19th Century gangs of New York

Rating: 7/10 (29 September 2003)

A good effort of Martin Scorsese to bring us back to the reality of 19th Century in New York city, where the values were already lost at that time. Usual fights among the "natives" with the Irish, Polish and other emigrants plus, obviously, black population were shown all over the film. This is a drama combined with action, where the butcher (Daniel Day Lewis) is the perfect villain while the young man Amsterdam (DiCaprio)is coming back to his town to revenge his father's death. Actually the plot is not complicated and it goes directly to the end all expect, but the most important aspect of the film is to see how New York was developing already at that time and how difficult was to live for all those emigrants who worked hard and may not see after their contribution. At certain point of the film it reminded me the novel "The Jungle" of Upton Sinclair, which reveals the suffering of many emigrants in US. DiCaprio did his best but not at the same level when he starred "Titanic" (1997) while Cameron Diaz showed that she can also work and develop herself in dramas. Day Lewis was simply excellent in his role as the villain of the film.