GANGS OF NEW YORK
Released: December 20, 2002
Martin Scorsese comes back to the big screen after 1999's Nic Cage yawner "Bringing Out The Dead" and more than makes up for it here. Named for the points created by the intersection of Park, Worth and Baxter streets, the Five Points neighborhood was known as a center of vice and debauchery throughout the nineteenth century. The film starts in 1846 and ends in 1863 with the draft riots. The setting is right in the Five Points. The story is borne out of the conflicts between the white Anglo-Saxon "natives" (led by Bill the Butcher played passionately by Daniel Day-Lewis) and the Irish immigrants coming into the Five Points. One boy (Amsterdam Vallon played by Leonardo Dicaprio) avenges the death of his father (Liam Neeson). It's Scorsese back at the top of his game with a movie he genuinely cares about. Literally 30 years in the making, go see "Gangs Of New York" for a history lesson on a time New York was just being born. But be ready for the gore. Even though Miramax released a fairly restrained version, this is not a blood-free movie. Not for the faint of heart at all... Also starring Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly and Henry Thomas. The leads, especially Day-Lewis and Dicaprio are excellent. Written by Jay Cocks, who also wrote Scorsese's 1993 period piece "The Age Of Innocence" and the Kathryn Bigelow futuristic thriller "Strange Days" (1996).
168 Minutes
Miramax/Buena Vista