Great movie

Rating: 9/10 (21 November 2003)

Great movie. The movie was about pure vengeance and the glorification of violence. No one in the world can present a movie like that with such greatness except for Martin Scorcese. The violence was almost inspirational! This movie was filled with testosterone. Leonardo DeCaprio played a convincing tough guy even though he is skinnier than most of the girls I've dated. Daniel Day Lewis stole the show as the ruthless baron of five points. He was a convincing force of a character. Beautiful Cameron Diaz kept my attention with her looks and her street-smart character.
The movie was a gangster movie, which is not original. This movie was set in the 1860's, which is very original. I have never seen a movie try to capture the crime genre during the mid-19th century. The costume and dress of the time was visually stunning. I think Scorcese has watched other directors use color schemes to make the movie visually stunning, because this is the first movie he has made that has coloring that stands out.
A lot of people say this movie was a vast exaggeration of early life in New York. The catch phrase of the movie was `America was born In the Streets'. I have to believe that life was extremely hard and violent, and many immigrants lived in slums. I could see people doing whatever necessary to survive, whether it is steal, cheat, murder. Story evolved around race riots and draft riots in New York. I watched history channel about the draft and race riots in New York, and this movie really captures the time. According to the documentary the dead rabbit riot of 1857 really killed over 100 people. This movie tries its best to put together and recapture the frustration of living in a slum. Even though the draft and race riots did not really happen at the same time. The movie combines the two.
Bowery Boys, Plug uglies, dead Rabbits some interesting names of the gangs. 9/10, but then again I am the drunken_critic.