GANGS OF NEW YORK on DVD

[NEON MERCURY]

So what is the wait........Hurry up and grab this UNDER-rated film on DVD to own.......I got mine.  IT is FINALLY here!

Take MacGuffin's advice and go to Best Buy and get it cheap  GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I will post more after viewing it.

[Duck Sauce]

Good thing you werent hired to lead the advertising campaign

[Pwaybloe]

I got ahold of mine about two weeks ago, but I didn't want to mention it because it would sound like I was bragging (well, shit, I guess I am now).

Anyway, the dvdfile.com review is spot on.  Scorsese's commentary is good, but not great.  The making of's are good, but not great.  The transfer is good, but not great.  

Who cares.  The movie still rocks.

[Pozer]

Good thing you werent hired to lead the advertising campaign

please shut up, for once in your life

[Derek]

Tread lightly around Duck Sauce, he just might bar you from responding to any of his posts,  just like he did to me.

[Redlum]

Just saw it for the first time. Haven't really soaked up the film itself yet but I have to disagree and say it was a *great* transfer.

[MacGuffin]

I have to disagree and say it was a *great* transfer.

I agree with your disagree. I found the colors very vibrant and pop off the screen, and the transfer to be crisp and sharp.

The commentary, on the other hand, is fine, but seems more like it's a string of "making of" interviews and comments pasted together, rather than Scorsese sitting in front of the movie and commenting on it as we're watching.

Also, found this info on "The Blues" project Scorsese mentions on his commentary:

2003 will be year to sing 'The Blues'
By Joan Anderman, Boston Globe Staff, 12/17/2002

Martin Scorsese's ''The Blues'' - a seven-part series to be broadcast on WGBH-TV next fall - will anchor a yearlong, multimedia celebration of the influential musical form by a coalition of film, music, literature, and education partners. A benefit concert Feb. 7 at Radio City Music Hall will kick off the festivities, which include education programs and a traveling blues exhibit produced by the Seattle-based Experience Music Project, a 13-part public radio series, a variety of related CDs and DVDs, and a companion book.

To honor the salute to a uniquely American art form, the US Senate has declared 2003 the Year of the Blues. Artists on the Year of the Blues advisory board include B.B. King, Koko Taylor, Bonnie Raitt, and Newburyport author and music historian Peter Guralnick.

The sort of integrated, grand-scale attention being planned for the coming months is long overdue, says Bob Santelli, the director of Experience Music Project and a blues historian. ''Blues has always been the forgotten grandfather of rock and hip-hop,'' says Santelli, who hopes to cultivate a new generation of blues fans with a Web site (www.yearoftheblues.org), a high school classroom outreach program, and an interactive exhibit that will debut in the fall and travel the country through 2005.

''EMP's mission is built on wanting kids to know about the blues, about the history that gave rise to the popular music they listen to,'' he said.

Scorsese, executive director of the PBS series, enlisted the talents of six other directors - among them Win Wenders, Clint Eastwood, and Mike Figgis - to create 90-minute films based on their particular passions for different aspects of the blues. ''The Blues'' begins with the journey from Africa to the Mississippi Delta, moves through the juke joints and recording studios of Memphis and Chicago, and culminates in the modern renaissance of roots music. Clips from the series will be screened at the Sundance Film Festival next month.

''Marty has a great interest in cultural preservation, and music is a big part of it,'' says Alex Gibney, coproducer of ''The Blues.'' ''It's an attempt to really connect the history with the present, rooted in the idea that the past is very much alive, all around us.''

Here is the complete breakdown of episodes:

From Mali to Mississippi
Director Martin Scorsese winds his way from the banks of the Niger River in Mali to the cotton fields and juke joints of the Mississippi Delta to trace the origins of the blues in a lyrical combination of original performances (including Ali Farka Touré, Salif Keita, Habib Koité, Taj Mahal, Corey Harris, Othar Turner) and rare archival footage.

Warming by the Devil's Fire
Director Charles Burnett presents a tale about a young boy's encounter with his family in Mississippi in 1955, and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues.

The Road to Memphis
Director Richard Pearce traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B.B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis features original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage of Howlin' Wolf and Fats Domino.

The Soul of a Man
Director Wim Wenders explores the lives of his favorite blues artists - Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir - in a film that is part history and part personal pilgrimage. The film tells the story of these lives in music through a fictional film-within-a-film, rare archival footage, and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nick Cave, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cassandra Wilson, Los Lobos and others.

