Good Start, Big Long Build Up, Pants Ending!

Rating: 7/10 (17 February 2006)

This film starts with an awesome gang fight between the Irish Gangs and the American Gangs which instantly drawers you into the film. It then goes on to tell the story of the gangs, the history and politics of New York, in a very historically accurate and educational way! the plot is excellent and is everything you expect from a Scorsese film with a dramatic epic scale set.
The downfall of this movie is the end, the film is very long but not boring, the plot builds up suspense right from the outset and gets you involved with the characters, you are led to believe that there is going to be a huge Gang fight (Irish VS American) at the end which i eagerly anticipated, but what happens?.........
All the gangs march to the battle ground to fight (with an immense build up in atmosphere) in the midst of a city wide riot, get there, are just about to fight and then get individually killed by rioters, soldiers or cannon's from the American Navy.
It left me feeling cheated and disappointed what type of film starts better than it ends and yet is still very long? If the ending had been good this film would have gone down as an all time classic, and i would have even been able to ignore the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio looks about as hard as a hamster with dysentery. But it wasn't so i couldn't!!! Unfortunately!