The whole may not add up to the sum of its parts, but it's difficult to dismiss the brilliance of those parts.
Gangs of New York (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:189
Fresh:144
Rotten:45
Average Rating:7.2/10
Consensus: Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and language
Runtime: 2 hrs 47 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Dec 20, 2002 Wide
Box Office: $77,605,296
Synopsis: Director Martin Scorsese revisits New York City's notorious past with this dazzling historical drama. A throwback to the epics of yesteryear, GANGS OF NEW YORK is set in the mid-1800s, when the... Director Martin Scorsese revisits New York City's notorious past with this dazzling historical drama. A throwback to the epics of yesteryear, GANGS OF NEW YORK is set in the mid-1800s, when the streets of lower Manhattan were teeming with tension and violence. Leonardo DiCaprio is Amsterdam Vallon, the son of a revered gang leader (Liam Neeson). As a youth, Amsterdam witnessed the death of his father at the hands of William "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), the maniacally driven ruler of the city's most powerful gang. Sixteen years later, Amsterdam is finally released from the orphanage that raised him. Determined to avenge his father's death, Amsterdam makes his way back to the volatile Five Points to track down Cutting and exact revenge. As he gradually infiltrates Bill the Butcher's camp and earns the crazed gangster's respect, he must also contend with the tumultuous, but beautiful, Jenny Everdean (Cameron Diaz). DiCaprio and Diaz are impressive in their respective roles, but it is Day-Lewis who steals the show. Resurfacing after a five-year retirement, the Irish actor delivers a performance that is at once cartoonish, electrifying, comical, sincere, and deeply moving. By paying tribute to the early days of New York City in such a grand, spectacular manner, Scorsese also pays tribute to cinema itself. [More]
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Carney, William Kiernan, Cara Seymour, David Hemmings
Director: Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
Screenwriter: Steven Zaillian, Jay Cocks, Kenneth Lonergan
Story: Jay Cocks
Producer: Alberto Grimaldi, Martin Scorsese, Harvey Weinstein
Composer: Howard Shore
Studio: Miramax Films
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Release:
Jul 1, 2003
Reviews for Gangs of New York
The impact is all in the broad strokes of Scorsese's design: the corresponding coming-of-age stories of three confused and violent adolescents: Amsterdam Vallon, New York City, and America. [Blu-Ray]
Why did Scorsese spend three decades thirsting to make this movie? It's nowhere clear on the screen.
Day-Lewis's sneering, roaring, monstrous performance as the Butcher will remind you of the seemingly superhuman work Robert DeNiro performed in his prime.
Daniel Day-Lewis' magnetic portrayal of a 19th-century ganglord who butchered his enemies as readily as he carved up a freshly killed hog.
Gangs is Scorsese's impassioned, elegiac portrait of a time when blows were delivered with fists, bats, and blades rather than airplanes, anthrax, or keyboard strokes; it's his look back at a lost world, his urban western.
It will be a film that, in decades hence, will only grow in stature and importance.
Gangs of New York is a very good film striving desperately to be great.
Martin Scorcese delivers an enormous blowout of a film, a biopic of New York in the 1800s... but it’s too much bombast and far too loose.
Gangs’ editing, suspense, and overall visual style all are evocative of classic Scorsese greats, but rarely has the filmmaker’s thematic eye been so carefully trained.
Gangs Of New York is a magnificent film, and is challengingly about more than the sum of its’ parts.
Latest News for Gangs of New York
October 23, 2007:
Scorsese, DiCaprio Reuniting for Shutter Island
Their first three collaborations netted copious amounts of Oscar love and box-office receipts, so it isn't surprising that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are in no hurry... More...
June 21, 2007:
New "Indy 4" Cast Member: Jim Broadbent
You might not remember the name, but you'll definitely know the face. More...
March 26, 2007:
Scorsese and DiCaprio, Together Again for the Fourth Time
It's a hectic time for both Leonardo DiCaprio and his own personal svengali, Martin Scorsese; though both are currently super busy, movie-making bees, they'll make time... More...
February 26, 2007:
How Does "The Departed" Rank Among Oscar's Best?
So Martin Scorsese finally has his long-overdue, much-deserved Oscar. But where does "The Departed" stack up in the annals of Academy history? More...
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