Gangs of New York: Collector's Edition (2002) |
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General | Extras | ||
Category | Action |
Dolby Digital Trailer-City Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Martin Scorsese (Director) |
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Rating |
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Year Of Production | 2002 | ||
Running Time | 159:46 | ||
RSDL / Flipper |
RSDL (81:57) Dual Disc Set |
Cast & Crew | |
Start Up | Menu | ||
Region Coding | 2,4 | Directed By | Martin Scorsese |
Studio
Distributor |
![]() Sony Pictures Home Entertain |
Starring |
Leonardo DiCaprio Daniel Day-Lewis Cameron Diaz Henry Thomas |
Case | Amaray-Transparent-S/C-Dual | ||
RPI | $44.95 | Music | Howard Shore |
Video | Audio | ||
Pan & Scan/Full Frame | None |
English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 ![]() |
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Widescreen Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | ||
16x9 Enhancement |
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Video Format | 576i (PAL) | ||
Original Aspect Ratio | 2.35:1 | Miscellaneous | |
Jacket Pictures | No | ||
Subtitles |
English English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary |
Smoking | Yes |
Annoying Product Placement | No | ||
Action In or After Credits | No |
The 10-time Academy Award nominated The Gangs of New York is the latest blood-splattered orgy of violence from master director Martin Scorsese. While Scorsese is responsible for crafting some of my favourite films, sadly this is not one of them.
Originally studying to be a Catholic Priest, Scorsese left the Seminary in the 1950s to study film-making at New York University. With a directing career beginning at the end of the 1950s, some of Scorsese's more notable films include Mean Streets (1973), Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995), and Kundun (1997).
Scorsese's films tend to be set in the dark under-belly of New York, often featuring characters and locations of his home town of Little Italy, New York. His movies often focus on anti-social, loner protagonists, struggling with the difficult circumstances that they find themselves in. Scorsese has teamed up with actor Robert De Niro eight times, and for both of them, these tend to be their better films. Other actors who seem to shine under Scorsese's direction include Harvey Keitel and Joe Pesci.
Scorsese's far-reaching influence on other writer/directors over the last 30 years is obvious with the constant referencing and imitating of his work. Along with Francis Ford Coppola, he has helped define what a modern gangster movie should look and feel like, and along with Woody Allen, Scorsese has helped define New York's image in popular culture and film throughout the twentieth century.
In many ways, The Gangs of New York represents a departure from Scorsese's oft-imitated style. Here, he's largely abandoned the black humour and cathartic violence for a very harsh, vicious, and confronting depiction of violence and cruelty. Scorsese has also adopted a very stylised approach to the appearance of the film, which reminded me a little of Moulin Rouge - there are various film speeds and lavish and theatrical camera movements around overly elaborate, and slightly surreal, sets. The rapid editing of some sequences, such as the fight scenes, lends the movie a sense of hyper-reality.
Although not credited anywhere in the movie, or on IMDB, Scorsese's film is based on the non-fiction book by Herbert Asbury entitled The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld. The book is a collection of police and court records, oral criminal history and folklore about the larger-than-life New York gangs of the nineteenth century. Apparently Scorsese has been trying to get this film made since he read the book in 1970.
The Gangs of New York is about violence of all kinds - criminal, domestic, street, political, religious, and gang-related. In the audio commentary, Scorsese claims the film is "bloody, not violent", but I, and I'm sure many others, would disagree. The story is set in the sometimes lawless and uncivilised period of US history between the War of Independence and the Civil War. A time when the US nation was born (on paper at least), and the US colonies were taking their early and uncertain steps toward nationhood. Thousands of poor and ill-educated immigrants, many Irish, flooded into New York, and the Black Americans had just been emancipated.
The story is set in Five Points, in Manhattan, New York, which "wasn't a city, it was a furnace, where a city might one day be forged". It is a place in which the municipal police fight the city police, and gangs run the city. In this tribal, sometimes feudal, society, built on blood rituals, folklore, and American mythology, faith binds the various tribes, and the two dominant tribes are the Catholic Dead Rabbits, whose members include various oppressed groups, especially Irish and Blacks, and the Protestant American-born Natives. After the Dead Rabbits and their leader Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) are defeated in battle in 1846, the members of the Dead Rabbits are disbursed. The power of the Natives, and that of their leader, Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day-Lewis), continues to grow through their cruelty and oppression. However, after 16 years in Hellgate House of Reform, Priest Vallon's son, Amsterdam (Leonardo Di Caprio) returns to Five Points to seek vengeance. In some ways the story is very simple - a young man seeks to avenge the death of his father. However, the story, and the movie, is not very literal. As with most art-house films, some thought is required to appreciate this movie, as it is not always very accessible. Sadly, at other times, it is far too obvious and patronising. For example, frequently Scorsese thinks we might have forgotten a character, or something else important, so we get a lengthy flash-back to remind us. I find this kind of spoon-feeding annoying and insulting. Scorsese also trots out a few childish movie clichés, which range from the standard love triangle, to the hooker with a heart of gold (Cameron Diaz).
