Gangs of New York

Impressions before seeing it
I'd been wanting to see this for a while, and should have a long time ago, but it was one of those things where opportunities just never lined up and I never got around to it. But you can't go wrong with a historical epic starring a very strong cast.

How was it?
I think one of the most interesting parts for me was observing all these actors doing accents different from their regular voices. DiCaprio, Diaz, and John C. Reilly all tackled varying degrees of Irish - Reilly laying it on fairly thick and DiCaprio having only a trace, with Diaz somewhere in the middle; Jim Broadbent did American and Daniel Day-Lewis had his seedy New York accent. Very cool.

Scorsese seems to like making long films that take their time, which is cool, it's the old fashioned way of doing it and only a handful of filmmakers still do. I did get a little bored at the beginning, and that big brawl sequence in the opening act should have been cooler but a lot of the blows struck looked too much like movie fighting. What I mean by that is that I could tell the actors were swinging just out of range and stopping just short, which is how they do movie punches and stuff, but usually they're supposed to make it more convincing than that. Maybe I was just imagining it. The rest of the movie didn't have that problem in fight scenes, just that opening brawl. Anyway, I did like the movie but what ultimately makes it memorable for me is Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as Bill "The Butcher" Cutting. I think perhaps he should go up there with the other great villains of the decade like Hans Landa and Heath Ledger's Joker, because he's one of those characters whose personality just steals every scene he's in. DiCaprio may play the main character, but Gangs of New York is The Butcher's movie.

Recommendation
If you like historical epics, fascinating villains with commanding stage presences, and Daniel Day-Lewis, you'll love this. Or you might even if you don't like those things, because it's an interesting look at dark and dirty times. Of course, you probably already saw it way before I did.