Gangs of New York

Bill the Butcher leads his gang into battle.

Getting your pet project of a movie into production is a challenge for any director, but even when you’re Martin Scorsese there’s no guarantee that you can just go right ahead and do what you want. More than two decades ago, Scorsese came across a non-fiction book by Herbert Asbury called Gangs of New York - a chronicle of the infamous street gangs of the slums of Manhattan in the mid-19th century, compiled largely from (often fanciful) newspaper reports, hearsay and recollections. Scorsese’s reaction to the subject matter was almost instantaneous - this, he thought, would make a great movie. He set about developing a story inspired by the world recounted in Asbury’s book, but the film - which apparently at one point was going to star the various members of The Clash - never went into production, with those who controlled the money a little bit nervous about the idea of another historical epic after the widely-publicised disaster that was Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.

Gangs of New York, something of a labour of love for Scorsese, finally got the green light at the start of the 21st century, the movie-making climate having changed substantially and the star power of Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and the fresh-from-semi-retirement Daniel Day-Lewis undoubtedly helping convince the powers that be it was a good investment. Scorsese’s own star power had risen to gargantuan proportions by this stage as well, of course; while he’d had his share of misfires, the sheer craftsmanship behind his work got people’s attention every time. Great subject, appealing cast, visionary director. What could possibly go wrong?

Our first glimpse of Jenny, through a Scorsese-friendly shattered blue glass window.

“Amsterdam� Vallon (DiCaprio) was the son of Irish immigrant “Priest� (Liam Neeson) in 1846 New York, living in the squalor and poverty of the Five Points district amidst fierce rivalry between the various gangs, who between them controlled the police, the fire departments and the law of the street itself. With hostility towards the recently-arrived Irish running high, the “native� American gangs hold a special grudge against the Irish outfits, and in a pitched battle one winter day Amsterdam’s father is killed in front of the young boy’s eyes. Sent to confinement at the appropriately named Hellgate, he emerges 16 years later determined to get his revenge on the man who killed his father, the charismatic but brutally violent and cruel Bill “The Butcher� Cutting (Day-Lewis). But Bill takes Amsterdam under his wing, eventually considering him to almost be one of the family; revenge in such circumstances is never easy. Complicating matters is pickpocket Jenny (Diaz), who he falls in love with before discovering her own special connection to The Butcher.

For a tale with such epic intentions, Gangs of New York is surprisingly simplistic. This you-killed-my-father-and-now-you-must-die vendetta story has been done a hundred times before, and while the setting may be somewhat unique, it doesn’t alter the fact that we know, almost from the outset, how this is all going to turn out. The romance between Amsterdam and Jenny is well handled by the actors and underplayed in the script, which is just as well; under other circumstances it could have supplied enough cheese to sink the movie as a whole. Day-Lewis is absolutely brilliant as The Butcher, complete with Dick Dastardly moustache (true to some drawings of the real “Butcher�), stripy pants and an awkward walk that makes him look at times as though he’s playing the part on stilts. He’s the only one here with any real emotional range, though, and that’s the centre of the film’s problems. DiCaprio does the brooding thing perfectly well, but it’s hard to really care much for him or his revenge plight. Sure, his dad got killed - but at the same time, so did a few dozen other dads, who all fared substantially worse than Priest - ears cut off as souvenirs, tongues cut out, that sort of thing (and you thought modern life was violent!) Yet the sullen Amsterdam seems to be the only one walking around moodily plotting revenge on a man who’s killed more people than he has pigs. For us to care about Amsterdam above the level of mere curiosity, we need some kind of emotional connection with him, but it’s simply not there. And when the final act of the film completely distances us from all of the characters as it gets caught up in the frenzy of the Draft Riots, suddenly putting the focus on a much wider story that’s been mere background detail up until that point, the remaining events that play out have no emotional resonance to back them up.

Of course, the movie looks impressive - production design (by Dante Ferretti) and photography (from Scorsese regular Michael Ballhaus) is superb, and the sets (all built to full scale at Rome’s famous Cinecitta Studios) are stunning. And make no mistake, Scorsese knows how to craft a movie. It’s just that the script doesn’t have the heart and fire that it so desperately needs, and no amount of auteur cleverness can really fix that key problem. You come out the other side of this lengthy spectacle nodding in appreciation of the visual craft, but feeling nothing. And that’s a shame, because with more attention to the characters in the writing, this could so easily have been a knockout movie. As it stands, it’s merely a very good historical melodrama.

Amsterdam shows cinematographer Michael Ballhaus how subtle he is at the spying game.

Scorsese spent years defiantly not filming in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, before finally relenting with Cape Fear. He’s been quite fond of it ever since, and Gangs of New York looks even more of a spectacle thanks to the use of the wide frame. The ‘scope image, shot on Super 35, is presented here at its correct aspect ratio and is of course 16:9 enhanced. This is a very, very good transfer in so many ways - rich in colour, ridiculously rich in detail, extremely well judged in terms of contrast and shadow detail - but is slightly marred by a couple of minor problems. The main one is film damage - there’s quite a lot of it to be found, particularly during the first few scenes of the film, small specks and flecks on the screen that are so noticeable simply because one doesn’t expect a transfer at this level of a movie this recent to have any at all. They’re minor enough not to bother most people, but they were somewhat surprising. Also unexpected are the instances of what appears to be the film “jumping� in the gate of the telecine machine, which manifests itself either as very slight up-down wobble or as a sudden “jump� (there’s one very noticeable instance of this right on an edit point, suggesting that this might be a problem inherent in the final-cut negative of the film). Once again, no major problem, but the above is enough to cost an otherwise perfect transfer two points in our rating.

