A focused piece of filmic greatness

Rating: Null/10 (20 January 2003)

After all the delays, budget overruns and hype Gangs Of New York has become a film that seems as if it must be heralded as the last great film of the 1970s, albeit one with the shocking punctuality to arrive 20 years late, or three hours of ponderous nonsense. Given time these extreme views will settle down somewhere in the middle but no-one can be bothered with such mundane notions so soon after the film's release.
Gangs Of New York follows a boy called Amsterdam who swears to avenge his Father's murder at the hands of Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting. Twenty years of film time later, and three hours of real time, later he finally gets around to fighting him, and that is pretty much the entirety of the plot. There are some characters who die along the way, Cameron Diaz appears as a love interest and the entirety of New York gets levelled in a riot, but all of that seems fairly incidental.
It comes as no surprise that the project that Martin Scorsese has been harbouring for 20 years is about crime and power, themes he has been exploring his whole career. What is remarkable is the way he carves such a compelling tale out of what is essentially a spectacularly long game of who will blink first. Despite moving at what seems like an elegiac slow motion the film never drags and every shot oozes style.
The sets and costume are particularly well crafted but it is the lives and deaths of the characters that dominate the film. Leonardo Di Caprio turns in a focussed and restrained performance which bears the narrative weight of the film with great maturity, and hopefully signals a return to form for the over hyped star. It is Daniel Day Lewis who steals the film with his portrayal of the psychotic Bill The Butcher. Whilst there is a touch of ham in the acting to match the overpowering array of butcher references that surround the character he seems to be opening snorting at the pantomimish antic that Anthony Hopkins has reverted to in his portrayals of Hannibal Lecter.
Many will find the films lack of blockbuster qualities disappointing and there is a definite lack of scope on display. Those looking for musing on love, life and the whole damn thing may find the film shallow and obsessed with violence and those seeking the memorable dialogue of Goodfellas and Taxi Driver will go home without a single catch phrase to retell to their friends. Instead Scorsese has crafted a wondrous cinematic depiction of pride and determination to a cause with a blindness to the world around it, and in this way Gangs Of New York is a towering achievement.