Excessive talent dished up with too much monosodium glutamate

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2003)

Over three hours of Scorsese's self-indulgent odyssey supposedly about the birth pangs of 19th Century New York City but really a gratuitous re-enactment that tells us very little about history and a lot about Mr Scorsese's continuing efforts to work out his personal religious angst. After a bloody and horrifically realistic opening battle, the gang warfare festers on in simplistic Protestant vs Catholic rabble-rousing fashion whilst Di Caprio, Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis all take turns to sparkle a bit. Scorsese shines with wasted talent throughout and the film will no doubt pick up the odd minor Oscar or two for misdirected effort. Mainstream fodder that ought to be something more than the sum of its pretensions.