Gangs of New York
I didn’t get to see Martin Scorsese’s latest, “Gangs of New York” until this year, but it would have bumped “Bowling for Columbine” off my list of top 5 films for 2002 if I had. It’s a great film and confirms that Scorsese is the greatest living American filmmaker. I haven’t seen anything by him that I haven’t enjoyed and thought about often. Technically it’s superb, but it’s the combination of technique, story and performances that make it a powerful film. It’s heavily allegorical without being heavy-handed and amazing to look at without really showing off. There are also some great triads in the films where instead of cross-cutting between two parallel threads, three stories or themes or characters are linked together. As with all of Scorsese’s films since “Raging Bull” it was brilliantly edited by Thelma Schoonmaker (who I had the privilege of seeing at a workshop in Prince Edward Island a few years ago). I’m keen on seeing it again to see what else I see in it.
