3/15/2023 0 Comments I am gangster imdband I swear the entire audience needed a cigarette afterward. She had exactly one scene in the movie and I thought the screen was going to burst into flames or something. Annabella Sciorra is another actor I will never look at the same way again. While watching the film, I totally forgot that I was watching Vin Diesel. He gained a lot of weight for this role, and many of the people around me (myself included) did not recognize him when he first appeared on screen. The physical transformation was astonishing. This movie is a fantastic achievement.I went to a screening in NYC this week, and Vin's performance knocked the socks off of everyone in attendance. The detail and scope of the film cries out to be viewed in all its wide screen glory. Be warned that if you are waiting to see Gangs on DVD you are making a huge mistake. Instead he tells his tale in wide, bold, exploitive and melodramatic strokes that make the movies two and a half hours fly by. Scorsese does eschew all nuance and subtlety in Gangs. You come away convinced that this is how the world looked and sounded in 1862. The cast handles the period argot as if it were their true speech and wear their costumes like lived-in clothing. Gangs is entirely free of the embalmed feeling you get from most modern period movies. The amazing old New York set has an air of lived in reality that you could cut with a knife. Just as important as the actors are to Gangs is the period atmosphere that drips off the screen. Despite having considerable screen time, Diaz fades into the background when compared to her more powerful co-stars. Cameron Diaz as the beautiful pickpocket Jenny, never convinces that she is a product of the slums. The problem is that Amsterdam just isn't as flashy a role as Bill or Tweed and, as good as DiCaprio is Day-Lewis operates on a whole other level. While he could have used some of the fire and rage of a young James Cagney, DiCaprio's acting is superior throughout the movie. Large, slope shouldered and vaguely brutish looking, DiCaprio is physically perfect for Amsterdam. Though Leonardo DiCaprio is the nominal lead of the picture he is overshadowed by his co-stars. Broadbent is Tweed's spitting image and he makes the grasping old pirate so winning we find ourselves rooting for Tweed against the gaggle of reformers that infest his domain. The only other actor to approach Day-Lewis' level is Jim Broadbent as William 'Boss' Tweed. Day-Lewis strides his savage and profane way across the screen and steals the whole of the movie. His Bill is both recognizably human and a full bore, moustache-twirling villain. Daniel Day-Lewis is marvelous as Bill the Butcher. Bloody vengeance and dark betrayal soon come to pass, all played against a backdrop of corruption and unrest that lead to up to the horrors of New York Civil War draft riots. Amsterdam, however, has a past with the unsuspecting Butcher and sports an agenda not unlike a certain Prince of Denmark. Into this seething cauldron wanders mysterious young Amsterdam Vallon who soon works his way into the trust and affection of Bloody Bill. The viciously nationalistic Bill terrorizes all the immigrant masses jammed into his slum but seems to harbor a particular hatred for the Irish population. It's the early 1860s and the notorious Five Points slum is ruled by the savage `Bill the Butcher'. Instead of the mid-twentieth century organized crime milieu of Goodfellas, Scorsese ventures back to the 19th century to show us the origin of the modern street gang. In Gangs director Martin Scorsese spins another tale of the New York underworld but with a twist. It is an enthralling, bloody, melodramatic epic that more than justifies its two and one half hour running time. Gangs of New York is just perfect entertainment.
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