GANGS OF NEW YORK [2002] Leonardo Dicaprio ; Rated 18

Martin Scorsese directs with his usual smoothness and style, and successfully immerses you in the period from which the movie is set, 1846 to 1863. 'Gangs of New York' is the story of how Irish and Italian gangs (and subsequently, the Mafia) first got started up in the city. It's a marvellously grand picture, with some great visuals, and the first 2 hours, to the films credit, are top notch. It's just the last 60 minutes which brings the film down (yes the film is 3 hours long). It's essentially a story of revenge with Dicaprio's character being the son of a murdered gang leader, who is hell bent on killing the man responsible for his fathers death. That sounds like a suitably simple plot yes, but in fact it's completely the opposite. What's wrong with that you say? well nothing at all if handled correctly, but in this case not even the skill of veteran director Scorsese can keep the films many plot threads all together. The problem is, the movie sets it self up for a typical revenge story ending, but instead the movie is brutally dragged out in an attempt to capture the complexities of real life, and as a result falls flat on it's ass. If it had been a little shorter and a little less ambitious, it could have been another Scorsese classic. Instead though it just turns out to be a film that is too big for it's own boots and all in all just a bit of a disappointment.

3/5