Whoa, dude.

This was one hella violent movie.

I had not expected all that bloodshed.

Daniel Day Lewis sticks out in my mind the most. Fucking AWESOME actor. He needs MORE good scripts and opportunities to display his massive talent. I remember "In the Name of the Father" and how that movie floored me. He must go down as one of the acting greats of our time.

Now...was it a good film?

Well, parts of it were fucking brilliant.

In fact, MOST of it was.

However, it left me feeling utterly, utterly drained because of the amount of bloodshed.

I am not usually squeamish. For the first time in a movie since I was a child, I put my hands over my face in certain parts. The violence is truly horrific at certain times, folks. More so than "Saving Private Ryan" even.

Speaking of "Saving Private Ryan", I didn't like that movie the first time I saw it, mainly because of the endless bloodshed. I loved it the second time around. The same I imagine, will go for this movie, although in this case it seems there were a few more flaws...

Of course, being a snobby pretentious musician, I found those flaws to be mainly in the soundtrack.

Whenever music was used as a "score", it was modern day, Irish influenced, trip-hoppy stuff. In my opinion, suitable for a film like "In the Name of the Father" (yes that is the last vague comparison I will make to that film) but extremely out of place and time in "Gangs of New York".

And the closing credits...or before them, I should say...a lilting moment of reflection on the cityscape and then...BAM...IT'S FUCKIN' LOUD TRIP HOP IRISH FOLK with Bono singing, of course. That just didn't work for me, I don't know about you. It really jarred with what I was feeling at the time: a whole bunch of loss. I didn't need a fucking fanfare.

Overall, there were some highly memorable moments. Unfortunately most of them bloody. The look on the faces of the cinema-goers as I left the theatre probably said it all. This is a film which devastates in its brutality. You won't be forgetting this one for a while.

4 stars.

If you have seen it, what do you think?

.
bloody edit
[This message was edited Sat Feb 15 4:57:52 PST 2003 by mrdespues]

I still haven't seen the movie!

I have seen "In the name of the father" and it is a brilliant film. In my opinion Daniel Day Lewis is the greatest living actor. Have you seen "My left Foot" he is absolutely awesome in that.

Lleena said:

I STILL haven't seen that film! I will endeavour to see it, Lleena.

Very very bloody movie My poor wife is quite squeamish about such things and she didn't enjoy that aspect at all!

I thought Daniel Day Lewis was brilliant (as always).
So was Brendan Gleeson, he's always great.
Surprised that Leonardo hasn't managed an Irish accent yet.

Good movie... however the hatchet job they did in chopping the movie down to size shows with some continuity errors here and there.

The movie wasn't what I expected at all, which is a good thing. The characters weren't clear cut heroes or villains. I was glad it didn't try to be an Irish "Braveheart" or some shit like that. The music didn't work for me at all though.

Very bloody movie... but worth seeing. I like long movies anyway.

Talking of accents! I remember Keanu Reeves trying to do an English accent in Dracula (the Francis Ford Coppola movie), That was hilarious!

It's on my list, I wanna see it SO bad! If I can stop seeing Chicago for 5 minutes, I could accomplish something... :X


Movies to see:
Gangs of NY
Bowling for Columbine
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
Antoine Fisher (again)
The Hours
Lord of the Bloody Rings
Catch Me if You Can
Real Women Have Curves
Rabbit Proof Fence




35mm edit...
[This message was edited Sat Feb 15 5:12:34 PST 2003 by CalhounSq]

I agree about Leonardo's accent, Ian...and what was up with him having an Irish accent in the part he played but NOT in the voice-over? That just didn't make sense, unless it was him talking from a much older age and his accent had thus been fully Americanised.

Here is my short review of those movies, Calhoun. The ones I have seen are in bold.

CalhounSq said:

CalhounSq said:

Standing in the Shadows of Motown was tight but the Wrong Musical Singers IMHO.the Backup Singers were better to me.pulling for Martin Scorsese to Get His First OScar but that Movie is a bit much.aside from Daniel Day Lewis not much going down.feedback on the other Films have been Mixed as well overall.going by some of the Nominations this Year it reflects a Very Average Year at best at the Box Office.put it like this:even if "Chicago" had have come out last Year around this Time it would still have gotten at least 10 Nominations when Compared to what's out overall.for me the films of the past year have been more Business&less Show.

mrdespues said:

I agree with this sort of..the opening battle with that trip hop etc music was paradoxical and odd..I just thought this was Scorseses way of genuis or mistake...like the voice over in Blade Runner



I loved this part..how it was a rising symphony and then the title cards jam up the screen and then U2's melancholic song comes on

Scorsese + NY gangs = lotsa bloody violence.

CalhounSq said:

this is an awesome documentary--i went 2 go see this with a friend of mine a couple months ago, and it's pretty sweet.

you'll learn a lot from it.