Video compression, by the ever-reliable Sony DVD Center, is perfect, with the bitrate extremely high and the layer change obviously authored using their new “undetectable� method they’ve been employing for Superbit titles. Try as we might, we simply couldn’t spot the layer change, though obviously there’s one there somewhere. All DVDs should be authored this way, and it’s nice to see Sony taking the practice further than their Superbit range.

By the way, US-based fans of the film may actually feel inclined to import this PAL version instead - because the region 1 edition of Gangs of New York splits the film across the two discs, enforcing an intermission for a disc change that PAL viewers don’t have to suffer. The lack of interruption - not even for a layer-change pause - makes this the version of choice, hands down.

"Alright, who threw that tomato? I'll 'ave ya."

The beautifully refined and incredibly dynamic audio mix for Gangs of New York is an absolute treat in 5.1 surround, and a lot of time and effort has obviously been spent on creating it. From crystal-clear dialogue to rich, natural-sounding music (anyone else get the feeling Howard Shore was influenced by Wojciech Kilar’s work on Coppola’s Dracula, by the way?) to intensely directional sound effects and voices to the realistic rumble of the LFE channel, this is a superb audio experience that’s truly immersive and really puts you inside the film in the way the characters can’t…! It’s available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 (the default) and DTS 5.1, and while the DTS track was encoded typically louder than the Dolby version, this time there’s quite a noticeable improvement in high-frequency response and clarity on the DTS track that makes it the audio of choice if you’ve got the decoder for it.

"You see, Jenny? Open fireplaces are bad for the... I think I'll call it the Ozone Layer."

Gangs doesn’t score an especially jaw-dropping range of extra features, but there’s enough here to interest and inform those who like the film to make the effort worthwhile. Full animated menus with audio and animated transitions are included, and like all Columbia Tristar discs, these are both encoded with DVD Text but not a jacket picture (we’re still curious why US Columbia discs use the jacket picture feature while the PAL versions do not). Both discs carry legal disclaimers before their program material, presumably on behalf of the extra features…! All extras are 4:3 full frame with letterboxed film footage unless otherwise noted.

Audio Commentary: Film buffs everywhere will be salivating when they read on the back cover that Martin Scorsese has done a commentary track for Gangs of New York. But don’t get too excited; this track, while interesting and very listenable in its own right, appears to have been assembled from interviews and from Scorsese discussing his movie from notes. The resulting audio has then been edited together to match the movie. It works reasonably well, but you get the feeling at times of being lectured, and the key element of the director’s direct reaction to on-screen events is sorely missed on occasion. Still, Scorsese fans will lap this up, and there’s no denying that the man’s got plenty of interest to say.

Set Design: A nine-minute featurette on the design of the film’s remarkable sets, featuring comments from Dante Ferretti, as well as the actors and Scorsese.

Exploring the Sets: In case you haven’t already got the point, they’re very proud of the sets they made on this film. And just to rub it in, here’s nearly 23 minutes of Scorsese and Ferretti wandering around the set reminiscing and commenting on it, with a user-operated branching feature included. This allows you to hit the “enter� key whenever a symbol appears on screen, bringing up a point-of-view image of that part of the set that you can then rotate 360 degrees with your remote control. It’s like a DVD version of the “Ipix� images found on the Internet.

Costume Design: Eight and a half minutes about the elaborate costumes, with designer Sandy Powell offering her thoughts along with some of her assistants, the actors and Scorsese.

History of the Five Points: A short 13 and a half minute featurette offering some historical background to the (fictional) events depicted in the movie. While interesting, this repeats much of the information provided in the longer Discovery Channel documentary found on the second page of extras, and you’re probably better off watching that one.

Five Points Study Guide: What is it with this “study guide� trend, anyway? Is it a way of trying to remind the world that the film’s supposed to be important enough to warrant being made part of a curriculum, despite being fictional? Ah well, if your teacher makes you watch this movie, here are your notes - basically, an essay and a glossary, all on text screens.

Discovery Channel - Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York: A 35 minute documentary from the US cable network which appears to have had promo pieces for the movie added in later (hence the odd running time). Despite the rude marketing interruptions, this is a well-done, interesting and user-friendly overview of the history of the Five Points area and the wider gang and corruption problems that made New York a crappy place to live in the 19th century.

Music Video: U2’s Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning song The Hands That Built America featured two of The Corrs on its studio version, but this clip will greatly please fans of the band - it's U2 in a studio by themselves, playing the song completely live.

Trailers: A generous batch of promo from Sony Pictures and Columbia Tristar here, with 16:9 enhanced trailers for Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, Half Past Dead and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, as well as a full-frame trailer for Sniper 2 (huh?) and a 4:3 letterboxed effort for Gangs of New York itself. The Charlie’s Angels and Half Past Dead trailers have full 5.1 audio, the others Dolby Surround or, in the case of Sniper 2, stereo.

Seriously Annoying Trailers: Not just an argh, but a double aaaaaargh. Depending on the audio track you select, you’ll have either the Dolby City trailer or the truly daggy DTS Digital Experience trailer foisted upon you. Is there some kind of clause in the Sony DVD Center contract that forbids them from using audio-system trailers that suit the movie? Possibly. Be ready with your chapter-skip buttons here.

A visually luscious, sumptuously detailed movie, Gangs of New York sees Scorsese in fine technical form - but the greatest director in the world can’t make a film connect with its audience when the script just doesn’t get to the heart of its characters. On DVD, Gangs looks lovely and sounds even better, but is perhaps just a little bit lacking in extra features - considering Scorsese’s comments about the first cut of the film running an hour longer, some deleted scenes, for example, could have proven very illuminating.