Gangs of New York
There’s been a fair bit of bad press going round about this flick, and, in all honesty, it doesn’t really deserve a lot of it. It does deserve some though, as it certainly isn’t perfect. Yes, we’ve come to expect a certain amount from Mr. Scorcese, and although it might not be as good as the usual comparisons Goodfellas or Taxi driver, it definitely has enough to keep you entertained for the duration of the film (weighing in at a hefty 3-hours plus).
Apparently, he has been planning to make this film for over 20 years, and it originally (and unsurprisingly) had Robert DeNiro in Daniel Day Lewis’ role. Regardless of whether he only got round to making a film about the seedy underbelly of NY because of 2001’s activities or not is irrelevent, but it is possible that DeNiro wanted nothing to do with it because of this idea. Day-Lewis puts in an amazing performance, and pretty much single-handedly saves the film from the bargain bin. Christ knows he doesn’t get any support from DiCaprio or Cameron Diaz, but this is partly due to a particularly abysmal script. I won’t get into it in too much detail, but lets just say you end up hoping that the bad guy will win, probably because he was the only solid character in the whole film. DiCaprio is much better in Catch Me If You Can, so I can't simply write off his acting forever. Tempting though it is to do so, considering he has about three expressions throughout.
Gangs of New York is technically a very good film, with some fairly lovely cinematography, and a lot of ‘better-than-average’ shots. Day-Lewis will probably get a fair few award nominations, but the problem with the film is, Scorcese doesn’t seem to have been sure whether to boost or take apart the morale of the Americans featured in the film (read: the Americans of today). He portrays the ‘natives’ as irritatingly bigoted, yet passionate and honourable, and the invading foreigners (the heroes?) as feisty, mostly courageous, and scrap-happily stupid. Maybe it lost something on the cutting room floor, and maybe I’m reading into it too much, but considering the ending (its predictable, but not in the way you’d expect) the ‘foreigners’ that are ‘defiling’ the city aren’t in the right, neither are the actual Americans - and to be honest, not that much is resolved from the ‘pseudo-international’ conflict finale, as a higher power steps in and kills everyone. Okay - is he talking about the U.N.?
Suggestions on a postcard to...
6.4
MD 23:36 4/2/2003