A solid (yet flawed) movie.

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2010)

The last act of Gangs of New York made the entire movie worthwhile, for me. It also was part of the reason why the film occasionally felt so disjointed.
On one hand, Gangs of New York tackled such heady issues as immigration, the draft, class conflict, racism, and discrimination of all kinds. It's a pretty brutal and realistic movie, in that regard. On the other hand, it's the story of a young Irish American who seeks revenge for the murder of his father. I found the latter far less interesting than the former.
These two parts of the story are supposed to parallel each other, and I can see the ways that Scorsese tried to connect them, but it's only towards the end where this approach actually works. The rest of the time, it's fairly awkward.
I lay a lot of the fault for this in the casting of Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz. I have no problems with either of these actors (and have enjoyed them both in other movies), but they just didn't "fit" here. And when they were surrounded by so many actors who were perfect for the location and time period, they stuck out like a sore thumb. It doesn't help that the two characters were basically thrown together, with little story basis for why they should be so devoted to one another.
Despite what I considered to be its considerable flaws, I still thought that Gangs of New York was a good film. Seeing an exaggerated portrayal of some of the actual history of early New York and immigration to the city was cool, and most of the latter half was brilliant. Fans of Scorsese are in for a (at times muddled) treat.