Failed Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (9 January 2012)

The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project in this movie,Gangs Of New York.This is a historical film set in the mid-19th century in the Five Points district of New York City.It features Leonardo DiCaprio,Daniel Day-Lewis and Cameron Diaz. It written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 nonfiction book, The Gangs of New York.
In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon. After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam. Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed. Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane, a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny.
It's not a perfect film, by any stretch of the imagination, and when there are cinematic sins they're sins of excess. But Gangs of New York entertains.This film fails to become a masterpiece but nevertheless,it's difficult to dismiss the brilliance of some parts of the film.It may be considered as one of Scorsese's weakest films.It wanted to become a wannabe historical epic but it results into becoming a formulaic revenge saga.As for the cast,only Daniel Day-Lewis' compelling performance as Bill the Butcher remains notable. A failed masterpiece indeed.