Movie · 2002 · Drama, History, Crime · 2h 48m · R · English
Curator score: 6.2/10 (946.8K ratings)
America was born in the streets.
Overview
In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.2/10
IMDb: 7.5/10
Letterboxd: 3.72/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 72
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Martin Scorsese
Production
Miramax, Touchstone Pictures, Initial Entertainment Group, Alberto Grimaldi Productions
Cast
Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Lewis, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, Alec McCowen, David Hemmings, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Cara Seymour, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Peter-Hugo Daly, Cian McCormack, Andrew Gallagher, Philip Kirk
Where to watch
fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential
Curator Review
Verdict
A grand, unruly historical gangster epic with immense atmosphere, muscular set pieces, and one of Daniel Day-Lewis’s most electrifying performances. It’s messy and overlong, but the scale, production design, and sense of a city being born through violence make it memorable.
Best for
Viewers who like operatic crime epics
Fans of historical dramas with big visual ambition
People who prioritize performance and atmosphere over tight plotting
Anyone interested in immigrant conflict and urban origin stories
Skip if
You want a lean, tightly paced crime film
You’re put off by heightened melodrama and tonal sprawl
You need strict historical precision
You dislike long runtimes or abrasive violence
Overview
Gangs of New York is less a cleanly engineered gangster movie than a feverish civic myth: a story about power, immigration, and the brutal making of a city. Scorsese turns the Five Points into a battlefield where politics, ethnicity, and personal revenge all blur together, and the result feels both messy and alive.
Worth noting
The film’s reputation rests heavily on Daniel Day-Lewis, who dominates every scene with a performance that is theatrical in the best sense. Around him, the movie can feel overstuffed and uneven, but the sheer force of its world-building, costumes, and street-level chaos keeps it compelling even when the narrative strains.
Bottom line
It’s not the most elegant Scorsese film, but it is one of the most ambitious. If you respond to historical grit, operatic violence, and the idea of a city as a moral battleground, this is absolutely worth the trip.
Top Letterboxd reviews
maria (3.5★) · 3369 likes
daniel day-lewis has more talent in his fake eye than i do in my entire body
lauren (3.5★) · 3260 likes
i’m no historian but pretty sure there were more than three women alive in 1800s new york, idk i’ve been wrong before
Sam B. (2.5★) · 2295 likes
Honestly cannot believe they ended the film with a fucking U2 song.
rach (3★) · 1924 likes
someone please tell scorsese that it is okay to make a film that is less than 2 hours