Mean Streets

Rating: 9/10 (30 November 2019)

The original Mean Streets. The real Irishmen. New York, New York, 1863. This is Scorsese's ode to the founding of our great city. A founding forged in blood, prejudice and greed. Gangs of New York is a sprawling epic, and it's impossible not to like. The city of old comes alive, in full color, on gorgeous 35mm film. The acting is as fine as any Scorsese movie can get, putting aside the legendary performance that is Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting. The performance of a lifetime is more apt. He chews up every. last. scene. He is disturbingly good here. The Butcher is one of the great film villains. A ruthless killer armed and motivated by hate. This character was considered for so many great actors in it's 30 year development, but thank God in the end we were given DDL. I cant imagine anyone else in this role. What's even better is that Gangs of New York never overstays it's welcome, even at 167 minutes. Like the best of Scorsese, the quality of what you are seeing very much outweighs the heft of portion size we're getting in length. I could sit through the entirety of this film again, and even if it went on for another hour longer, i'd still be right in there. Scorsese's natural ability to tell stories on screen is unparalleled. However, all is not perfect. Rarely nothing ever is. An odd choice of music and editing, at least to me, lessens the blow and muddies up the fight scene at the beginning. It felt very 2002-ish. It dates the movie significantly.