It is 1846. In violent combat, Bill 'the Butcher' Cutter (Daniel Day-Lewis) and his gangs of white Anglo-Saxon Protestant 'Natives' defeat the Irish Catholic immigrant gangs at Five Points, New York, and kill their leader, 'Priest' Vallon (Liam Neeson). Sixteen years later, Vallon's son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) returns incognito to Five Points, seeking satisfaction from Bill.

American critics have not been kind to Martin Scorsese's three-hour epic, 'Gangs of New York', complaining of its historical inaccuracies, its simplistic plotting, and the blandness of DiCaprio's central performance. Yet while the film may not be Scorsese's very best, it is certainly an estimable piece of work, and deserves to be defended against these objections.

Firstly, it is odd to criticise any non-documentary film, and particularly this one, for playing hard and fast with history. Scorsese is neither the first, nor indeed the last, to combine fact with fiction; and in any case, there is so much in this film, right down to the names chosen for its protagonists, to indicate clearly that a gospel version of history was never intended, that it seems perverse to quibble with the factuality of its details.

Secondly, to be sure the film's plot is quite simple: from within the first fifteen minutes it is perfectly clear that the film will follow a revenge formula as old as story-telling itself, and that it will end with a confrontation between Amsterdam and Bill. Yet what makes this film so engaging is not its principal story, but the wealth of background detail woven into its thread, creating a convincing portrayal of an entire society at odds with itself. By the time the film reaches its climax, Bill and Amsterdam's standoff at Five Points, far from being the simple personal vendetta which we have expected from the outset, instead provides the focus for a myriad of more fundamental conflicts. The film shows Protestant divided from Catholic, English divided from Irish, native from immigrant, white from black, rich from poor, one political party from another, and the whole country torn apart by the Civil War. Everyone, it emerges, belongs to one gang or another, and it is impossible not to take sides.

So Scorsese uses his plot, for all its simplicity, as the vehicle for a complex analysis of the divisiveness which lies at the very heart of the so-called United States, both past and present. At the film's close, a timelapse sequence shows the New York City skyline emerging from the ground, ending with the rise of the Twin Towers. We expect them to disappear, but instead they remain on the screen, like two great warriors in a face-off - defiantly opposed, and doomed some day, like all Scorsese's divided heroes, to fall.

Finally, there is the acting. Daniel Day-Lewis puts in an extraordinarily rounded performance, aping to perfection all the vocal and gestural idiosyncrasies of Scorsese's long-time collaborator, Robert DeNiro, and making Bill Cutter seem by turns monstrous and heroic, terrifying and tragic. His acting greatly overshadows DiCaprio's, but it should not be forgotten that so does his character. Amsterdam is Bill's junior by some twenty-five years, and he is not so much interesting for the young apprentice he is, as for the professional butcher we can see him becoming. Cameron Diaz, as everyone's love interest Jenny Everdeane, is pretty, and pretty unconvincing, but this is unimportant, as Scorsese's preoccupations lie firmly, as usual, in matters masculine.

Don't believe all the negative press - 'Gangs of New York' is intelligent, well-crafted, and definitely worth a look.

Anton Bitel, 14.01.03