Gangs Of New York Review

A violent, bloody epic culminating with the New York Draft Riots of 1863, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York has plenty of cinematic muscle but little heart. The director takes on the role of history professor to portray a crucial and lesser-known period of American history, and while the film is littered with brutal set-pieces involving the warring gangs that ran New York at the time, the viewer emerges with the feeling that they have been bludgeoned over the head for nearly three hours. The strengths the film possesses in its historical depictions are sorely let down by the marked absence of drama and entertainment.

The film begins with a stunningly choreographed battle in which the young Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) sees his father Priest (Neeson) slain at the hands of Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis), the baddest of all gang leaders. Fifteen years later and Amsterdam is released from a borstal with only one thing on his mind - to avenge his father's death. Returning to the Five Points, he decides his course of action is to infiltrate Bill's gang, win his confidence and ultimately kill him. Set against the backdrop of a changing city - the influx of immigrants, the abolition of slavery, the first drafts into the army - Amsterdam develops a relationship with pickpocket/prostitute Jenny (Diaz), rises up the ranks in Bill's gang and...well, the trouble is that there is not much more to it than that. Characterisation is one-dimensional: DiCaprio has to avenge his father. Day-Lewis has to be evil. But a little charming too. As for Diaz, the whole love story is so dull and excessive to the script that her very role smacks of the desperation to create a popular mythological romance akin to DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.

Needless to say there are occasional flashes of cinematic brilliance, but this ponderous film can't help being over-indulgent and disappointingly dull.