Gangs of New York

I watched “Gangs of New York” just now. Before I start bashing it, I’d like to mention, that I watched it with a terrible translation into Russian and I could hear only parts of original phrases.

Now… The film is very overrated. Maybe, of course, I am missing some important New York history or atmosphere, but for an outsider there is nothing much to see. This film is an attempt to please everyone. There is some drama and romance. Some action. Some history. Some horror. Some erotic. Nothing is exceptional or even merely good.

The worst thing is the music. There is a lot of it, but it is always wrong. It is inappropriate and fails to emphasize the point. It seems totally independent of what is happening in the movie. But it was not only the music. Costumes were terrible too. I understand that members of the gang can supposedely wear some common piece of cloth. But I don’t understand how the poorest people of the lowest area of the city can afford to wear almost identical stuff. If the clothes were any better, they would like uniforms. Bad move. Makes it very surrealistic.

Few other details were bright enough to show that it was actually a movie, and that it was a movie made recently. The way the naked women are shown. It’s like they were taken from the Internet or something. Sexual culture and the way people see naked body changes. 1800s of the movie should have been totally different from th 21 century, shouldn’t they?

Acting was not bad. Leonardo DiCaprio was pretty good. Cameron Diaz was charming, as always. Daniel Day-Lewis, although unknown to me, was very nice. He also had the best make-up of all the characters. Nice work.

The last complain is that the film is very long for the points it delivers and scenes it boasts – almost 3 hours is way too much. Making it shorter would have made it better. As it is, I’ll give it a 6 out of 10 and not a fruction more.

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