Gangs of New York

Blu-ray Review

Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Release: July 1, 2008

Gangs of New York, an epic tale starting at the Battle of Five Points in 1846, has been brought to the Blu-ray format thanks to Walt Disney Home Entertainment. This film, directed by the Academy Award-winning Martin Scorsese, went on to do quiet well at the box office, and was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

The story kicks off with the Battle of Five Points back in 1846, with rival gangs going up against each other, warring for control over the slums of New York City.

The Native Americans, led by Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis) are going up against the Irish immigrants, led by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson).

From there, you see things move forward to Vallon’s son, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. He returns back to the area of battle, trying to seek out vengeance for his father. He ends up actually taking on Bill Cutting as his mentor, learning how everything works. Of course, there would be no story without a love interest, a pickpocket named Jenny (Cameron Diaz).

Eventually, Vallon’s son, who goes by the name Amsterdam, finds himself in a conflict as he grows to admire Bill, the same man who took his father away from him.

The performances in this film are truly epic, as Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, and others are absolutely phenomenal. The movie has plenty going on, with tons of corruption, fighting, conflict, etc. Scorsese, as he always does, manages to do a great job to capture it all and present another fantastic film.

The video quality of the Blu-ray release of Gangs of New York is nothing to write home about. Disney did not do their best work in bringing the film over to Blu-ray, even though there are certainly a few spots where things needed to be fixed up. Some of the notable problems come with edge enhancement ringing, among other issues.

The video is presented in 1080p/VC-1 transfer, presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio. There are some solid colors here, as well as some nice fleshtones and pop to the entire transfer.

The video transfer is superior to the old DVD version, but it still has many problems. Other notable issues that you will pick up on include the over-use of Digital Noise Reduction in certain scenes, as well as grain in the picture. Overall, a very disappointing video transfer onto the Blu-ray format.

The audio mix was done nicely as it is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1, as well as uncompressed PCM 5.1 If you have the set-up, the PCM 5.1 track is nicely done. The audio mix does a good job of presenting some great bass, making use of the subwoofer.

Dialogue is always presented in a very clear and crisp manner as well on the center channel. The surround channels are used to create a great ambience, especially during some of the more action-packed sequences. The audio mix is brought down a bit due to a musical score which is lacking.

The extras on the Blu-ray release come straight over from the DVD release, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there isn’t some good stuff here.

To start things off, you get Martin Scorsese in an audio commentary track, which provides fans of the director with some great insight into the film, cast, stories, etc.

There is also a feature called the History of the Five Points, which gives some historical information on how it was back when the real battle was actually going on.

Beyond that, you get a few nice features focusing on the costume design of the film, the set design, as well as the way in which the entire city was built on a lot in Rome.

Rounding out the features is a 35-minute TV special called Discovery Channel Special: Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York. You get a nice overview of the history here of old New York, but it doesn’t get in-depth enough. A U2 music video for The Hands That Built America, and trailers are included.

The lack of any Blu-ray exclusive features is a bit disappointing, but for true fans of Scorsese and the film in general, they will likely put past this. The film is not perfect, but it certainly is worth checking out on Blu-ray, as it is epic, packing some breath-taking moments.

Movie: 8.0

The film does have a lot going on, but it is mixed well and comes across with some truly epic scenes.

Video: 7.0

The video transfer is disappointing to say the least, too many problems here for a Blu-ray transfer.

Audio: 7.8

The audio mix is better than the video transfer, with good dialogue and sound effects. The musical score is lacking though.

Extras: 7.5

The lack of any Blu-ray exclusive extras bring the score down, decent stuff if you haven’t seen any of it before.

Final Score: 7.4