Spoilers.
I loved this movie. Bill the Butcher should go down in the movie villain hall of fame. He was so...over the top it was great, and with that stovepipe hat...awesome. I think Scorsese has topped his last few films (Kundun (1997), which I thought was pretty damn good, and the putrid Bringing Out The Dead(1999)). DiCaprio's acting wasn't as poor as I expected -- that's not to say it was good, but he is at least on par with his contemporaries (ummm, Keanu Reeves, Johnny Depp...y'know, all them pretty boys from the late 80's/early 90's), which, again, really isn't a compliment. I didn't get too into his character though. There really wasn't much there to get into. I would have liked a more subjective viewpoint while he was working for Bill, rather than just assuming that he would come around and fight the bastard. Speaking of which... Their first confrontation (at Bill's annual party, with the knife throwing) rocked. You knew that Amsterdam (or whatever the hell his name was) wasn't going to die just yet, which means that Bill can do whatever the fuck he wants to him (fuck him with a knife?) and Leo'll come back to avenge daddy (damn, I love movie logic). The final battle... At first when I saw Bill come out of the smoke I was reminded of Enter the Dragon and the room full of mirrors...except Leo ain't Bruce Lee and very well could have gotten a knife between his ribs...but the Navy? What the fuck!? No way man, Leo should've been the one to fuckin' kill Bill, not a stray piece of fuckin' shrapnel! This scene felt too loose, like a lot of it was left on the cutting room floor (so to speak). It wasn't as epic as it felt it should have been. I would have like a breif cutaway explaining why the Navy was firing on Five Points specifically, when the rest of the city was in chaos too. As far as themes...I did enjoy the politicians, police and crime bosses minging together in an attempt to explain the legal climate of the time, and the simplicity of this stuff reminded me of older American cinema. Scorsese said that one of the battles with Miramax is that they wanted more character interaction while he wanted more enviornment. I agree with Scorsese, and if you pay attention, you see a bunch of jump cuts showing neighborhood youth's vandalising stuff etc., that while it shouldn't have fit in, made the film bigger. I just think that the Leo/Butcher stuff needed to be more pointed (no pun intended). Maybe I'm just desensitized to violence, but there needed to be a bigger emotional impact, and since Leo (as well as the younger toughs) weren't really fleshed out, there should have been a greater visual impact. Leo/Butcher should have been the peaks while the setting should have been the valleys. It felt as if they just bled into each other. All in all though, a really good movie. I'll be seeing it again shortly (after I finish up what's on my plate now), and if anyone reading this hasn't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for? Do you think it will be better on your 19" TV? |