One last observation is that the movie is overly long. While I absolutely love epic films, this movie doesn't seem to be able to comfortably sustain its length. However, like most Scorsese films, the costumes, art direction, sets, cinematography, music, lighting, and editing are all first-rate. Indeed, there are large sections of this movie that can be enjoyed purely for their sheer technical brilliance. It's a great pity that the same time and effort doesn't appears to have gone into working on the story and script. I understand that the film was originally about three and a half hours long, before being cut down to about two and a half, so maybe something was lost in the cutting. It's interesting to note that in the audio commentary, Scorsese observes that his long-time editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, didn't read the script before editing the film.
Unlike the movie, the transfer is excellent, and although at times it is a little grainy, it looked absolutely fantastic on both my widescreen television and when I projected it onto my wall-mounted screen.
The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced.
The sharpness is excellent. For example, consider the very detailed outdoor scene at 4:45, or the lavishly intricate room interior at 47:22. There are many dark scenes, and the shadow detail and black level are both excellent.
The lighting and cinematography in this movie is sublime, and the transfer's colour is magnificent with a rich palette of well-saturated hues.
Using DVD-ROM software to look at the largest file of the feature (20,447 frames of the movie), the average bit rate was a very impressive 8.016 megabits per second. There are no noticeable problems with MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video artefacts, in the form of some very mild aliasing, are noticeable as a mild shimmer at times, such as on the stairs at 5:22. Film artefacts appear throughout, but thankfully, most are very small. There are a few badly affected passages, when they did become distracting, such as the smattering of flecks and blotches that appear between 14:42 and 15:02. While it was never a problem, there did seem to be some mild edge enhancement at times, such as at 44:02.
There are three sets of subtitles present on this DVD: English and English for the Hearing Impaired for the feature, and English for the Audio Commentary. They were all accurate.
This is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed at 81:57. It was noticeable, but not disruptive.
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There are three audio options on this DVD: English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s), English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s), and an English Audio Commentary, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround-encoded (192Kb/s). Although the Dolby Digital and dts options both seemed to enjoy the same clarity, the Dolby Digital option sounded a little thin and reedy in comparison.
The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent on both the 5.1 audio tracks.
The musical score is credited to the brilliant Howard Shore, who is also responsible for the wonderfully atmospheric music in The Silence of the Lambs, Single White Female, Sliver, Se7en, Cop Land, The Game, The Cell, The Score, Lord of the Rings, and Panic Room. Shore has composed a very moody and percussive score, featuring period instruments such as drums and whistles. The film also cleverly juxtaposes the film's source music with the orchestral score. There are also songs and music contributed by Bono and Peter Gabriel.
The surround presence and activity is very effective. The rears are used throughout for both the score and effects, such as during the fire at 28:52, or the party at 90:28. The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively to support both the score and the sound effects.
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There are a number of extras, with some repetition. Unless stated otherwise, all extras are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio.
An animated menu with audio.
Audio Commentary
There are a few gaps in this screen-specific commentary by Scorsese, but it's simply the best audio commentary that I've ever heard on a review DVD. Scorsese displays his film-lecturing background through his detailed and thoughtful discussion of this movie in reference to other well-known films. In this fascinating commentary, Scorsese discuses the film's imagery, and many of the advanced film techniques he employed.
Set Design (9:07)
Production Designer Dante Ferretti discusses how he came to be involved in the production, and the process of set design generally, from sketches, to models, to the final set construction. This featurette also includes interviews with some of the key cast and crew members.
Exploring the sets of The Gangs of New York (22:43)
Dante Ferretti and Scorsese tour the lavish and detailed sets. There is also an option to allow an icon to appear on-screen which, if activated, will provide a 360 degree view of the location.
Costume Design (8:23)
Costume Designer Sandy Powel and Scorsese discuss balancing historical fact with the artistic and stylistic choices in costuming.
History of the Five Points (13:34)
Scorsese discusses his fascination with New York and its history. Five Points events such as the draft riots and immigration issues are also outlined.
Five Points Study Guide
"Uncovering the real Gangs of New York" (35:24)
A Discovery Channel documentary on the historical events that inspired the movie. This featurette includes interviews with various authors and historians, as well as archival footage and stills. It's this featurette that provides the extras package with some real substance.
Music Video (4:50)
The music video for U2's "The Hands that Built America", presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, non-16x9 enhanced, with Dolby Digital Stereo audio.
Trailers
NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.
The Region 2 and 4 versions will be the same, but The Gangs of New York and its extras have been strangely split across two discs in Region 1. I use the word "strangely" as some reliable reviews of the R1 edition mention excessive pixelization, which does not affect our version.
The Region 4 DVD misses out on:
The Region 1 DVD misses out on:
Although there is no compelling reason to favour either version in terms of extras, I would favour the local version, as I always prefer a PAL image over the inferior NTSC standard, and perhaps more importantly, the feature is on one disc without any loss of quality.
The Gangs of New York is technically a very well-made film, however for me, story-wise, it needed a lot more work. Overly long, and a little too obscure or too obvious at times, it tends to wallow in its self-indulgence and artiness.
The video quality is excellent.
The audio quality is also excellent.
The extras are good overall.
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Review Equipment | |
DVD | Pioneer DV-535, using S-Video output |
Display | Grundig Elegance 82-2101 (82cm, 16x9). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable. |
Audio Decoder | Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials. |
Amplification | Sony STR DE-545 |
Speakers | Sony SS-V315 x5; Sony SA-WMS315 subwoofer |