Gangs of New York. 2002. USA. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan, based on a book by Herbert Asbury. With Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson. 35mm preservation print, courtesy George Eastman Museum and Sikelia Productions. 168 min.
New York’s history of brutality has been a recurrent theme in Martin Scorsese’s films, but it has never been portrayed with such historical detail as in this operatic epic (here presented in a rare 35mm preservation print). Developed over more than 25 years, Gangs of New York depicts the intense, violent rivalries between immigrant Catholic and Protestant groups in Lower Manhattan’s Five Points slum between 1862 and ’63. In addition to a memorable Oscar-nominated performance by Daniel Day-Lewis as “Bill the Butcher,” Gangs of New York marks Leonardo DiCaprio’s first of many collaborations with Scorsese.