Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: Great take on little known history of NY during the Civil War.
Rating: 
Summary: A land of butchers...
Review: I never thought before this movie, that America was born in such a bloody river ! I knew that terrible dramas, like the civil war, darkened the great history of the USA. However, I'm terrified to observe that some americans themselves, could imagine their "native" ancestors, so chauvinistic and so fond of mincer-carved flesh !
One could reply that I shouldn't be so frightened because in France, shortly before, the favorite game was to behead the opponents ... But I don't claim it was a typical moment or the basis of our history.
I don't understand the goal of Scorsese. Was it to prove that the USA is not a land of heroes but of butchers ? Was it to demonstrate that the democracy is rotten since the beginning ? Or was it for him a kind of enjoyment to flaunt so much violence ...
As usual, the director is well filming and the action is gasping. Daniel Day Lewis is very impressive but obviously this is not enough. The screenplay is poor and no character is emerging as really attractive or even interesting. Except for the delightful smile of Cameron Diaz ...
Rating: 
Summary: unrealistic
Review: don't waste your time. this movie is not even entertaining, let alone unrealistic.
Rating: 
Summary: A great film.
Review: After reading the reviews of this film I must say I was somewhat reluctant to spend the time to watch it. But all reviews are personal and after watching the movie I found I enjoyed it alot. The film is truly theatrical, the big hats, sharp imagery etc... but it fits on the big screen amazingly well. Scorsese is a brilliant director and one of only a few who could pull a film like this off. The film marks a dark, bloody point in American history. The bloody draft riots in New York, The bitter hatred between Irish immigrants and the so-called 'native' Americans. Scorsese mixes personal and political agenda's together to make a remarkably gripping and intense movie. The film is a must watch, sometimes if you ignore the critics you are rewarded, this is one of those times. 4 Stars, the movie is long, maybe too long.
Rating:
Summary: Overlong and underwhelming
Review: This film shows the violence which was prevalent in New York in the mid-1800's. "Native" Americans are pitted against the immigrant Irish and men being drafted into the Union army rebel against joining a war that they care little about. There is plenty of fighting and plenty of blood. The conflicts are personified by Leonardo DiCaprio who swears vengeance on the man who killed his father when he was a young boy and left him to be brought up in an orphanage. As a grown man he seemingly joins the man they call The Butcher, while plotting his death. Cameron Diaz is the love interest who leaves The Butcher to join DiCaprio. This is a dark film, both visually and content-wise and it will probably not be taken as seriously by viewers as the film-makers might wish.
Rating:
Summary: An Amazing Story
Review: I saw the movie in the theater, couldn't wait for the video, then bought the book. I thought it should have won the Oscar, I found it kept me riveted to my seat, and left me with many questions as to how & why all this happened. As a historical researcher, the story told of true events & how the Immigrants fought for survival in a country that offered a lot of grief & corruption due to greed. How many of our Immigrants came to really love this country & help build a nation of unbelievable patriotism is truly an amazing story. One more note, Native Americans are not New Yorkers, they are the Indian Tribes.
Rating:
Summary: Scorcese's Best
Review: GONY is a movie with a great cast, director, score and everything else in it. The plot is about two gangs THE DEAD RABBITS(Catholics) and THE CONFEDERATES OF AMERICAN NATIVES(Christains). They have a battle in 1846 where Bill the Bucther(William Cutting) and Priest Vallon square off. The NATIVES are victorious. 16 years later priests so amsterdam plots his revenge and by the end of the film they have another battle.
The violence is pretty graphic like biting people ears off, ripping people jaws out shooting, hanging and stabbing. I'm very [upset] that Daniel-Day Lewis didn't win for best actor only thing adrien brody did in the pianist was run and hide from nazi's. This was my favorite movie of 2002. GO SCORCESE
Rating:
Summary: A Riveting Film About A Remarkable Episode In NYC's History!
