At the Movies - 'Gangs of New York'

The Associated Press

There are two ways to approach Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York": Go in hoping for a masterpiece given the talent involved and the film's scale, or enter skeptically considering its delayed release and the director's bickering with Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein over the final cut.

Both camps will find elements to justify their preconceptions.

"Gangs of New York" is masterful in design and staging, offering old-fashioned historical grandness that's more authentic and earthy than anything seen on screen in recent years because it comes from brick-and-mortar re-creation rather than canned, cartoonish computer imagery.

And "Gangs" co-star Daniel Day-Lewis presents one of cinema's best performances in years, a colorful, colossal villain who is never less than mesmerizing (imagine Anthony Hopkins' finest moments as Hannibal Lecter sustained over the course of a nearly three-hour movie; that's how good Day-Lewis is).

Then again, "Gangs" spins a fairly ordinary revenge yarn -- granted, one that's set against a fresh canvas drawn from New York City's shady past -- but a typical tale nonetheless. The film's romance between Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz lumbers through love-hate stereotypes as the two literally debate kissing each other's lips or biting them off.

The editing is choppy, especially early on, likely a result of Scorsese and Weinstein's compromises to craft a mutually satisfactory cut that might contend come Academy Awards time without exceeding the interminable length of the Oscar broadcast itself.

Yet "Gangs of New York" is a rare film where the sum of its parts exceeds the whole. There's so much to admire in Scorsese's achievement that the film's significant flaws can be forgiven.

The film had been postponed from release a year ago, but Scorsese has had this project on his mind for 30 years, the idea dating back to a chance encounter with Herbert Asbury's 1928 book "The Gangs of New York," a chronicle of the rogues who ran pockets of the city before modern organized crime.

Initially working with writer Jay Cocks and later Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, Scorsese over the years fashioned a fictional story set in that 1860s criminal cesspool, incorporating the Civil War draft riots to underscore his story of xenophobic "Nativist" Americans at odds with new immigrants.

DiCaprio plays Amsterdam Vallon, who as a boy witnessed the slaying of his father (Liam Neeson), an Irish gang leader, at the hands of Nativist Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis) during a bloody brawl for supremacy among the gangs of lower Manhattan's Five Points.

Sixteen years later, after growing up in a "House of Refuge," the vengeful Amsterdam returns undercover and infiltrates Bill's gang, now the undisputed force that runs the neighborhood.

In broad strokes, the plot is commonplace, marked by standard-issue cinematic conventions. There's a whiff of a love triangle as Amsterdam takes up with pickpocket Jenny Everdeane (Diaz), one of Bill's many squeezes. There's Amsterdam's jealous buddy Johnny (Henry Thomas), smitten with Jenny and so enraged over his pal's relationship with her that he resorts to betrayal. There's soul-searching by Amsterdam as he comes to admire Bill as a paternal figure even as he plots retaliation.

The nuances salvage the story, though. With his enormous top hat and upcurled moustache, Bill the Butcher could have been a Snidely Whiplash caricature of a villain, but Day-Lewis imbues him with such exuberant sincerity that it's impossible to doubt the character's conviction even at his foulest.

"Gangs" runs giddy with deliciously dark, absurd humor -- rival fire brigades clashing in the streets while homes burn to the ground, Irish immigrants fresh off the boat signing citizenship documents then Union Army induction papers and being told to go fight for their country.

The film boasts tremendous supporting performances by Jim Broadbent as Boss Tweed of Tammany Hall, John C. Reilly as a gang member turned corrupt cop and Brendan Gleeson as an Irish mug who graduates into politics.

Day-Lewis, an Academy Award winner for "My Left Foot," deserves a second Oscar. His delightfully wicked Bill the Butcher overwhelms a terrific performance by DiCaprio in the same way F. Murray Abraham's Oscar-winning turn as Salieri transcended Tom Hulce's Mozart in "Amadeus."

"Gangs of New York," a Miramax release, is rated R for intense strong violence, sexuality-nudity and language.

Running time: 167 minutes.

Three and a half stars out of four.