Lavish and indulgent - a work of flawed genius

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2004)

I read somewhere that Martin Scorsese has been trying to get this film made for decades. That is a long time for ideas, plot-threads and themes to be swirling around in such a talented, creative mind. It seems that when he finally got the green light, everything exploded out in a seismic gush of violence and vivid colour. This is movie-making on a mammoth scale  no quarter given, no corners cut, no concessions. CGI is for wimps.
The star of this film is New York itself. Scorsese uses great sprawling sets that disappear into the distance; a vast array of props, period pieces and extras; bloody fight scenes that are almost unparalleled in their intensity and ferocity; and a general air of bubbling discontent.
New York is and evidently always has been a cultural melting pot. This is the 1860s version and the key conflict is between the vicious, snarling patriots and the boatloads of Irish immigrants who arrive daily. There are no heroes here  no moral high ground  just angry mobs of hoodlums perpetually spoiling for a fight. We join the action just before an almighty dust-up between nationalists led by William 'Bill The Butcher' Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) and Priest Vallon's (Liam Neeson's) Dead Rabbit gang over control of the notorious Five Points district. It is a blood bath, but Cutting slays Vallon and emerges victorious. He goes on to rule the Five Points with an iron fist, exploiting the fear his legend has generated.
Fast forward sixteen years, and Vallon's son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns to the Five Points with a sizable chip on his shoulder and planning vengeance on Cutting. Before he can act, he becomes embroiled in all the sleaze and corruption and is soon fast-tracked to the upper-echelons of Bill's inner circle. He also finds time to fall for sexy pickpocket Jenny (Cameron Diaz)  not bad for a chubby Irishman with a bum-fluff goatee and a bizarre mid-Atlantic brogue. After being taken under Cutting's wing and learning how he reveres his father's character and memory, Amsterdam suddenly has a crisis of confidence and sees Bill in a different, almost paternal light.
You can see his problem: It is difficult not to warm to The Butcher. Day-Lewis injects an impressive amount of passion into a man with admirable commitment albeit to a questionable cause. He may be a psychopath, but he's not afraid to fight for what he believes in and he strongly believes in quixotic notions like honour and respect for one's enemies. He also has a rather splendid moustache.
Day-Lewis is undeniably superb in this film and DiCaprio and Diaz are both fine, but it is difficult for an actor to shine through the grandiose direction. Gangs is littered with Scorsese trademarks  the steady cam shots that swoop around Vallon as he strides out to meet Bill dominate the opening scene, but their impact is disappointingly weakened by the slo-mo and speeded-up footage of the otherwise breathtaking fight sequence. Such visual jiggery-pokery may have graced a film like Casino, but here it is strangely out of place  I suppose he was going for a clever juxtaposition of raw hand-to-hand combat with more modern Matrix-style shenanigans. Whatever, I don't think it really works.
Scorsese also has a fair bit to say about class. There is social comment all over this film and in the main it is beautifully handled: The (I presume) fictional yarn about Amsterdam's revenge segues neatly into depiction of the real-life conscription riots that took place at the time. Indeed, fact spills into fiction during the thrilling denouement when the showdown between Bill and Amsterdam is overtaken by events around them. Scorsese has little time for the upper-classes  here they are nothing more than a snobbish hangover from British high society - cowering in fear as the angry masses steam-roller through their flimsy security and eject them from their own billiard rooms.
Lincoln's presidency, widely regarded as being the fulcrum for modern American life, is here derided as ineffectual. As if to sum this up, William Cutting survives an assassination attempt in a theatre. Famously, Abe was not so lucky. Scorsese's America, as the tag-line suggests, was born on the streets  not in the Whitehouse.
8/10