Pound for pound one of the worst movies ever

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2003)

I am amazed at how people seem to be bending over backwards to find ways to appreciate this film. Gangs is essentially a shopworn story of revenge wrapped up inside a History Channel documentary. Trouble is, it fails on both fronts. The classic 'prodigal son' story having been covered so many times before, Scorsese starts at a disadvantage. Unfortunately, save Daniel Day Lewis's predictably fine performance, neither the script nor the actors provides us a reason to care this time out.
DiCaprio is typically mis-cast and is given surprisingly little to work with from a script excruciatingly long on character development but yet alarmingly devoid of nuance. Anyone who has seen Gilbert Grape or The Basketball Diaries knows that he has good acting in him but we don't see it here. Cameron Diaz is about as believable as you might expect in a shallow role that might have provided some of the missing nuance but is ultimately a distraction to what passes as plot. Mostly she just comes off like Charlie's Angels with red hair dye. Lewis rules the film but he is forced to labor through an excessive series of scenes where he does little but sharpen his meat carving tools. His character's sadistic qualities are established in the first 15 minutes of the film which renders at least 30 subsequent minutes of film dull and redundant. Did Scorsese edit anything?

Mostly every scene in this film is 50% too long. When Scorses wants us to know that these thugs play poker, for example, he makes us sit through what seems like an entire game to make the point. When DiCaprio follows Diaz across town we witness almost every step from 5 points to uptown. When Scorsese wants us to know that Lewis and his ilk participate in Dyonesian orgies, he forces us to participate in almost every pair of bare breasts and peyote pipe puffs that his characters do. Please, Martin get to the point. This movie could have been 1 hour 30 mins. Easily. Better yet, it could have been just as long but with substance.
In the end, Scorsese gives us a worn out rehash of filial revenge and little attention to the interesting historical aspects of the setting - althought the scenery and costumes are impressive. A more intelligent treatment of this film would have paid close attention to the socio-economic aspects of the time first and the characters second. This film works for hours to establish character and fails. In the end, the audience struggles to comprehend a New York in chaos.