Could have been so much more...

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2003)

Gangs of New York is a fairly satisfying film. It is based in the 1800s and follows the plight of "Amsterdam" from his early childhood to when he returns to New York as an adult to seek vengeance on "Bill the Butcher" who'd slain his father many years before in a gang-fight.
The performances are superb, especially Daniel Day-Lewis who pretty much steals the show as the nasty "Bill the Butcher", leader of a gang called the "Natives", whose sole aim is to rid New York of the influx of Irish immigrants.
The big problem with the film is that you simply don't care about the characters, other than the three principal leads - Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis. Thus when there's gangwarfare, it's very difficult to know quite who to root for or what's going on.
The film doesn't really answer any questions and opens up many more possibilities than it achieves. This could have been a truly outstanding film, certainly there is enough scope and the look and feel of the 'Five Points' in the 1860s looks spot on. However, it falls short on character development.
Overall, worth watching - be warned that it is fairly violent and bloody (typical Scorsese) but not the masterpiece it could have been.