Did Not Do New York Justice

Rating: 7/10 (16 January 2003)

SPOILER!
Before I potentially rip apart Martin Scorsese or the message I got in the last few moments of the film, let me just say the movie was very good. Daniel Day- Lewis was superb and DiCaprio had his moments (although if you would like to see him in his recent bests, walk down one more theatre at your local multiplex to Catch Me If You Can). Beautifully filmed, this movie brings out a side of New York not known by many people, or at least me.
Right up until Jim Cutting find out Vannen's true identity, I was thoroughly enjoying this story of revenge. After that, the point of the film got fuzzy. I wasn't sure who was a bad guy anymore. Scorsese spent two hours clearly drawing a line between good and bad, and then totally disreguarded that in the last hour. The climax focused more on a subplot whick took up maybe ten minutes of the rest of the film, rather than the main story. This I found slightly annoying.
But, the real kick in the gut came in the last group of shots in the film. A digital time lapse shot over the next 150 years of New York. We see the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, buildings, more buildings, and then finally, the World Trade Center. And then...a fade out? This was a film anaylzing the hardships New York has faced throughout it's history. I think it was tastefully profound to see that New York can still emerge victoriously after to grusome battles that it has seen through the ending series of stills. But they forgot one of (if not the most) important day in New York's history, September 11th. After DiCaprio just finished telling us how bloody the riots were under the torched skies of New York, we begin to realize that blood in the streets and smoke in the skies looks familiar. More people died on 9/11 than in the riots, or any other single day in New York, or America's history. I think for a Native-New Yorker (Scorsese) to gloss over that day, despite how important it is and how it could have potentially augmented his own story, is a crime. If there was a shot following the last one, without the WTC, I think it could have left a thought in peoples minds about how we as a city and as a nation are still fighting the same basic battles.
7/10...oh, and btw Marty...get rid of the ending credits and music. What happened to your taste of music?