--- title: "Gangs of New York: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/gangs-of-new-york/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/gangs-of-new-york" critics_score: 65 critics_reviews: 13 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Gangs of New York (2002): what the critics said Critics' score 65 from 13 reviews: 7 positive, 4 mixed, 2 negative. Most critics lean towards admiration for Gangs of New York, though praise often comes with substantial reservations. The strongest agreement concerns Scorsese’s recreation of nineteenth-century New York: the crowded streets, period detail and violent spectacle give the history a physical force that even sceptical reviews acknowledge. Daniel Day-Lewis’s Bill the Butcher is the performance most consistently singled out, while several critics value the film’s account of a city shaped by immigration, gang warfare and corruption. The main divide is over whether the personal drama can carry that historical weight. Reservations cluster around the thin revenge story, underdeveloped relationships and uneven momentum, with some finding the violence exhausting rather than illuminating. The spread is wide: Slant Magazine finds the film deeply moving despite its untidy construction, while the Los Angeles Times sees authentic streets and strong casting but too little narrative drive to make the spectacle work as drama. ## Slant Magazine Rating 4/4. 20 December 2002. An exceptionally violent and passionate account of history that counts as one of the most moving cinematic statements ever made; a willful, ardent breakthrough despite its unsettled and occasionally sloppy construction. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/gangs-of-new-york/) ## The AV Club — Scott Tobias Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 22 January 2003. Scorsese delivers a magnificent epic and grand achievement in history and anthropology with sumptuous period recreation; the film's main character is America itself, tackled with peerless technique. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/gangs-of-new-york-1798198204) ## Evening Standard — Alexander Walker Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). Scorsese's long-awaited homage to New York is a colossal fresco teeming with life and rife with violence that dwarfs the stars, chronicling warring immigrant tribes and the city's emergence from internecine warfare amid Civil War riots. The personal drama centres on the battle between Bill the Butcher and Amsterdam Vallon. [Read the review](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/violence-dominates-gangs-7428461.html) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating 3/4. 20 December 2002. Scorsese's epic visualizes a violent, Dickensian 19th-century New York forged in gang warfare and corruption, with standout performances like Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher. It is a considerable achievement but not among the director's masterpieces, lacking the momentum of his best work. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/gangs-of-new-york-2002) ## Time Out — TCh Fi1m's normalised score 75/100 (inferred from the text). 25 January 2012. This is Scorsese's Birth of a Nation, linking the frontier Western and the gangster movie through its epic historical imagination and larger-than-life Day-Lewis performance. Relationships feel underdeveloped and the tone occasionally slips into blockbuster idiom, yet it remains compelling overall. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/gangs-of-new-york) ## Empire — Angie Errigo Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). Scorsese's dark, provocative 19th-century epic is signature work with stunning period detail and ambitious scale, but marred by narrative problems and a drawn-out romantic plot that feels rushed in the second half. Day-Lewis delivers a show-stealing performance as the sociopathic Bill the Butcher. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/gangs-new-york-review/) ## Film Comment — Amy Taubin Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2003. The critic describes the film as spectacular and brilliant but punishing, essentially one long brawl bookended by extremely bloody battle scenes. She praises its value as a corrective to ideas about the history of urban violence and Scorsese's interest in New York subcultures, while noting that the revenge-romance plot sits uneasily with the broader historical material. [Read the review](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/gangs-of-new-york/) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 10 January 2003. The film is neither massacre nor masterpiece but something in between, with self-importance and narrative flaws offset by powerful images, sizzling technique, and an epic scope capturing the painful birth of a nation. Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher is the main selling point and a real showstopper. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/gangs-of-new-york-review/) ## Radio Times — Ian Freer Rating 3/5. Scorsese returns to New York underworld roots with a brutal, occasionally muddled but riveting epic about 1860s gang warfare and revenge. The epic sweep and attention to detail are breathtaking with an unmissable Day-Lewis turn, though DiCaprio is one-note and personal stories feel simplistic. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-xyjlwf/gangs-of-new-york/) ## Screen Daily Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 6 December 2002. A great old-fashioned spectacle with real, awe-inspiring battles and meticulous historical recreation, but a disappointing film whose slight revenge story fails to match its ambition or create compelling characters. Day-Lewis is mesmerizing and technical credits are Oscar-worthy, yet it plays more as a blockbuster western than a complex Scorsese epic. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/gangs-of-new-york/4011493.article) ## The New Yorker — David Denby Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 16 December 2002. The movie is strange and muddled, a disorganized epic whose conception turned vague amid excessive production values. Daniel Day-Lewis's ferocious performance as Bill the Butcher holds it together somewhat, but the intimate drama and historical panoply never fully join. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2002/12/23/for-the-love-of-fighting) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 20 December 2002. After 25 years in development the film has lost its narrative drive and sense of story, playing like an interminable airplane flight despite strong casting and authentic streets. It is a failed film but not a fiasco, with virtues of a pageant rather than a drama. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-dec-20-et-turan20-story.html) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw 10 January 2003. The critic calls it a flawed masterpiece with far more energy and virility than other Hollywood films of the time. Praise is singled out for the magnificent painterly recreation of 1840s New York and Daniel Day-Lewis's towering, lip-smacking performance as Bill the Butcher. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/jan/10/artsfeatures2) ## The Hollywood Reporter — Kirk Honeycutt 6 December 2002. The critic views the film as a relentless, pitch-black portrait of brutality and corruption shaping early America, creating perverse beauty and excitement from its horrors while presenting a blinkered historical vision. [Read the review](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/gangs-new-york-review-2002-movie-1069314/) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Rating Critic’s Pick. 20 December 2002. Scorsese's brutal, flawed and indelible epic brings to life the texture and force of 19th-century New York through a blood-soaked revenger's tale and street-level spectacle. It is an important film as well as an entertaining one, reconstructing a narrative of historical change. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/20/movies/film-review-to-feel-a-city-seethe.html) ## Variety — Todd McCarthy 5 December 2002. The ambitious picture falls somewhat short of great film status but is a richly impressive and densely realized work that opens the eye and mind to untaught aspects of American history. It manages the macro and micro aspects of history pretty well if not with magisterial confidence. [Read the review](https://variety.com/2002/film/awards/gangs-of-new-york-3-1200544486/) ## Eye for Film — Angus Wolfe Murray Fi1m's normalised score 30/100 (inferred from the text). 30 December 2002. The critic finds the film ugly and messy, with excessive violence that becomes tiresome after two and a half hours. They single out the lack of focus on the protagonist and poor character development for complaint, while noting Daniel Day-Lewis's memorable performance as the standout. [Read the review](http://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/gangs-of-new-york-film-review-by-angus-wolfe-murray) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/gangs-of-new-york.md