Not the best ever, but a good one

Rating: Null/10 (20 October 2003)

Gangs of New York, may not be the movie you would want to take your kids to, or maybe yourself to, on a lazy Sunday afternoon. It is pretty heavy and replete with blood and gore. Scorcese shows you the street life in New York in 1860's without bothering too much to mop up the red stuff.

As most would want you to believe, it is not a simple story of revenge and bad blood. It is rather a saga of violence, a dormant factor in any fledgling urban society. And dont believe them when they tell you the film preaches violence. The film has all the right tones to strike sanity into a hardened bludger and exorcise the sense of glory out of him.

I find it pretty puzzling how most people who saw the film missed the brilliant images, the hallmark of a great director. The opening scene where the battlefield and the battle itself is shown bit by bit, exposing the viewer to the stark street reality in phases with exploding music, until you sit up in rapt attention, is a teaser for the main course. The scene where the grim-faced soldiers drafted for the civil war, board the war-ships just as coffins descend over the ropes, and the one where three different people pray to three different Gods, in as many ways, for as many ends are just a few examples. The way the movie ends makes it a must see. All I can tell you is watch the movie to the very end. The last 30 minutes might just make all the difference to change your opinion, if you already were on the verge of forming (a negative) one.