly) flawed classic. The fact that Cameron Diaz and Leonardo Di Caprio were not in the same league as Day Lewis should not spoil the film. The difference was more due to the amazing performance by Day Lewis than any particular faults on the part of Di Caprio or Diaz. I felt that Diaz's character was not given the time to develop into someone very meaningful and she is therefore an easy target when criticizing this film. However due to commercial pressures, Scorsese (allegedly) had to cut the film from the 4hours that he felt was necessary, to a more public friendly format of 3hours (approx), so the directors cut on DVD should prove interesting. This also leads to some rather bizarre jumps in the plot; an example might be the speed and ease with which Di Caprio forms an army. But from the very first battle sequence it is clear that this is a film of the finest quality.