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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Miramax Home Entertainment
Salesrank: 2396
Released: July 1, 2003 |
| Our Price: $5.58 |
| Used Price: $1.98 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
This motion picture event from acclaimed director Martin Scorsese earned 10 Academy Award(R) nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, along with 5 Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Song! Leonardo DiCaprio (TITANIC), Cameron Diaz (CHARLIE'S ANGELS), and Daniel Day-Lewis (THE BOXER) star in this epic tale of vengeance and survival! As waves of immigrants swell the population of New York, lawlessness and corruption thrive in lower Manhattan's Five Points section. After years of incarceration, young Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) returns seeking revenge against the rival gang leader (Day-Lewis) who killed his father. But Amsterdam's personal vendetta becomes part of the gang warfare that erupts as he and his fellow Irishmen fight to carve a place for themselves in their newly adopted homeland!
Description of Gangs of New York (Two-Disc Collector's Edition):
Gangs of New York may achieve greatness with the passage of time. Mixed reviews were inevitable for a production this grand (and this troubled behind the scenes), but it's as distinguished as any of director Martin Scorsese's more celebrated New York stories. From its astonishing 1846 prologue to the city's infernal draft riots of 1863, the film aspires to erase the decorum of textbooks and chronicle 19th-century New York as a cauldron of street warfare. The hostility is embodied in a tale of primal vengeance between Irish American son Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his father's ruthless killer and "Nativist" gang leader Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis, brutally inspired), so named for his lethal talent with knives. Vallon's vengeance is only marginally compelling; DiCaprio is arguably miscast, and Cameron Diaz (as Vallon's pickpocket lover) is adrift in a film with little use for women. Despite these weaknesses, Scorsese's mastery blossoms in his expert melding of personal and political trajectories; this is American history written in blood, unflinching, authentic, and utterly spectacular. --Jeff Shannon
Gangs of New York (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Reviews:
History and butchery 
2009-12-13 - Any film that tries to recreate mid-nineteenth-century New York has to have something going for it, and director Martin Scorsese's gorgeous recreation of the Five Points and Paradise Square in the 1840s and 1860s certainly is the sort of the thing you won't get to see very often. The plot of this expensive over-the-top mess has something to do with how "America" (by which Scorsese means... New York? Manhattan? the immigrant population?) was supposed to have been established by mob violence waged between the Irish, represented by (wait for it) Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo di Caprio), and the self-named "Natives," led by "Wild" Bill Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). (There's even a U2 rock anthem at the end, "The Hands that Built America," to hammer home this dubious point.) The whole thing is ridiculously overscaled and all kinds of historical figures from the day keep wandering in to make cameos, from Horace Greeley to P.T. Barnum to Boss Tweed, as di Caprio and Day-Lewis go at each other with every kind of deadly bladed implement you can imagine. The film's bizarre messing of history finds it nadir during the Draft Riots (which forms a chaotic set-piece conclusion), when Scorsese shows the mobs storming and burning the mansion of the Schermerhorns (suggesting they're going to kill them) and the Union fleet warships firing their big guns into lower Manhattan.
What was Scorsese trying to do with this movie? It seems to be on the same silly scale as Brian Di Palma's SCARFACE, but somehow mixed with BIRTH OF A NATION; the whole thing seems staggeringly misconceived. Neither Di Caprio now Cameron Diaz as his pickpocket love interest seem to have the slightest idea what they're doing in the film. As the Grand Guignol villain, the fictitious Bill Cutting (who is even given a glass eye he likes to tap with a knife point), Daniel Day-Lewis gives a wildly sweaty and over-the-top performance that many people for some reason took very seriously at the time the film was released.
Fantastic 
2009-12-09 - The battle for control of the Five Points slum in New York in the mid-1800's kicks this movie into a grudge that spans over fifteen years. Leonardo DiCaprio plays young Amsterdam Vallon who, as a boy, witnessed his father's murder during the battle between two rival gangs, the Natives (those born in the America) and the Dead Rabbits (the immigrants), for control of the Five Points. William Cutting, also called "Bill the Butcher," is the man who cuts down Amsterdam's father. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Cutting, the leader of the Natives and a very anti-immigrant man who is feared by everyone in the slum of Five Points. Fifteen years after the great battle, the Dead Rabbits are banned, Amsterdam's father is dead, and Amsterdam himself is coming back from having disappeared since the battle. No one recognizes him and he uses this to his advantage. He is able to get close to Cutting and prepares for when the moment is right to exact his revenge.
Overall, this movie was just amazing. I am not normally a fan of movies that have the main plot line of killing. Very few movies have been able to keep my attention for over two hours. Many have tried, but most have failed. This movie, however, clocking in at 2 hours and 40 minutes, kept my attention the entire time. My heart sank when I opened the DVD case and saw that there were two disks sitting there, each labeled "Feature Film". This movie was so long that it needed two disks? The only movie I had ever seen that required two disks to house the entire feature film was Stephen King's Rose Red, and that was only because it clocks in closer to four hours. This was going to be a long night.
When it reached the end of the first disk, however, I was surprised. I did not feel like an hour and a half of my life had been slowly taken from me, as I sat in front of my television. Overall, I believe that this movie truly did deserve the ten Oscar nominations that it got. Daniel Day-Lewis was phenomenal playing "Bill the Butcher", the story line was easy to follow and yet it still kept you wanting to know how it would end, and the movie itself deserved the Best Picture nomination that it got.
Be Careful!!! 
2009-11-30 - This is a great movie, but I bought the edited for TV version and it was by no means edited at all! The first 1/3 of the video was fine, but full-frontal nudity and graphic intercourse scenes soon followed. Completely over the top for my 11th grade US History class to witness.
Pangs of New York 
2009-09-10 - "Gangs of New York" is one of those periodic films that grabs a lot of Oscar nominations and comes away with no statuettes. "Peyton Place" was the reigning champ in this dubious category but Scorcese's film gave them a run for the money. After watching it the other night, I came to understand why this happened; The movie opens strong and closes nearly as strong while the interminable bulk of the movie meanders in a repetitious drone. If Scorcese had a point, he should have made it. I took time out for supper without a second thought. Leftovers were better than what needn't have been served in the first place.
When I say that the film opened strong I guess I'd better qualify my statement. The build-up to a gang war with no quarter was a bit overdone but at least it gave the viewer a sense that this was going to be one of those action movies that can succeed without the extranvagance of a plot. That's the problem; without the action we are left with a rather ridiculous cast of characters. I understand that this is based on real Gotham history and I was focussed on the subtleties leading up the the New York Draft Riots. However, that singularly important event was forced to play a duet with a lesser talent. The resulting Armaggedon left me wondering if there was anything left in New York City that was worth salvaging. I read complaints about the lack of a "Director's Cut" that would have added an hour or so to this lengthy Leviathan. This was not a case of too much left out but, rather, too much shoved in.
Gangs of New York
2009-09-03 - This film shows the brutality of New York's Five Points district set in part against the draft riots of 1863. The characters evolve around the political scene established by Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall each recognizing the internal hierarchy of where the streets and politics come together. To make it appealing the director threw in graphic violence and dashes of nudity, but all in all this is a good, entertaining film.
Don't use this movie as a history lesson beyond the scope of the film, it is by no means a documentary. But take it for what it is and you will be entertained. The film also followed the attacks of 9-11 and shows the resiliancy of New York. The city was in flames after the military put down the draft riots, but it rose again. Martin Scorcese wanted to show New Yorkers that they would rise again following the attacks. He even added several still photos of the city at the very end of the film to make this point.
