I've got to say that I agree perfectly with Corleonechick, having seen gangs of new york last week. There were many good points about it, especially Daniel Day Lewis, and some of the scenes were fantastic, but i did feel it trailed behind some of his other films. Also, I was looking out for Scorcese in the film, did anyone else notice that when jenny went in the rich house he was at the head of the dinner table. Also he was sat next to Bill every now and again.

Excellent review, Turi--I agree with everything you said. And you'll enjoy Asbury's book, which is well worth reading. Can you get it in the UK? I got mine from Amazon.com here.

Excellent, you've read Astbury's book. I checked the UK site of Amazon and it has it. But mustn't be readily available "usually dispatched within 3 to 5 weeks."

Hopefully it should be worth the wait. I read reviews on it somewhere and it has some good praise. I think Astbury's research was mostly from newspapers too. The fact that it was wrote in the 20's shouldn't be too much of a factor should it?

I wasn't as impressed with this movie as most of the people who have posted. I didn't think it had a New York "feel" - it obviously was filmed on a set and I thought it really looked it. I also thought the plot had no real direction and tried to fit too much in. I also would have liked it better with less gratutitous violence, but that's more of a personal preference. But Daniel Day-Lewis was great and I enjoyed his performance.

It is a factor, Turi. One of the biggest problems in trying to do research on gangsters and organized crime is that these fellows seldom write dusty books of memoirs, or leave their collected papers to universities, to be perused by the likes of you or me. In fact, most of them were illiterate, and those who could write, didn't, for fear of breaking omerta, or otherwise divulging grist for prosecutors. So, contemporary journalistic accounts are just about the only sources that authors can rely on. That said, Asbury's book is pretty much the only semi-authoritative source on that period of time in NYC's history. And at least some of what he wrote has been verified by other authors.

i know im not. i dislike leonardo decapreo

It's a good film Drex, you shouldn't let the fact that you dislike Dicaprio be a stand on why you wont watch the film. Personally I'm not a fan of him. He isn't an amazing actor, but he plays his part fairly well in GONY. Not outstanding though, but he's believable and watchable. Infact just watch it for Daniel Day Lewis's performance.

I saw the making of G.O.N.Y. on Showcase yesterday. It was only 30 mins. but it was pretty cool to see a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. Did you guys know the movie was shot in Rome?