Very disappointing

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2002)

If you would like to experience `Gangs of New York' without having to sit through the film, simply spend three hours in a room with the most reprehensible, unredeemed characters you can imagine and the results will be about the same. And this is film's biggest problem. You don't care about ANY of the characters. Scorsese's New York is peopled with individuals who don't share a shred of decency, morality, righteousness or compassion between them. On top of that, the film's final frames suggest that present day New York, having been built on the blood of these repugnant, over-the-top, (and, essentially, unbelievable) characters, is somehow indebted to them. "Gangs of New York" is a weird blend of history, sentiment, and melodrama  and has a thinly veiled anti-religious sentiment running throughout. It subtly implies that religion is somehow behind all the misguided violence and reprehensible behavior in society. I may be reading too much into this, but the theme is definitely present, and one that needs to be either fairly explored or abandoned altogether. I have to agree with a comment made by an earlier poster: Less IS more, Mr. Scorsese. Less is definitely more.