Monday, December 23, 2002

COMMENTARY
by Sasha Stone, Editor of Oscarwatch.com

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While the opening numbers for Gangs of New York are somewhat disappointing are they really any big surprise? Yes, the film has The Leo in it, but it is also a Marty Scorsese movie. His films don¹t do big box office. "Gangs" seems to have a lot working against it at the moment, the least of which is the nasty to and fro in the press about Harvey Weinstein¹s "edits." But it doesn¹t take much to look ahead in time - five, maybe ten years, long after the smoke clears just at the film itself. And what a movie it is!

"Gangs" is a gorgeous display of a brilliant, restless artist who simply cannot be put into a box the way some of our other, more popular, box-office-reliable directors can. He doesn¹t make mass entertainment and he doesn¹t make big box office movies.

The unfortunate aspect to the film is that it cost so much to make ($100 mil). Unlike other blockbusters, however, you can see every dollar spent on "Gangs." It is a grand epic that needed a hefty bankroll and couldn¹t have been done on the cheap.

So, hopefully the film won¹t be judged by its opening numbers. What do they mean really? They mean that a large portion of Americans didn¹t want to go see the movie for whatever reason. But numbers and mass audiences should not and do not determine whether or not a film is good. Successful, yes, but brilliant? No. Don¹t be fooled by the moment. The moment, like a passionate lover, feels good at the time but only rarely stays with you. And more often than not you look back and wonder what the hell you were thinking. There is more brilliance in "Gangs" than in the majority of films made this year. Is it the best film of the year? No. Is it in the top twenty? Easily. Is it in the top ten? For me it is.

 

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