Gangs of New York

Martin Scorsese's long awaited Gangs of New York is a film that desperately wants to be seen to as an epic, a film of monumental significance. And while it doesn't quite deserve that, due to its uneven pacing and the overly conventional nature of some of the characters and the central plot, it's still an extremely accomplished offering, and a film that probably should be seen by those pertaining to have an interest in film.

Based on characters taken from Herbert Ashbury's 1928 book, The Gangs of New York, the film opens in 1845 with Amsterdam Vallon who witnesses the death of his gang leader father, The Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) at the hands of William 'Bill the Butcher' Cutting (an awesome Daniel Day-Lewis), the central figure in the naturalised, anti-immigrant America. Cut to some 16 years later and Amsterdam (DiCaprio) returns to his father's old stomping ground of Five Points, Lower Manhattan in a bid to seek vengeance on the man who killed his father.

As consistently violent a film as Scorsese has made, Gangs of New York is thankfully bereft of romanticism when it comes to the natives of the hellish Five Points, and his view of the history of his city is remarkably frank and honest. However, where the film falters is with the central characters of Vallon and his squeeze, Jenny (Diaz). DiCaprio and Diaz are both fine actors but their parts are not fleshed out enough to be believable. Day-Lewis, on the otherhand, is never less than striking.