A bit muddled but not disappointing

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2004)

What I found most interesting about this movie was it's time period. It started out in NYC in 1846 and then finished in 1862, during the American Civil War. This period of time is unfamiliar to us. It was interesting in that you heard the names of streets that are still around, but their scenery is completely unfamiliar. I especially enjoyed the scene at the end during the closing credits where they show NYC fast-forward evolve from where it was back then to the skyscaper-festooned megalopolis that it is today.
The weakest part about the movie was its resolution. Needless to say, there was a gang-fight involved. However, for some reason the filmmakers mixed up two separate fights into one. Was this movie supposed to be about the tension between ethnic gangs of New York, or was it supposed to be a movie about the tension that led to the anti-draft riots of the Civil War? The two fights are unrelated, and I'm sure many people who saw this movie the first time may not have figured that out. This would be a source of confusion in this movie, and the filmmakers did a very bad job on this part. An anti-conscription riot gets started, while at the same time a gang-fight was about to start in another part of town. The conscription riots caused the US Army to get involved to put it down, which ends up interfering with and breaking up the gang-fight at the same time. Seems too implausible to believe!