Gangs Of New York

Year: 2002

Grade: C-

Country: USA

Director: Scorsese

Review

dear martin scorsese, i write to you because i recently saw your latest filmic effort “gangs of new york” and couldn’t help but be disappointed. could you please watch goodfellas, mean streets and taxi driver again just in an effort to reacquaint yourself with truly passionate filmmaking? i found the subject matter of the film to be mildly interesting, and i know that it (new york) is a subject that is near and dear to your heart, but i found your film to be dishearteningly mainstream. the fresh vitality that your earlier films had in spades, and your later gangster pictures (goodfellas and casino) also exhibited, was sadly lacking. daniel day lewis is a fine actor, and looks the part, but he just didn’t have that much of a captivating performance despite the fact that his character was the most interesting of the lot. i found the casting choice of leonardo dicaprio to be poor, not because he’s generally a bad actor (on the contrary, he has quite a few solid performances), but rather because he didn’t look the part. my personal opinion is that you cast him more for his star power than his being right for the part. in the past you put together solid supporting casts, and in this case there was a modicum of talent, but it was misplaced, or underutilized. john c. reilly is a great actor, with good range (chicago, boogie nights, magnolia…all different roles), but i found him to be a less that grand choice in this film. brendan gleeson, on the other hand, was a good choice in his role, but he wasn’t used enough. he has great power onscreen as i’m sure you know from watching 1998’s “the general” and “28 days later…” i don’t want to berate you, or this movie, too much because i generally enjoy your work (though i could have done without “bringing out the dead”), but i am concerned because i see your latest efforts going in a troublesome direction. this worry of mine is only strengthened when i see trailers to your newest, yet to be released, effort which also features dicaprio…though i do hold out some hope since it’s about howard hawks who is a fairly interesting film subject (though it’s already been done by jonathan demme in “melvin and howard.”) sorry, i digress…i can’t say i understand what it feels like to be nominated for four academy awards and come up short each time. i’m sure it’s begun to wear on your soul, but pandering to the academy with films like “aviator,” “gangs of new york” and “kundun” isn’t the way to go. i haven’t seen kundun, but at this stage i must admit i’m weary. don’t get me wrong, i’ll check it out, if not for the simple fact that philip glass’ score is bound to be better than howard shore’s on “gangs of new york.” although i generally like howard shore it was clear that he gave you his b-grade material on this score and saved the good stuff for the lord of the rings trilogy that he was working on at the same time. i’d like to close this note to you on a positive note – i have been truly moved by the majority of your work so i hope you take the above as a constructive criticism from a fan and friend. i think that you’re probably due for an academy award sometime soon so please put out fresh, passionate and well-crafted films instead of pandering to the academy. i’d hate for your career to start looking like that of speilberg. your friend, chris miller.