Where bold filmmaking becomes excess

Rating: 6/10 (19 July 2003)

Well, it's finally happened. Martin Scorsese's gone completely over the top. There were signs of it happening in his other films--each one contained some sort of gore-fest, but they were all tempered by the compassion it had for its characters, the desire for redemption that was evident in Travis Bickle, Jake LaMotta, and sometimes even the hoodlums in GOODFELLAS.
What we have in GANGS OF NEW YORK is just nastiness for its own sake. Nastiness beautiful choreographed, skillfully captured on film, but mere nastiness nonetheless.
Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo Di Caprio) returns to the Five Points district looking for revenge on Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis), the gang leader who killed his father years earlier. The Five Points houses the scum of New York, thieves, murderers, and rapists apparently lurking around every corner. The story starts to take off when Amsterdam becomes one of Bill's trusted colleagues. Matters are complicated by the fact that Amsterdam seems to have some genuine affection for the Butcher.
Any depth, however, is effectively lost under the rivers of blood that flow in this film. I'm not usually offended by violence, but how is anyone going to get anything out of this film if they have to cover their eyes half the time?
The Amsterdam/Cutting plot is intercut with New York politics, and these two stories both come to a head during the famous Draft Riots, filmed in Scorsese's typical kinetic style. It's a magnificent spectacle. But what are we supposed to make of the whole thing? Trailers inform us that "America Was Born in the Streets." The draft riots were a shameful chapter in America's history, not just an act of social uprising, but a chance for many angry New Yorkers to commit heinous acts of violence against African Americans. So you're telling me that Scorsese submits me to two plus hours of gruesome violence and then informs me that out of such filth America was born? Please.