Piano Blues
Director - and piano player - Clint Eastwood explores his life-long passion for the piano blues, using a treasure of rare historical acts as well as interviews and performances by such living legends as Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Little Richard and Dr. John.

Godfathers and Sons
Director Marc Levin and Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess and heir to the Chess Records legacy) explore the heyday of Chicago blues as they unite to produce an album that seeks to bring veteran blues players together with contemporary hip-hop musicians. Along with never-before-seen archival footage of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, are original performances by Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Magic Slim, Ike Turner and Sam Lay.

Red, White and Blues
Director Mike Figgis joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Tom Jones performing and talking about the music of the early 60's British invasion that reintroduced the blues sound to America.

[filmcritic]

"Gangs of New York" is one of the great visionary movies that Martin Scorsese had ever done. It's not one of his best, but one of his most visionary. I have looked over the DVD and I'm afraid that the movie looses something from the transition to the big screen to video. On video, it lacks the excitement and aw that it got in theatres (particularly the riveting last few minutes with U2 taking us to the end credits). As far as the commentary is concerned, it is like a making-of more than anything. But it's great to hear Marty talking about it anyway. I was a little disappointed that half of the movie is on disc 1 and the other half is on disc 2. It takes us out of the mood a little bit of the movie. But the DVD has tons of extras and will be interesting to look at. So, the DVD isn't great, but worth a look.

[Alexandro]

bought it two weeks ago...

kinda dessapointd by the commentary, in a way, but it's still ok...

i don't care much for the extras on any dvd, since what I like is the movie..

the transfer is great, the fucking colors look amazing...

great movie

[Gold Trumpet]

Certain good people have told me to give this film another try. I don't think I really can. The idea of sitting through this movie at the length it is at is numbing.

There should be a special feature called, "Appreciation of Day Lewis" that strings together his major scenes from the movie into one small film. I'd buy the dvd to just see his performance again.

~rougerum

[NEON MERCURY]

Good thing you werent hired to lead the advertising campaign

yeah your right they found me too un-re-solved?






yeah this is it. my most ant-ti-ci-pat-ed film is here to own (free adverising a-head) -(in caps) -"FOR AN  UNBELIEVABLE LOW AMOUNT OF MONEY YOU GET TO OWN GANGS OF NEW YORK  SCORSES'S LONG-AWIATED MASTERPIECE COMPLETE-LY SPREAD OUT OVER NOT ONE BUT TWO!!!!-GLORIOUS DISKS W/FANCY DISK ART CONTAINING LEWIS'  OSCAR NOM. PERFORMANCE  WHILE WATCHING IT W/ OR W/ OUT SCORSES' COMM. TRACK  WHICH ALSO GIVES INSIGHTS TO THIS FILM IF THE OTHER BONUS MATERIALS DO NOT SATISFY......BUY NOW"(end of advertising)

[bonanzataz]

here's something that will piss at least one person off. i just copied gangs of new york with my dvd burner and without transcoding (lowering the bitrate) I was able to make an exact copy of just the movie files fit onto two single layer discs. this means, the movie didn't have to be broken up. it could have easily fit onto one dual layer dvd. scorsese just wanted to give the goons that actually bought the movie a workout.

[Ernie]

Oh, I don't know about this one...I just don't know. I don't hate it and I never will but I know I didn't love it either. I'll have to rent it or something, but it's not a priority...I gave it a really nice chance in the theatre...and it was good but disappointing, I'm in with that whole group.

But yea, I'll have to see about this one. If the opportunity presents itself in conditions half as good as those described by Neon Mercury then how could I pass it up?  

[cinemanarchist]

Somehow this film defies time for me. The length of a film certainly doesn't bother me, but somehow Gangs just flies by in what seems like 90 minutes. I'm sure I will be crucified, but PDL seems longer to me than Gangs!(They are both two of my favorite films of last year)

[NEON MERCURY]

Somehow this film defies time for me. The length of a film certainly doesn't bother me, but somehow Gangs just flies by in what seems like 90 minutes. I'm sure I will be crucified, but PDL seems longer to me than Gangs!(They are both two of my favorite films of last year)

I agree come-plete-ly The film sucks you in and like the ole saying goes "time flies when your having fun"  GREAT FILM!


oh yeah -THE TRANSFER IS DEAD ON beautiful