Rating: R (intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and language)
Length: 167 minutes

Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

ENGLISH: DTS 5.1
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
FRENCH: Dolby Digital 5.1

English

A boy is sent away to religious school after witnessing his father's death in a gang war in 19th Century New York City. He comes back home to seek revenge on his father's killer and, in the process, gets to know him better. He also ends up falling for a very lovely and "talented" woman; a woman his friend and secret keeper lusts after which proves to be troublesome to say-the-least.

Daniel Day-Lewis! I could simply leave it at that; without him this would have just been a good film. This is an entertaining look at a section of New York City during a time of heavy immigration, corrupt politics and the American Civil War. In my opinion this is the movie that DiCaprio proved to the world that he could actually act and it launched him into a series of more good films ("The Aviator", "The Departed") where he continued and polished his craft; he's now more than just eye-candy for the ladies.

This film runs for two hours and forty seven minutes and there are times when you feel it. Scorsese spends a lot of time with character development and storytelling; this isn't necessarily bad but the film could have been trimmed down a bit. There were a number of big names in this and with the exception of Neeson I guess Scorsese wanted to make sure everyone got plenty of face time.

• Feature Commentary with Martin Scorsese
• Costume Design Featurette
• Set Design Featurette
• History of the Five Points Featurette
• Exploring the Sets of Gangs Of New York With Multiple Angles Utilizing 360-Degree Shots of The Sets
• U2 Music Video "The Hands That Built America"
• Discovery Channel Special Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York
• The Five Points Study Guide: Luc Sante Introduction and Five Points Vocabulary

In spite of its length, this is one of my favorite films. If for no other reason watch it for the incredible Academy Award nominated performance by Daniel Day-Lewis (he lost out to Adrien Brody for "The Pianist"). And since you'll spend almost three hours with the film there's no reason not to take some time with the extras; they're worth checking out.

Martin Scorsese   [The Aviator, Cape Fear (1991), Casino, The Departed, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver]

Jim Broadbent - Boss Tweed

[The Avengers, Brazil, Chronicles of Narnia, Moulin Rouge!, Superman IV]

Daniel Day-Lewis - Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting

[The Bounty, The Last of the Mohicans]

Cameron Diaz - Jenny Everdeane

[Being John Malkovich, Charlie's Angels, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Shrek, Shrek 2 Vanilla Sky]

Leonardo DiCaprio - Amsterdam Vallon

[The Aviator, The Departed, The Man in the Iron Mask, The Quick and the Dead (1995), Titanic]

Larry Gilliard Jr. - Jimmy Spoils

Brendan Gleeson - Walter 'Monk' McGinn

[28 Days Later, Braveheart, Cold Mountain, Kingdom of Heaven, Lake Placid, Mission Impossible II, Troy, The Village]

Stephen Graham - Shang

[Snatch]

David Hemmings - Mr. Schermerhorn

[Gladiator, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]

Gary Lewis - McGloin

[Eragon]

Eddie Marsan - Killoran

[21 Grams, The Bunker, Miami Vice, Mission Impossible III, V For Vendetta]

Alec McCowen - Reverend Raleigh

Liam Neeson - 'Priest' Vallon

[Batman Begins, The Haunting (1999), K-19: The Widowmaker, Kingdom of Heaven, The Mission, Schindler's List]

John C. Reilly - Happy Jack

[The Aviator, Boogie Nights, Dark Water, Magnolia, The Perfect Storm, Talladega Nigts: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Thin Red Line]

Cara Seymour - Hell-Cat Maggie

[American Psycho]

Henry Thomas - Johnny Sirocco

[Suicide Kings]