When there are cinematic sins, they're sins of excess. But Gangs of New York entertains.
Then there's the plot. How many times have we seen a film where someone goes undercover in order to get revenge and becomes so close to the target that he's thought of as the right-hand man? And the friend who turns on him, or the big guy's woman who takes a fancy to him? Yet, transplanted to an exotic time and place, these tropes find new life. Though the plot is "small," this film has a big, epic feel to it, and you have to credit Oscar-nominated writers Jay Cocks, Kenneth Lonergan, and Steven Zaillian for interweaving just enough history and politics to make Vallon's personal battle seem like one of many going on in a city that had yet to find itself. Set during the time of the Civil War, the gang battles and chaos are augmented nicely by recruiting posters, draft details, and political debates. It's also hard not to like a film that has such colorful characters as Hell-Cat Maggie (Cara Seymour), Jimmy Spoils (Larry Gilliard Jr.), and Happy Jack (Reilly), or gang and place names like Satan's Circus, the Dead Rabbits, the Plug Uglies, and the Bowery Boys.
Even if "Gangs of New York" was just a warm-up for the film that would finally earn him his Best Director's Oscar four years later, it's still an interesting film, especially if you watch it in the context of other Scorsese films like "The Age of Innocence" (1993), "Goodfellas" (1990), and, of course, "The Departed" (2006).
Video:
Blu-ray really captures the subtle details to be found in a film where the colors lean toward a specific palette. There are lots of golds and browns and dark tones and shadows, and in 1080p the colors seem rich, not dingy, while the level of detail is excellent. The film is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and the transfer (VC1 codec) is excellent, with no apparent artifacts.
Audio:
The featured soundtrack is an English PCM 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) uncompressed audio, which is stunning, really, in its clarity, purity of tone, and distribution of sounds believably and naturally across all the channels. Additional audio options are English or French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, with subtitles in English SDH or French.
Extras:
Loads of bonus features here, including a very nice commentary from the self-effacing Scorsese that covers most of the bases you'd expect him to. As I said, though, the feature that convinced me that this is a film to admire is that walk-and-talk tour of the sets. "History of the Five Points" didn't tell me nearly enough about the questions I had, partly because there's only one expert who talks around some of the points but never hits them squarely on the head. It doesn't help that non-experts like Scorsese and DiCaprio sit on stools and expound on the history, as if they'd just finished their dissertations. Better are the set design and costume design featurettes. All of the bonus features range between 15-20 minutes, and they're worth a look.
If you want history, the better feature on this disc is a Discovery Channel Special: "Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York." Though far from perfect (and part promo, of course), this 35-minute documentary covers more ground in more entertaining fashion. Rounding out the bonus features are a couple of trailers and a U2 music video, "The Hands That Built America."
Bottom Line:
It's not a perfect film, by any stretch of the imagination, and when there are cinematic sins they're sins of excess. But "Gangs of New York" entertains. Though Scorsese weaves fantastical elements into a historical framework, "Gangs of New York" still feels like an epic on the order of "Roland" or any of the stories that help to explain and define a nation.
Even if "Gangs of New York" was just a warm-up for the film that would finally earn him his Best Director's Oscar four years later, it's still an interesting film, especially if you watch it in the context of other Scorsese films like "The Age of Innocence" (1993), "Goodfellas" (1990), and, of course, "The Departed" (2006).
Video:
Blu-ray really captures the subtle details to be found in a film where the colors lean toward a specific palette. There are lots of golds and browns and dark tones and shadows, and in 1080p the colors seem rich, not dingy, while the level of detail is excellent. The film is presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio, and the transfer (VC1 codec) is excellent, with no apparent artifacts.
Audio:
The featured soundtrack is an English PCM 5.1 (48kHz/24-bit) uncompressed audio, which is stunning, really, in its clarity, purity of tone, and distribution of sounds believably and naturally across all the channels. Additional audio options are English or French Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, with subtitles in English SDH or French.
Extras:
Loads of bonus features here, including a very nice commentary from the self-effacing Scorsese that covers most of the bases you'd expect him to. As I said, though, the feature that convinced me that this is a film to admire is that walk-and-talk tour of the sets. "History of the Five Points" didn't tell me nearly enough about the questions I had, partly because there's only one expert who talks around some of the points but never hits them squarely on the head. It doesn't help that non-experts like Scorsese and DiCaprio sit on stools and expound on the history, as if they'd just finished their dissertations. Better are the set design and costume design featurettes. All of the bonus features range between 15-20 minutes, and they're worth a look.
If you want history, the better feature on this disc is a Discovery Channel Special: "Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York." Though far from perfect (and part promo, of course), this 35-minute documentary covers more ground in more entertaining fashion. Rounding out the bonus features are a couple of trailers and a U2 music video, "The Hands That Built America."
Bottom Line:
It's not a perfect film, by any stretch of the imagination, and when there are cinematic sins they're sins of excess. But "Gangs of New York" entertains. Though Scorsese weaves fantastical elements into a historical framework, "Gangs of New York" still feels like an epic on the order of "Roland" or any of the stories that help to explain and define a nation.
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[release]23464[/release]