Hollywood's best movie of 2002!!!

Rating: Null/10 (14 March 2003)

After years in the making, this story of history, honor, revenge and violence will one day be labeled a Hollywood classic that everyone must respect enough to sit down to at least once. Martin Scorsese's tale of a life during the days when violence was a way of living in the streets of New York is simply overwhelming to the human eye. By setting the scene beautifully with every perfection in detail we successfully witness the birth of a city and the horrors that took over it during a period of struggling conflicts between the Native Americans and the Irish immigrants. The film follows young Amsterdam Vallon (played successfully by Leonardo Dicaprio) as he re-enters the underground world of New York City to revenge the death of his Father, who once stood up to the violent hatred of the Irish immigrants as the leader of the `Dead Rabbits' gang. The quest for revenge leads him to the hands of the man who runs the underground circuit nicknamed `The Butcher' magnificently played by Daniel Day-Lewis. With a lengthy time run, this film delivers a very complex reality in the world of the politics, crime lords, thieves and the one man who stands in between all of them. This is a cinematic piece with extreme desire to stay true to the historic events that once occurred, and has posh touches of Hollywood glamour that makes is all the more entertaining. What I couldn't stop thinking about was how many different ways the film could have been approached and maybe the only problem with what it is, could be that the director tried to hard to make it everything, when it could have focused more on either the depiction of violence in the old Gang Wars, the political issue's the people trying to run the country had to deal with or either just focusing in the way of life these citizens were unwillingly forced to deal with. Instead the film contained all of the above, successfully and without fail. But I find it hard to believe that everyone who has seen the film didn't want something a little more to suit there own personal satisfaction, be it a tale of violence, a story of revenge and anger, or simply a historical piece of truth. The film has it all and has endless opportunities for the audience's satisfaction, there isn't a soul around who will not find something they love about this overwhelming Hollywood movie.