Gangs of New York:

I went to see this movie with some misgivings as a few cronies had given it lukewarm reviews, but I kept an open mind and it turned out to be a worthwhile movie.

Synopsis: Against the backdrop of the American civil war, the various ethic gangs of New York battle it out for supremacy.

This is meant to be an epic movie showing the bloody birth pangs of New York. While it had good ambitions it cannot in all honesty be called an epic, it had the right running time, about 21/2 hours but it lacked the overall grandeur you expect from an epic especially as it stutters in the last 30 mins to a whimper of an end.

The film starts of well depicting how the Irish immigrants who settled in a place called Five points in New York had to fight to be accepted and initially lost the fight. We see a young Jim Vallon (Leo Dicaprio) see his Irish immigrant father killed by Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis), the fearsome leader of the Natives, a group that resents the intrusion of the foreign hordes (Daily Mail readers I guess).

When Amsterdam returns years later to Five points we expect him to embark on a vendetta, well it does not quite work out that way. The film is well crafted and has good characters even though a lot of the ethic accents made it hard at times to follow the dialogue. I found the treatment of blacks in this film very realistic and for the period and was quite unsettled by it, I kept imagining living through those times and how I would have coped. Films like this sometimes explains to me a bit more about the chip on the shoulders a lot of black Americans have. Being an African who has actually grown up in Africa I think we tend to underestimate the effect of slavery on those descended directly from slaves.

Oscar talk about this movie getting the nod for best film and best director to me are a bit hasty and over the top, while it is a good film in no way is it the best of 2002 and while the directing was inspired in parts especially the opening fight sequences it was equally uninspired other parts most tellingly in the ending fight sequence.
Having said all that there is one Oscar I think it should get, and that is the Oscar for best actor. Who should get it? Who else but Daniel Day Lewis. Daniel was inspired in this movie, his every pore oozed menace, he simply captivated every scene he was in.
Though this film had good performances from the rest of the leads it was Daniel's star turn that made this movie for me, he made me believe he was Bill the Butcher and that he was not to be messed with.

In summary gangs of New York is a decent movie with mostly decent performances from all the actors apart from Mr. Lewis who gave in my humble opinion an Oscar winning performance.

My movie rating is : 7/10

See ya later,

Shazam!