Where to start?

Rating: Null/10 (27 February 2003)

Firstly, I came out of the movie theater somewhat disturbed.
The settings and colors of the movie were pretty good. I liked that. What disturbed me most was the editing - the worst I have ever seen. Continuity errors on end - and not just visible for the movie buff but the "ordinary" viewer as well! (I heard people in the theater go "What the...?!", "What was that?!" and so forth). The scene at the harbor was re-shot (where Diaz' and DiCaprio's character get "closer") and was the best example. I can't image that the original footage was worse.
DiCaprio was playing one facial expression throughout the entire movie. Diaz did the best she could on her part, but in my opinion was miscast. The rest - was there. But that was it. Not that they acted badly or anything. They couldn't have, because they simply weren't given the chance to even act! Only Daniel Day-Lewis was outstanding! I felt his New York accent became better as the movie went on (considering him being English and the difficult accent he had to "fake"). And in the end he was my favorite character in the plot!
The length of the movie wasn't a concern for me. I don't mind spending time in the theater - as long as the movie is good. Roger Ebert once said a good movie makes you care about the characters. Here, I couldn't have cared less about anyone except the bad guy! To me Scorsese failed to develop _anything_ within the 166 minutes of this piece.
I usually watch the end-credits entirely. This time i walked out 10 seconds after they started. I dunno who is to blame for them - but he should get back to rethinking his approch to his work.
For the story: I'm European and didn't know anything about the 1860s in New York. Allegedly it was, more or less, based on true events. I can't verify that but it was interesting to me to see a different view of that era. I liked that.
Nevertheless, without good acting and even less good editing I find this movie way overrated.
I did keep one favorite quote, though. When DiCaprio's character returned to Five Points he asked a pedestrian for a match: "Got any timber?" I've never heard that expression before and it stuck :-)