Who's that messing up my movie?

Rating: 7/10 (17 January 2003)

Gangs of New York is not the masterpiece it might have been for all the ingredients it mixes. But the mixture is not so good. Worse, it's kind of a very impersonal movie Scorsese finally gave us.

Main Flaws
On the whole Gangs of New York lacks pace. Yet it has stamina: you never get bored as it delivers some really good scenes and something pretty interesting in between. The main plot involving DiCaprio's revenge is low-keyed by all the hysterico-historical background. True there is a crescendo involving the mid-19th century NY and its social unrest. But the focus on DiCaprio's dilemma suffers from it; it suffers all the more as Daniel Day 'The Butcher' chops most of the scenes to his will. And we don't really feel DiCaprio's inner life, that of a man who shall have no relief until his father is avenged.
Perhaps Scorsese was compelled by the Weinstein siblings to edit out a lot of stuff (I heard the rough cut ran 220 min). Hence I hope there will be a masterpiece of a Director's cut opening some day in home theatres. For what I saw it's either an ill fated masterpiece or a proof Scorsese just can't direct costume epics or shoot tragedies out of his usual Italo-American background.
EVERYBODY OWES, EVERYBODY PAYS - eventually there are too many owners and they all share the credit for this lukewarm mega-production.