“Priest” Vallon (Liam Neeson) prays with his son. The boy follows his father through torch lit caves as warriors prepare for combat. A fellow Irishman named Monk (Brendan Gleeson) joins the fighters once Vallon meets his asking price. Meeting these “Dead Rabbits” on a snow covered square are the “Natives,” led by Bill “The Butcher” Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). In the battle, Bill cuts down Vallon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed. Drifting into the sky, the impoverished streets of New York City, 1846 are revealed.

16 years later, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is released from reformatory. The Civil War is in its second year, slavery has just been abolished and New York is a city full of tribes. The Conscription Act – the first military draft in the nation’s history – is all the talk, and each day, hundreds of Irish immigrants come streaming through the docks. Amsterdam returns to the Five Points, the most dangerous street corner on earth, a “godforsaken den of vice and misery” according to the reformers.

Amsterdam meets an old friend (Henry Thomas), who details the names and characteristics of the street gangs in operation. He tells Amsterdam that the natives celebrate their victory over the Dead Rabbits every year at Sparrow’s Chinese Pagoda. Amsterdam goes to work as a thief, and pays tribute to Bill along with everyone else in the Five Points. When he stands up to one of Bill’s henchmen and beats him in a fight, Bill takes the boy under his wing. Amsterdam bides his time until he can seek his vengeance.

He becomes smitten with Jenny (Cameron Diaz), a pickpocket who disguises herself as a maid and robs houses uptown. She later reveals that Bill took her in when she was 12, and that she later became involved with him. Now armed with even more hatred, Amsterdam makes an attempt on Bill’s life at the Chinese Pagoda. Having been tipped off to his protege’s identity, Bill survives, but spares Amsterdam, branding his face and sending the boy back to the Five Points to live in shame.

Amsterdam defies Bill’s rule by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square. He survives a murder attempt by the precinct cop (John C. Reilly) and organizes the Irish into one gang. Amsterdam forms an alliance with William “Boss” Tweed (Jim Broadbent), agreeing to deliver the politician votes in exchange for his backing an Irishman for sheriff. Monk is selected, and wins, but Bill murders him in plain view. Amsterdam issues Bill a challenge. As the two gangs meet for combat, New York erupts in the Conscription Riots.

In 2000, Mike Ovitz, former head of CAA, formed a new management company. One of his clients was director Martin Scorsese, who Ovitz had long represented. Ovitz asked Scorsese if he could do any project he wanted, what it would be. Scorsese answered Gangs of New York. Jay Cocks had written the original draft in the late ’70s, a convoluted script about gangs, the Conscription Riots, immigration, Tammany Hall and on and on. Even with Leonardo DiCaprio attached, but the $100 million budgeted film was being turned down by every studio.

When producer Graham King bought the foreign rights for $65 million, Disney reconsidered. They turned the project over to Miramax Films, where Harvey Weinstein was excited by the prospect of another Best Picture candidate for his studio. Screenwriter Steven Zaillian restructured the script, and Kenneth Lonergan was brought in to help with the characters and dialogue. The script still wasn’t ready, but principal photography commenced at Cinecitta Studios in Rome in order to accommodate the schedules of the cast.

Weinstein became unhappy with the pace Scorsese was moving, and spent weeks on the set, battling with the director over many of the decisions he was making. Weinstein felt Scorsese’s recent work had been too cold; he wanted people to fall in love with the characters. He wanted it audience friendly. Neither Weinstein or Scorsese were happy with the finished product, and though Gangs of New York picked up 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, it failed to recoup its budget at the U.S. box office.

The last time Scorsese encountered studio interference this severe was his first picture – Boxcar Bertha – and Gangs of New York is his worst effort since. It’s a disaster, actually, and Harvey Weinstein was only part of the problem. The script was not good. Jay Cocks had a literate feel for envisioning 19th century New York, and the best parts of the film are those exploring the city’s history; the characteristics of the various gangs, the competing fire brigades, and the Draft Riots.

As for characters, dialogue or drama, Cocks didn’t bother. The film opens strongly, with Liam Neeson, Daniel Day-Lewis, the battle, and the slow reveal to ancient New York. That stuff is terrific. Once Leonardo DiCaprio enters, the film goes off-track permanently. There’s no chemistry between him and Cameron Diaz at all, and he’s completely blown off the screen by Day-Lewis.

With his glass eyeball and New York brogue, Daniel Day-Lewis is one of the great screen villains in recent memory, slicing his way through the “immigrant hordes” that threaten his ideal of America. He’s the only reason to sit through this, along with Dante Ferretti’s set designs. If Cocks & Scorsese had made Gangs of New York about Bill the Butcher, it might have worked. By rushing into production without a script, the movie is as big and empty a failure as they come.