It'll be talked about for decades to come...

Rating: 9/10 (21 December 2002)

There is a very good reason why "Gangs of New York" was delayed for a whole year that has nothing to do with its bloated budget and extended shooting schedule. There was a little event called 9/11. With this epic masterpiece that is as brilliant in its flaws as it is in its triumphs (which, by the way, far outnumber the flaws), Scorsese ultimately paints a picture of America that some, in lieu of 9/11, might find very unpatriotic. In the end (POTENTIAL SPOILERS), he seems to be saying that the biggest "gang" of them all, is/was the American government. Scorsese takes a look at time in history that is largely unknown to people when New York City was ruled by gangs (usually natives vs. immigrants) and corrupt politicians who could care less about the Civil War or Lincoln or slavery (which is mostly what is taught now in history class about this era). The central historical event in the beginning is the brutal Five Points Gang War of 1846. This is mirrored at the climatic end by the Draft Riots near the end of the Civil War. The US government sends in the military to stop the riots and they leave countless numbers dead and the city in ruin. It is here, where the ways of the Old World (honorable territorial fights between gangs) are supplanted by the ways of a New Era (big government crashing down on you).
At any rate, despite its pageantry and epic proportions and very melodramatic revenge plot (which many will see as a plus, and on all counts is wondrous and beautifully executed), this is still at its heart a Scorsese picture. This means a whole lot of the ultra violence, snazzy camera work (lots of dolly shots), interesting uses of music to punctuate the drama (I really loved the period minstrel music while the schizophrenic music score was a bit distracting), degradation of women (in service of the plot and the usually despicable male characters, by no means indicative of Scorsese's feelings towards women IMHO, though many might debate this point), and lots and lots of blood. Scorsese fans should rejoice at this. Any fan of cinema should want to see it for the grand spectacle of it all (the all non-CGI sets built in Rome are fantastic in that old fashioned classic Hollywood way, and the costumes are magnificent in a post-modern Dickensian kind of way...a lot of imagination and thought went into every aspect of this film), and of course, Daniel Day Lewis's portrayal of Bill the Butcher is worth the price of admission alone. However, if you are not a student of cinema or fan of Scorsese, you may find this all a bit overblown, over the top, and painfully long. Love it or loathe it, this will be a film discussed and debated for all time.