Review: Martin Scorsese has created a masterpiece with his long awaited "Gangs Of New York." Though the film is far from perfect, Scorsese has succeeded in fulfilling his desire to make a movie about New York City's gangs, and underworld elements, during the corrupt reign of "Boss Tweed" and Tammany Hall. He also portrays the plight of poor Irish immigrants, and the prejudice they face when arriving in New York. Scorsese's attention to detail, the sets, costumes and period language, provide a spectacular and realistic backdrop for this very energetic historical film. He effectively incorporates the personal lives of his characters with the film's political and historical elements - really superior work! My primary issue with the film, is that while the Irish did cause a tremendous riot, and murdered African-Americans, the film didn't focus on the reasons for this historical event, or really clarify, even for a brief period of the movie's 168 minutes, the reason for the riots. Instead, the upheaval was portrayed as something that grew out of the gang wars. Scorsese's interpretation skews history a bit, and leaves the viewer wondering why African-Americans were being victimized. Or perhaps that part of the film was left on the cutting room floor. By 1860, one of every four New York City residents was an Irish-born immigrant. They worked as unskilled laborers on the docks, as ditch diggers and street pavers, and as cartmen and coal heavers. They competed directly with the city's African-American workers for jobs. The racial tension ran high before the war, and peaked in 1863. The National Conscription Act was passed in March 1863. Many immigrants were drafted right off the boat, knowing little about the cause, or politics, of the War Between the States. In the spring of 1863, in the midst of a strike of Irish dock workers, strikers attacked and beat African-American strike-breakers before federal troops arrived to protect the black workers. It is during these "Draft Riots" that the film's extraordinary finale takes place. The action begins in 1846. A group of Irish immigrants living in the Five Points slums of New York City are part of the "Dead Rabbits Gang." They are led by the noble priest Vallon, (Liam Neeson), in a turf war about control over the money they earn, and over the streets of the Five Points slums, on New York's lower East Side. The already well established "Natives Gang," Protestants whose ancestors fought in the War of Independence, are extremely prejudiced against the Irish Catholics. Bill "the Butcher" Cutting, (brilliantly played by Daniel Day- Lewis, who always turns in a superb performance), is the "Nativist" gang leader, who collects a portion of everyone's earnings, and runs the local gangs and underworld criminals. He conspires with "Boss Tweed" and the local police to make more money, lining the politicians pockets as he does so. During the gang fight, filmed using dramatic camera shots, unusual angles, occasional slow motion, and backed by an extraordinary musical score, Vallon is killed by "The Butcher." The priest has a young son, Amsterdam Vallon, who witnesses everything and swears revenge. "The Butcher" places the boy in an institution, where he lives for the next sixteen years. When he is released, Amsterdam (Leonardo Di Caprio), goes back to "Five Points" looking to settle his score with "The Butcher." Unexpectedly, Bill takes a liking to Amsterdam, who assumes an alias to protect his identity. The two form a bond, of sorts, which makes it difficult for the young Vallon to take his revenge. What follows is an absolutely riveting movie, with an excellent cast. The actors certainly shine under Scorsese's direction. Daniel Day-Lewis' character, the charismatic, barbaric psychopath Bill, is the film's central figure. Day-Lewis is one of the most talented actors in the industry. Although I do not care for Leonardo DiCaprio, he puts in a decent performance as Amsterdam Vallon. Cameron Diaz's, as the quick fingered Jenny, lover of young Amsterdam, more than holds her own. The supporting cast is top-notch. I do think the editing could have been done better, to provide a smoother flow. However, with all its flaws, "Gangs of New York" is well worth watching and deserves a full five stars!
