What is wrong wit' you people?!

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2002)

C'mon! "Gangs of New York" is a great film. It does NOT fall short as many critics (both amateur and professional) may lead you to believe. I must say that I'm very surprised by the incredible amount of nay-sayers, but it doesn't change my opinion at all.
Needless to say, I loved it. I thought it was better than LOTR, which I also loved (by the way, from now on I will also be abbreviating "Gangs of New York"). I do indeed have a soft spot for epic films, history, bloody violence, and male angst. It is the violence and depiction of the struggle of the white male that intrigues me the most and is the reasoning behind my love of films like "Fight Club," "Trainspotting," and "American Psycho" just to name a few.
I should mention though that I did have some knowledge of the story before going into it, so I didn't need any explanation. Is the film satisfactory when it comes to explaining the story to it's viewers, much like LOTR was? I don't know.
I thought the film was very well cast, including Dicaprio and Diaz, though I would've liked to see just a little more emotion from them throughout. The cinematogrophy is great, most of all the scene where Monk kicks opens the door and the camera leads the Dead Rabbits into battle. If this is the "MTV style editing" that some of you have alluded to as being a problem in the film, well then we just simply disagree. I like a little action.
It is my opinion that Scorsese is the "problem" with this film. Quite an odd conclusion, isn't it? From reading the reviews by IMDB users, I can tell that there are many devoted Scorsese fans who despise this film. This is and isn't a typical Scorsese film. It panders (for a lack of a better word) to the audience much more than his other films, but it also expresses the same basic ideas that his other films do.
Anyways, whatever, I can't figure it out. I liked it a lot. I didn't get bored. I didn't go into the film expecting it to be anything but great, and I wasn't dissapointed. I would suggest this film to anyone I know, and I hope it cleans up at the Oscars.
Nine of ten.