[ posted by cos on chi's behalf.]

Martin Scorsese has made just 5 films in the 90’s, “Kundun” looked great but was hopelessly boring and “Bringing out the dead” was the worst film he’s made since the late 60’s. Only 91’s “Goodfellas”, the lesser “Casino” (95) and “the Age of innocence” (93) matches his some of his seminal 70’s period. He did produce 2 pretty good and under appreciated films in “You can count on me” (2000) and “Grace of your heart” (1996) which I’d highly recommend if anyone hasn’t seen ‘em.

Returning once again to Manhattan's mean streets, Scorsese's ambitious and visually accomplished Gangs of New York (2002). Set in NYC’s ghettos (circa 1860’s with the American civil war as a historical back drop) is an epic tale of nativist conflict, official corruption, and familial revenge is at once a precursor to his earlier Mob films and an indictment of the (always topical) American zeal for liberty and righteous conflict. ‘G.O.N.Y.’ finds him once again covering his favourite topics of driven men, gangs, ethical codes and the immigrant psyche through the exploration of America's violent foundation myths. The flim’s structure is very familiar, and for the most part is similar to classic chinese martial arts / period revenge films that came out of the Shaw Brothers studios in the 60’s and 70’s.

firstly, to the usual critics who fawn over allegedly excessive violence in this film and people whose sensibilities were shaken and had to walk after 15 mins, I have but 2 words, “what violence?”, for the most part it’s all implied, aye carumba!

The verdict, a good film that could have been a great one but...

on the plus side: the visuals, the sets, the colour and the cinematography is unmatched by any epic I’ve seen in quite a while; Daniel Day Lewis’ dastardly villain bill the butcher (veering very close to a campy Jeremy Irons romp but not); British & Irish actors Jim Broadbent, J.C. Reilly, Brendan Gleeson & Gary Lewis provide a solid second tier supporting cast; Multiple Academy award nominee - costume designer Sandy Powell does a fine job with the threads, not overly authentic but it sure looked good; An excellent (bar one mis-step with Arena rock, see below) score by Howard Shore (lord of the rings) & musical supervisor Robbie Robertson (last seen scoring and producing oliver Stone’s excellent “Any given Sunday”), and that’s about it...

On the minus side, and there are a few: chiefly the pacing of the film, the first 2/3rds run at a fine pace but the third act crashes through with a less than satisfying blur, scenes are cut short or cut all together. There’re rumours that the Weinsteins made Scorsese cut a 30 to 40 mins out of the running time, and it kind of seems like it was all made to the last third… ; the disappointing one dimensional lead female character, Cameron Diaz does the best she could with the sketchy “haven’t we seen this before - hooker/pickpocket with a heart of gold”, that time could have been so much better spent on the other more interesting supporting cast of rogues, dirty politicians and background story; Leo does the best he can in the role of anti hero Amsterdam but couldn’t really get past “Leo, the movie star”... it would have been nice if Scorsese had picked a lesser known actor for the role (like he did with Ray Liotta in Goodfellas); Liam Neeson’s reprises his “failed father figure” from “Star Wars episode 1: the Phantom Menace” is, well, a bit of clunker, at least it wasn’t Jeremy Irons; Always a good pick for soundtracks (Goodfellas; Casino), Scorsese fails (no doubt pressure from Miramax’s soundtrack division for a commercial concession on a ‘hit’ tune) here with the all important end sequence “credits a’ rolling” scene with U2 at their usual boom-bastic, heavy handed and over the top manner – U2’s “hands that build America” pretty much summarizes all that is wrong with this film, too many inane interludes and ham-fisted concessions to the box office (ie: the hackneyed romantic sub-plot; the severely limiting multiplex styled running time; the box office opening casting job; the list goes on), which in the end brought it alll down... down to Chinatown, to paraphrase noted Scorsese alumni R. DNniro’s character in “Meet the parents”... the end product failing both the multiplex and arthouse crowd in me, such a pity. Looking forward to the directors’ cut on DVD though... restore the lost minutes and we’ll see if there is any more to this flawed epic...

Next week: Ben Affleck, the man without fear...