A big a bawdy historical drama in the true Hollywood tradition

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2002)

Other than being a bit too long for my taste, Gangs of New York is a grand historical drama that captures the grit, grim, poverty, blood and prejudice of the time in a truly graphic way.
I'm not much of a Leonardo DiCaprio fan but he is very good as Amsterdam Vallon, the orphaned son of a great Irish gang leader.
Cameron Diaz, as Jenny the Everdeane is also very good as a beautiful if scarred red headed beauty who tries to make cinematic fire with DiCaprio but short a few scenes it is not the romance of the year.
The thunder of this one is Danial Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher. As his name implies he is just that a master of knives. He is in the hunt for the little gold statue with this one and is my current leader in the club house for the award as best actor.
The film is almost phobic in its attempts at realism and historical accuracy. The problem is to do this extends it to 160 minutes and that is a load for this kind of fare.
There are some editing flaws that after two hours jump out at you but that is really splitting hairs.
In total it is heavy fare but it will keep you talking for days afterwards. Go see it.