Brutality on top of mayhem

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2002)

Gangs of New York is West Side Story meets Fight Club. This movie is the worst thing to happen to New York City since Sept. 11. It spends an interminable amount of time demonstrating man's inhumanity to man (there's only one woman) over and over again. You get your fill and more of filthy degraded men finding new and innovative ways to kill and brutalize other men. As far as I can tell, there is no value, socially redeeming or otherwise, in this movie and no reason for it to exist. Even the historical aspect -- which is why I went to see it -- is dubious. I give it a three only because of the cinematography.