An ambitious film, flawed but breathtaking

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2003)

While watching, I was riveted by the scenes, the violence, the costumes. Yes, Bill the Butcher did become rather exaggerated, but a delightfully wicked character with such a wide variety of mannerisms and facial expressions. I thought Di Caprio's character did pale in comparison, but that is mostly the fault of the writing and partially the fault of the rest. If he is a man of few words, then make his inner struggle more apparent on screen, make his pain evident. Yet he seemed like an intelligent character, so give him more lines. Simple solution to white splace.
Then there was that problem with his motivation - it got lost 2/3 through the film. The cliched plot was actually acceptable against the backdrop of such a melee of things going on, but it could have been more unique. I did think the Diaz subplot kind of unnecessary. Was the point to get aroused and horrified at the same time and then feel guilty about it later? Don't know.
Worth watching, however, just to see on screen a depiction of events that never sunk in in history class, and feel emotions associated with it. There were no heroes in this film. That is the point.