Gangs Of New York DVD

Advantages: Spectacular, Epic, Engrossing
Disadvantages: A touch too long

...every piece he directs. The Gangs of New York is no exception to that rule. The Story The film takes us back to a period of New York history rife with violence, corruption and anger; with such a backdrop the film should have plenty of material to utilise and it surely provides a motion picture spectacular. Going back to 1846 we are taken into an opening scene where one of the largely immigrant based gangs, namely the “Dead Rabbits” are ...
...will gladly fight in the gangs for money, but it turns out his character is far more admirable and goes on to be one of the honourable few. As you might expect there are some highly bloody scenes, but nothing that quite as shocking as the opening of “Saving Private Ryan”. For the most part the film portrays the opening fight and a later scene involving the draft riots and the actions against the crowd by the National Guard with a good ... Read review

Advantages: Great story, great actors, great sets, great film
Disadvantages: Small plot holes, but nothing big

Martin Scorsese’s Gang's of New York is tale set during the American civil war, and follows two gangs; the native New Yorker's lead by Bill "The Butcher" and the Irish immigrants originally lead by "Priest" Vallon. This violent story starts with a particularly brutal and gruesome fight scene, which sees young Amsterdam Vallon witness his father’s murder at the hands of the butcher. This sets up a slightly predictable, yet highly enjoyable story ...
...Being just a child at the time of his fathers death Amsterdam is shipped back to Ireland where he is imprisoned for sixteen years. Upon his return the five points is an entirely different place to the home he left as a child. Bill the butcher rules the roost and has the authorities in his pocket. Amsterdam gains Bill’s trust with the eventual aim of revenge. Amsterdam is played by Leonardo Di Caprio, who is excellent throughout the film. I have ... Read review

Advantages: Good acting +SFX
Disadvantages: bogus storyline hard to grasp, comic...errr quite alot

...for you! I give it a sopping wet 2/10. Rating 18 Director: Martin Scorsse Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio Daniel Day-Lewis Cameron Diaz Jim Broadbent John C Reilly Henry Thomas Brendan Gleeson Running time 168 minutes (arrrrrrr!!!) Cheers for reading my opinion on Gangs of New York ... Read review

Advantages: Visuals, Storyline, Dialogue, Bill the Butcher
Disadvantages: Di Caprio, Diaz.

...race made up of many gangs who rule the streets. There is no law and the people who walk the streets live by the day gripped by gang warfare. Five Points, a five road crossroads in Lower Manhattan is a particulary hostile part of New York and the beginning of the film centres around this district and it's struggle. The very first scene we see is of a man, a priest with a straight razor blade, cutting his cheek intentionally, drawing blood which ...
...of the influence of the Gangs and their leaders. Scenes of open sided buildings where families are stacked on one floor after another in utter depravity and filth - goodness knows how many diseases ran rife at the time. The people were seperated by class, race and religion which spelled disaster and it all came to a head when forced conscription (due to the sheer amount of soldiers returning in coffins) resulted in four days of riots when hundreds ... Read review

Advantages: You'll be lucky if you ever see filmmaking on this size and scale again.
Disadvantages: A few lapses in pace. Cameron Diaz is about as convincing a prostitute as Leonardo Di Caprio is a gang leader.

...that Scorsese managed to get Gangs Of New York made at all then, because it required millions of dollars, thousands of extras and sets the size of a city. George Lucas on touring the set of Gangs Of New York told Scorsese that what he was doing would never be attempted again. From the opening shots of the film, it is clear to see what Lucas meant as Scorsese has totally recreated parts of New York in 1863 right down from The Five Points (crossroads ...
...that they are just actors. Gangs Of New York achieves this as well with all its characters, except for Leonardo Di Caprio and Cameron Diaz who are in the film more for commercial reasons than for their acting. Di Caprio and Diaz seem to think they are in a romantic drama rather than an epic historical crime film and behave as though they are the sole characters. Di Caprio seems to be trying to stare everyone down and acts as though he were more important ... Read review