Cross between Goodfellas, The Mad Max series and Moulin Rouge with a bit of Braveheart celticism thrown in for quaint appeal.

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 2006)

I went to see Scorsese's flick without being entirely sure of either what to expect or what, beyond the title, it was even really about. On reflection the best concise description I could come up with would be something like a cross between Goodfellas, The Mad Max series and Moulin Rouge with a bit of Braveheart celticism thrown in for quaint appeal.
In a nutshell, the movie is a loosely historically based look at the New York of the 1860's during the civil war when the local established gangs fought for control of the city with the hoards of Irish arriving in their thousands escaping the poverty and starvation of the old country.
In that context the film boasts quite an array of Irish talent ranging from Liam Neeson (Making a relatively early exit) and Brendan Gleeson to the unlikely appearance of Finbar Furey and Maura O'Connell (Both funnily enough playing singers!!). The main characters in Gangs of NY however are Bill the Butcher, played brilliantly nastily by Daniel Day Lewis and his opposite, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) the second generation Irish son of a Kerry "priest" (Neeson).
The film begins with Amsterdam as a child, witnessing the epic street battle at the five points area of New York, between the Catholic Irish conglomeration of gangs led by his father's Dead Rabbits and the opposite collection of Anglo Saxon Native Gangs led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting. After the defeat and outlawing of the Dead Rabbits and the murder of his father by Bill, the action jumps forward some sixteen odd years to Amsterdam's return from a reform house (Hellgate House!) for revenge.
Following the Trojan premise that it is easier to defeat your enemies from within Amsterdam works his way into the upper hierarchy of Bills gang, ingratiating himself with Bill and even falling-in finally, after initial discord, with one of Bill many discarded mistresses, Jenny Everdeane (Played by Cameron Diaz). Of course all this is to one end, to ultimately avenge the murder of his father when the opportunity arises.
Day Lewis is great in the bawling, flamboyant, even overstated (ala Brando's Godfather) portrayal of the butcher - a horrendously cruel man who, at one point in the movie, describes for Amsterdam how he maintains control over the Five Points by sheer fear and retribution.
The strange thing about Gangs of New York however is though it's set quite evidently and topically in civil war New York, during riots which erupted in supposed protest against the drafts of soldiers to supply the ranks of the Union Armies, it is almost futuristic in its portrayal of The Big Apple. In that context one can't but wonder what influence its development in the shadow of September 11th 2001 played both in Scorsese's vision of a decimated anarchistic New York and also something of a homage to what created the city in the first place and what helped it recover from that day. Certainly hats are tipped and credit (thought, in some aspects of the portrayal, not altogether complementary) or acknowledgment is made to the integral role the Irish played in the development of both the police force and Fire Service of NYC. Again and again one is drawn back to subtle references to 911, even in the conclusion, as a historical panorama of Manhattan from across the Hudson pans the skyline which develops over a series of photographs scanning 140 years and ends with a still standing twin towers nestling among the rest of the skyscrapers that now cover the same streets as The Paddies and The Nativists held sway some 140 years ago.
Gangs of New York is an interesting film - I'm still not entirely decided if it's a great one but it's certainly entertaining. It is violent but considerably less dependent on blood and gore than Braveheart or Gladiator. I would say too that the big screen does justice to its sprawling historical panorama and a subject matter which has been somewhat diplomatically airbrushed out of conventional American History.