Beginning the director-actor collaboration between Martin Scorsese & Leonardo DiCaprio on a promising note, Gangs of New York paints a fascinating portrait of its era and is a meticulously researched period drama but pretty much everything about it is overshadowed by the exceptional performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.Set in mid-19th century New York, the story of Gangs of New York follows an Irish immigrant who witnessed his father being murdered by the leader of an opposing gang as a kid and returns to the place years later to avenge his death. Meanwhile, the forced conscription in the ongoing Civil War ultimately leads to city wide riots.Directed by Martin Scorsese, the 19th century New York comes to cinematic life in splendid detail and is a result of painstaking research & era appropriate set pieces. Scorsese's direction has the drama going up & down throughout its runtime, for many segments are highly engaging while others are poorly handled & tediously paced.Production design team does a spectacular job at transporting the viewers back to its timeline and the entire cityscape has an authentic feel to it. Camera is expertly operated, utilising many of the director's trademarks. The pace only gets worse as plot progresses plus there are many scenes that the film could have done without. And Howard Shore turns in a fitting score.Coming to the performances, Gangs of New York is spearheaded by a memorable showcase from Daniel Day-Lewis whose rendition of Bill the Butcher easily ranks amongst his finest acts. Leonardo DiCaprio also chips in with a strong input in his supporting role and so does the rest of the cast but none of them hold a candle to Day-Lewis magnetic screen presence & sheer commitment to his role.On an overall scale, Gangs of New York nails the period details of its story but the drama isn't entirely compelling and the only aspects that keep it together are its historical depictions & Daniel Day-Lewis' electrifying performance. Opening on a violent, chaotic & instantly gripping note but losing its grasp in the middle, Gangs of New York impresses in bits n pieces but it's nonetheless worth a watch for Day-Lewis' riveting act alone.

¨Gangs of New York¨ shows a time in U.S. history where the divide within NYC mirrored the divide in the country. The plot was good, but was hard to follow. The high quantity of characters made it them hard to follow. There was also little lead up to some events as the viewer was put into situations with little introduction to the certain situations. Certain scenes were unnecessary the the plot and did not help move the plot forward in any way, Some scenes were also unrealistic and the visual effects became better throughout the movie.Though some points in the plot were unneeded the actors did a fantastic job of moving the plot forward and keeping the very long and complex movie interesting.

The story takes place during an era of American History that's generally overlooked in the history books, beginning in 1846 (for the opening sequence) through the early part of 1863 with the Civil War in progress. Some of the film deals with the New York City draft riots that occurred when Congress passed a conscription law, but the overarching story deals with the revenge sought by Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) some sixteen years after seeing his father murdered by Native gang leader, Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting (Daniel-Day Lewis).For those of faint heart and weaker stomach, it's not an easy picture to watch with the amount of violence and bloodshed, dealt out by individuals with little regard for humanity. Alliances are switched by members of the former 'Dead Rabbits' gang after their leader, Vallon's father 'Priest' Vallon (Liam Neeson) is killed in a street brawl. It occurred to me at one point that the roles of Neeson and Day Lewis could have been reversed, that's how much they resembled each other as gang leaders.The movie doesn't rate that highly here on IMDb with a fair number of detractors in the reviews section. That surprises me somewhat, as the story is gripping from a historical perspective, and the performances by the principals are more than adequate. Because the film's locations are situated primarily in a congested area of the City known as The Five Points, you don't have the epic sweep of more highly regarded films like "Gone With the Wind", but that's a minor point. For me, the picture opened up an era of American History worthy of further study that was bypassed during my own education. It looks like I'll be spending some time there learning about The Tammany Hall years and the corruption that took place under the regime of Boss Tweed.

Writing this review about 15 years post release, but this is first time I have seen the film. Penalize one star for its length. Performance of Daniel Day-Lewis is wonderful. Some great performances from supporting/character actors as well. There have been liberties taken with chronology of some events depicted in the film. It is interesting film to watch in 2017 because the discontent & divisions among races, religions, immigrants and natives have parallels today.The music theme by U-2-uninspiring.The set was very well done.Gangs of New York is worth spending the screen time.