Simply put -- it's just "okay"

Rating: Null/10 (23 December 2002)

I'm a big fan of Martin Scorsese's work generally. I can't tell you how many times I've watched "The Last Temptation of Christ," "Taxi Driver" and "The Age of Innocence" -- three films that couldn't be more different save the director at the helm -- and I constantly get more out of them.
This wonderful strength of his films, however, is directly related to the strength in which his characters are drawn and portrayed -- both on the page and on the screen. Scorsese is a master of making you understand and appreciate people you would never meet in real life -- and usually would never WANT to --- and that's due to the script as well as his stunning visual abilities. I've never read the novel from which this script is adapted, but the script feels quite choppy, and the characters in the movie are so loosely drawn you don't get a sense of who they are -- and why you should care.
SLIGHT SPOILER HERE -- One of the primary problems for me as far as character development goes is that the sixteen years in which Leonardo DiCaprio's character is locked up . . . you have no real notion of what has happened back home. Fellow Irish gang members who were loyal to the cause are now all working for their sworn enemy, with virtually no explanation or development whatsoever. Was this a tough transition for them, or were they never really loyal to the gang's cause in the first place? We don't know. And consequently, we don't care. If they get their heads beaten in, we just wince at the gore and leave it there. We need to feel emotionally connected to these people, and that's where "Gangs of New York" primarily falls short.
Daniel Day-Lewis has been described as being "over the top" and "hammy" in his portrayal of American-born, passionately xenophobic gang leader Bill the Butcher . . . but the script lends itself to such a portrayal as his character is BY FAR the most developed and humorous and three-dimensional one written, followed in a distant second place by Cameron Diaz's scrapping Irish pickpocket. I'm glad Day-Lewis chose to make his characterization as strong as it was, because his was probably the only unforgettable character in this nearly three-hour movie . . . and that's sad. If you have that kind of time, we should know these characters very well by the closing credits .. . if they live that long.