JANA
Rating: 
Summary: Violence personified
Review: A not too subtle lesson that violence never solves anything. This movie, from start to finish, is about gang warfare in 19th century New York. But, the message it gives is one every child should be taught... although not with so much gruesome detail... that hate begets hate and violence begets violence. This message is undoubtfully lost on those who could most use it. And for the rest of us, we are just sitting back in utter horror. This movie is often aggravating, as the "hero" of the movie, the formerly innocent child all grown up and out of the orphanage, seeks his vengeance for his father's death. But, he cannot just kill the guy. Oh, no. He has to put on a big show. I do, however, appreciate that it displays the bigotry that the Irish have endured.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Scorsese violence under great costuming and style
Review: Are you reminded each day of the violence in our inner cities? Are you close enough to your politicians to overhear their careless confessions of corrupt practice? One and a half centuries of what is referred to as "civilization" have brought advances that allow many of us to avoid daily strife and allow our elected officials to avoid close scrutiny. If you are in the unfortunate situation of facing constant urban turmoil and poverty, then Gangs of New York won't seem so strange to you (if you have a working VCR and either the money to rent the film or the gumption to steal it). But for many Americans, Martin Scorsese's vision of yesteryear in NYC will seem as bleak and foreign as any cyberpunk landscape interpolated from the darkness of today's reality. The year is 1863, and The Civil War is on. Tension is high in New York as "innocent" northerners are sent to fight. Perhaps Scorsese uses peoples' historian Howard Zinn as a reference, because he quickly debunks the notion that the northern states are fighting for the morality behind emancipation. Instead, many northerners remain staunch racists, and the true motives for the war are political and financial interests. The split between the wealthy and the poor is wide; and folks are especially destitute in Five Points, the Irish ghetto. The film actually begins sixteen years before the Civil War, at a time when Five Points is undergoing a civil war of its own. Clans of new Irish immigrants take up arms against clans of first-generation Irish-Americans, who cruelly lord it over the newcomers. These "natives" are led by Bill Cutting the Butcher, played with fearsome flair by Daniel Ari Day Lewis. The street fight concludes with the immigrant leader, a Catholic clergyman named Vallon, dead at the hands of the Butcher. Vallon's wee son escapes to spend the next sixteen years growing up to be Leonardo DiCaprio. When Amsterdam Vallon returns to the neighborhood, it is with the drive of vengeance. He perpetrates this by wriggling "under the wing of the dragon" as he puts it, becoming the Butcher's favored henchman. But the road is shaky and the path untrue. Friends betray him, and his father's memory, and many of his well-laid plans gang aft a-gley. However, he does manage to swing a girlfriend, Jenny the thief, Cameron Diaz, with his good looks and grungy nobility. As a second showdown between The Butcher's natives and Vallon's Irish influx begins to coalesce, the Northern U.S. government passes a mandatory draft--mandatory unless you are well-heeled enough to pay $300 to be excused. This puts New York's poor masses in an uproar that sparks the Civil War Draft Riots of 1863. The bloody and tragic fracas lasts five days, overshadowing the battle between Vallon and The Butcher. The dust settles at last and Scorsese tries his best to stay with a happily wobbling denouement for a few minutes. Though the production values were much higher, the ending somehow reminded me of the classic 70's kung-fu movie ending, when, after the last big fight, the hero stands up, and a second later, the credits roll. To dwell on the triumph of the good guys would be too sentimental, and nobody has any energy left for more fighting. In general, the film is very well made. The costumes deserve awards, and I sure wish I knew where to get of one of those dandy outfits. The settings are amazing, so foreign from our contemporary idea of city-dom that the Mrs. thought we were in for a science fiction film at first, something along the lines of Mad Max. As for acting, Lewis is superb in his role, fully embodying the dastard and delivering chillingly heartless diatribes. DiCaprio and Dias look nice. With all this dressing, the story rides along easily, not needing to contain too much importance or relevance. Though the battles are bloody, the action intense, and the drama high, these characters don't engage a viewer apart from being historically interesting figments. DiCaprio will appeal to his fans because he often slips out of his shirt, to reveal a chest flecked with aesthetically pleasing scars, and out of his character, revealing the modern-day actor behind the two-dimensional vengeance seeker. Call Gangs of New York an "external drama": all the real conflict happens in the context surrounding characters, not within them. And with that distinction made, we can see the film as a portrait of New York City in its troubled adolescence. Though the writers cast some thematic grappling hooks from 1863 to 2003 in an attempt to establish relevance, they don't tug the two time periods toward each other with any real enthusiasm. Single lines indicating how political clout is saleable, for example, are thrown out, and then left slack. If you are keen on adventure and action--and goodly helpings of stage blood--then you will enjoy this movie more than average. It has romance and melodrama, like Gladiator. At any rate, it's pretty exciting and excitingly pretty.
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