Gangs of New York
R
Opening tomorrow at area theaters
Two reels out of four
Director extraordinaire Martin Scor-sese — whose Gangs of New York opens nationally tomorrow — would seem easy to categorize; the fact is he’s anything but.
I challenge anyone out there to name a working American director of Scor-sese’s stature whose body of work contains such disparate films as Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, The Age of Innocence and Goodfellas. Even when Scorsese doesn’t quite muster his usual high level of art, his failures are better than many directors’ best work.
Gangs of New York marks Scorsese’s first foray into the old warhorse, The Historical Epic. Because it is his work, the film contains his usual visual flair and intensity, but overall it’s somewhat of a rambling mess.
The story — which took Scorsese a quarter-century to get to the screen — follows the rise of Irish and Italian gangsters in New York in the 1860s. While the Civil War ensued elsewhere in the country, residents of Manhattan’s Five Points engaged in their own fierce battles. Leonardo DiCaprio plays Amsterdam Vallon, the son of a murdered gang leader (Liam Neeson), who swears vengeance upon William Cutting, aka Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), his father’s killer. Vallon bides his time as he works his way into Cutting’s inner circle, eventually becoming the older man’s protégé. After a very embarrassing setback, Vallon finally gets an opportunity when he finds himself in one of the worst riots in the history of New York.
There are moments of true raw power and beauty in Gangs of New York. The opening sequence is at once visceral and majestic as it builds up to the meeting of the two rival gangs. It evoked both Braveheart and Walter Hill’s The Warriors in the way the gang members are treated almost as an alien species.
The subsequent crowd scenes and allover epic scope of the movie are treated with a detail that a lesser filmmaker would put together like so many Lego pieces. For the most part, Scorsese gets the period right or, at least, it seems right. The actors, with the exception of DiCaprio, are all excellent. Day-Lewis takes a vacation from playing flawed saints to play someone who will never be mistaken for a holy man. His Bill the Butcher is an unforgettable heavy in the classic vein. He even looks like the twisty-mustachioed bad guy from silent movies.
And yet I can’t quite recommend Gangs of New York. The movie suffers from the same shortcomings that plague many epics. It never really comes together on the screen. The story gets off track more than once. The other grave weakness is the leading man. I happen to like DiCaprio as an actor, but I never buy him as someone who’s spent 16 years, give or take, in an orphanage during one of the toughest times in U.S. history.
There’s an expression that many jaded moviegoers have heard more than once: "The money’s on the screen." With its cast of thousands, the money is certainly on the screen in Gangs of New York. However, if quality is any indication, I don’t think it will be in the coffers.
A Christmas Story
PG
When it first came out, it didn’t do so well at the box office, but its reputation has blossomed to the point that many people I meet name it as one of their favorite Christmas movies. It’s a Wonderful Life? No, I’m talking about Bob Clark’s adaptation of a short story by humorist Jean Shepherd, A Christmas Story. The tale of a young boy whose sole item on his Christmas wish list is a Red Ryder BB gun, A Christmas Story is a genuinely rib-slapping comedy that nonetheless manages to be sincere and even sentimental. With great performances by Melinda Dillon and Darren McGavin as the parents.
