Powerful and evocative

Rating: 8/10 (24 July 2012)

Martin Scorsese's period piece, telling of street warfare between differing immigrant factions in the mid-19th century, is long, violent, and features some excellent performances, notably the always intense Daniel Day-Lewis as Butcher Bill (it was good to see Cameron Diaz playing in something completely unfrothy, but I felt that Leonardo DiCaprio was a little too lightweight as protagonist and the audience's eyes).
More than anything, though, I really enjoyed the atmosphere and feel of this movie. It captured a sense of place and time really well. I obviously can't say how accurate it was, but I was more than happy to accept it completely as somewhere and somewhen with which I was completely unfamiliar, and a very real location for the events of this film.