Over-romanticized, incoherent and unfocussed

Rating: 5/10 (3 February 2003)

***THIS CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS***
What a real disappointment! The plot was almost incomprehensible, it had something to do with Leonardo's character wanting to exact revenge on the man who killed his father, although that seemed like a semi-convenient vehicle to make a period piece about a pretty insignificant period.

The level of violence was quite disturbing and unnecessary; the characters' obsessions with knives and gore in general (to paraphrase the New Yorker) was almost fetishistic.
I guess if you overlook the cheesy Hell's Kitchen accent and the three-ring-circus (or should that be "soi-cus?") costuming, Daniel Day-Lewis works pretty well within the constrictive script and direction.
The dialogue, however, was just plain absurd - every character spoke as though at that moment they were making the most profound statement of their lives: "I shalt never dost forgiveth he who hast taken mine father's glorious life" or the like is all I could drag away from this awful script. And who really kisses knives, anyway? It seemed like everything the Leonardo character (I've forgotten his name already and I only saw the film last night) did was for attention (hanging dead rabbits on a public fence, practicing his knife-throwing in public, etc.).
Is it just me, or was it a little weird that towards then end when the ships were shooting cannons into the city, every single cannonball seemed to fall within about a fifteen-foot radius? Come on. Well, they certainly captured the attitude of the draft riots. Lots of blood. Lots of guts and gore. Hmm.
One more thing - America was not born in the streets, thank you very much.
Too bad. I'm sure the money they spent making this atrocity could have been better spent.