Gangs Of New York

Bringing director Martin Scorsese's fascination with the New York underworld back to its bloody, primal roots, this brutal, occasionally muddled, but always riveting dream project centres on Manhattan gang warfare in the 1860s. It begins with a gruesome street battle between the Nativists (gang members of Anglo-Saxon descent) and the Dead Rabbits (more recently arrived Irish-Americans), during which the latter's leader, Priest Vallon (a brief but striking appearance from Liam Neeson), is slaughtered in front of his young son. Sixteen years later, Priest's son, Amsterdam (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in a disappointingly one-note performance), returns to the Five Points district in New York where the Nativists now rule supreme and insinuates himself with the gang in order to avenge his father. However, his evolving relationship with Nativist boss Bill the Butcher (a searing performance from Daniel Day-Lewis) tempers his anger and provides the young man with a dilemma. If the film never marries its complex political intrigue with the more simplistic personal stories — the surrogate father-son set-up between Amsterdam and Bill or Amsterdam's spiky romance with pickpocket Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz) — the epic sweep is breathtaking, the attention to detail intoxicating and Daniel Day-Lewis's turn is unmissable.

Sprawling epic account of the making of modern New York, enlivened by a roistering performance from Day-Lewis, who overshadows a miscast DiCaprio; Scorsese's ambition is evident, but his adherence to conventional devices of revenge and romance pull the mo