Well worth the wait

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2003)

This film was a long time coming, but worth every minute of waiting. Firstly to review the acting. Daniel Day-Lewis has given several astounding performances in his career and this is without a doubt one of them. DiCaprio also gives a solid performance whilst Diaz at least doesn't disappoint. For all the criticism I've heard of Leo (probably because many people got sick of him after the amount of coverage he got post Titanic) I've never seen him give a bad performance. In fact I'd rate him as one of the most talented young actors in hollywood at the moment. His performance in this film is tempered with a good amount of emotion and a good amount of control. He steers well away from melodrama and single-minded plans of revenge, which could have been so easy to do in this role, and instead delivers a carefully understated role, providing a character both confused and resolute. His lack of a father figure draws him close to the very man he despises. Amsterdam appears to be both desiring the fatherly attention from Bill and wanting to kill him; greek tradgedy anyone?!
Daniel Day-Lewis was, to put it simply, spellbinding. Although this was quite clearly a rendition of Robert de Niro in the role, it is an extremely good rendition. I came out thinking Day-Lewis was more like de Niro than the man himself! And the irony of casting an Irishman in this role (as well as an Irish band to perform the main song) I found amusing. Perhaps this was to avoid coming across as deliberately anti-Irish. The performance had me both despising Bill and empathising with him. Despite his extreme bigotry, Day-Lewis portrays Bill as a very caring and principled man, both hungry for power, but also eager to father the community under his control. Don't get me wrong, this is a psychotic man, and when let loose Day-Lewis is frighteningly convincing as a psychopath.
This is yet another example of a master director at work. The first thing that struck me in the opening moments was the apparent reference to an early Scorcese short "The big Shave" as Neeson cuts himself with a razor. The short was a reference to the self-destruction of Vietnam, whilst in Gangs, Neeson is about to march to his own demise. The next moment to strike me was the opening battle. There was something musical about the choreography of this battle as the fight starts with little evidence of any blood shed, and then a crescendo of blood arises to the climax of the fight. This for me was evidence that Scorcese never sits on his laurels, always looking for new techniques to affect the audiences reactions and emotions to any given sequence. This trick helped to build an ever increasing momentum which comes to an abrupt and suprisingly sudden conclusion. There are many other stand out moments in this film - too many for me to wax lyrical about here. Needless to say, whilst it isn't my favorite Scorcese film, it is nevertheless the latest evidence of his continuing genius.