Gangs of New York – Blu-ray Disc Review

Tags: Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Disney, Jim Broadbent, Leonardo Dicaprio, Martin Scorsese, Miramax

has an average rating of 7.4 on IMDb
1080p in VC-1 on a 50gb disc
Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @6.9Mbps
are worthwhile, but not exclusive.
–
– 2002
– 166 minutes
– Miramax (Disney)
–

Overall Verdict – One To Avoid

Buy it for $19.99 @ Amazon.com

— Review by: James Segars —

I enjoy “Gangs of New York” but I certainly don’t love it, and I’m far from decreeing that it’s one of Scorsese’s best films. In truth, I think it’s actually one of his lesser films, but it still manages to present a unique and compelling story, with first-class acting talent that makes the epic-running time all the more tolerable.

Back when the film came out, I made the mistake of catching it at the last available screening on opening night. It wasn’t necessarily by choice. I had to wait for one of my friends to get out of work since I had promised to wait and see it with him.

When the film’s title finally hit the screen, and the lights went up, we filed out of our seats half asleep. It was obvious that we had made a mistake, and we knew that we’d have to see it again before we were to determine if we truly enjoyed the film, or not. At the same time though, we were certain of one thing, and that was Daniel Day Lewis. He lit the screen up, and delivered one of the most memorable film characters we’d ever seen. It’s funny how that’s almost common place for Day Lewis these days, but it’s a testament to his craft and skill.

When I finally got around to seeing the film again, I made sure to see it much earlier in the day, armed with an attentive mind. Much to my surprise however, I didn’t get nearly as much out of the second viewing as I had previously hoped. Many of my initial impressions still remained. Too long. Too ambiguous. Not memorable enough — despite the earnest efforts of the cast/crew.

Like I said before, I like the film, but I don’t love it like some fans do. As for why, I just think that an epic running time should support an epic story, and I don’t think the story is as epic as they would have you believe. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone else could come along and shoot the same story, and have the film clock in under 120 minutes in length. It’s heretical to suggest such a thing, I am aware, but I’m just stating my opinion. If the pacing issues were addressed, and needless scenes were removed, a more succinct and compelling picture would surface.

Regardless of my criticisms, the film retains a huge following, and also my admiration. The scope of the film is grand, and the origins of the New York gangs compelling — if only a tad slow.

Video Quality on this release is 1080p in VC-1 on a BD-50 (50 gigabyte Blu-ray Disc) and presented in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

I’ve often wondered when I would finally come across a video presentation that was truly awful. Had I placed my money on a title, Gangs of New York is one of the last ones I would have ever bet on. Alas, this title easily earns the disgraceful title as being one of the absolute worst transfers/presentations I’ve ever watched.

Where did they go wrong? Everywhere. There is not one redeeming quality to this video presentation. You might as well pop your standard-def DVD copy into your Blu-ray player. Seriously, it’s that bad. I would have done this myself, but I don’t own the DVD. It’s not hard to envision a comparable image being produced through your player’s upconversion process. If you think I’m exaggerating, I’m really not. I’m trying to be helpful, and prevent any fans of the film from dumping their hard earned dough on this craptastic disc.

Considering the fact that The Fifth Element was restored and re-released — complete with a disc swap program through Sony — it’s not unreasonable to assume that a double-dip of this film will be coming down the pipe at some point. Unfortunately, I doubt very highly that an exchange program will be applicable for those of you that got shafted on this half-baked release. If you’re upset about the abysmal quality of this video presentation, be sure to leave a comment below. The studios do take notice, seriously. After all, that’s how The Fifth Element situation was brought to their attention, and ultimately rectified.

With that tirade out of the way, I suppose I’ll inform you precisely what’s wrong with this release.

For starters, it is ABUNDANTLY CLEAR that NO RESTORATIVE EFFORT was given to this title at all. It has ‘DVD Master’ written all over it. We often talk about the “three dimensionality” effect present in most of the Blu-ray releases out there, but this film is a rare example where there is no visible effect at all. The image is flatter than flat. To my eye, there is more apparent depth in 2D animated films. No joke.

Beyond that, the film is murkier than the brackish water of the most decrepit bay you can think of. Floating aimlessly about are signs of rampant edge enhancement, various video artifacts, halos, digital noise reduction, and beyond. If ever there was a title that reflects the way a Blu-ray title should not be presented, it’s this one.

What makes this release effort truly unforgivable is the relatively young age of the film, and the size of the disc used. With 50gb of available disc space this film should have been able to look far better than it does here, considering it looks like it was squeezed onto a 4.7gb DVD disc. I don’t believe the codec was to blame, no. Nor is the creative team behind the film. The fault rests squarely on the shoulders of the studios who squeezed this transfer out of their posterior and packaged it, without so much as a meager restoration.

If you haven’t gotten the idea by now, I hate this video presentation, and it is only out of the kindness out of my heart that I’m awarding this with a “1 Star Rating” for overall video quality. It deserves far less than that, but I’m glad to see its release, so that helps ease the pain. Here’s to hoping that Gangs of New York will one day receive the restorative/transfer treatment it deserves.

Audio Quality on this release is in Uncompressed Linear PCM 5.1 @6.9Mbps (24-bit) and Dolby Digital 5.1 @640kbps.

Thankfully, the audio quality doesn’t suffer the same fate as the video. It’s actually halfway decent in many respects. I’m not sure what could be improved upon. The dialogue is delivered adequately, and whatever surround usage is present, it sounds just fine. Low end is satisfactory, and properly represented here, with the high end and mid-range sounding accurate as well.

All is not well though. There were a couple times where the track seemed to peak, and simply got too loud for its own good. The most notable instances were the opening battle, the fire fighting fiasco, and the end battle in the streets. I found myself having to cover my ears at times due to the shrill cracks, yells and explosions. As most anyone will tell you, I enjoy my movies loud, but loudness isn’t everything. I also require them to retain sonic quality at high volumes. For whatever reason, the above scenes did not hold up all that well as presented here on the disc. As for theatrical/DVD comparisons, I definitely don’t remember being uncomfortable like I was during my viewing of the Blu-ray. With regard to the included lossy DD 5.1 track, I found that it did not exhibit the problems listed above.

Overall, this presentation is the strongest asset the disc possesses, and for the most part it is definitely an hearty improvement over the previous DD 5.1 mix which helps it achieve a “3 Star Rating“.

Bonus Materials are all presented in 480i Standard Definition with the MPEG-2 codec.

• Feature Commentary w/Martin Scorsese
• “Costume Design Featurette” (8 minutes)
• “Set Design Featurette” (9 minutes)
• “History of the Five Points” (14 minutes) I personally felt that this was the better of the two historical features.
• “Exploring The Sets Of ‘Gangs Of New York’” (23 minutes) I always love to see these kinds of featurettes. It’s amazing to see how much detail goes into the film productions. It never ceases to amaze me.
• “U2 Music Video ‘The Hands That Built America’”
• “Discovery Channel Special: ‘Uncovering The Real Gangs Of New York’” (35 minutes)
• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer

Blu-ray Disc packaging:

Screenshots:

NOTE: The full-sized 1920×1080 files are in a .PNG file format and uncompressed. Bare with the slow loading times, keep in mind these files are at least 1MB (1 megabyte) in size each.

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