Gangs Of New York

Epic, meticulously researched and ultimately disappointing, Martin Scorsese's bloody valentine to the birth of his beloved city is less than the sum of its parts. 1846, Lower Manhattan: New immigrants flock to the notorious Five Points slum, defined by the intersection of Mulberry, Cross, Worth, Orange and Little Water Streets, and wind up crowded into pestilent, lawless tenements. Colorfully named gangs — the Plug Uglies, the Bowery B'hoys, the Shirt Tails, the Daybreak Boys — fight for respect and control of the area's thriving criminal enterprises, with the bloodiest battles pitting the American-born Nativists, who despise the recent immigrants and take ...