Martin Scorcese's newest exploration of the relationship between crime, violence and the American psyche is as deeply flawed as it is monumental. "Gangs of New York" is steeped in meticulous images, with an idiosyncrasy and persistence to production design that makes anything else this year seem to pale in comparison. However, it is bogged down from the get-go with a terrible script, which make its fascinating images negligible. The film is an expensive disappointment (Scorcese set Miramax back a now fabled $300 million), but it does offer the most explosive performances of the last decade with Daniel Day-Lewis (of "The Last of the Mohicans") as the violent Bill "the Butcher" Cutting.

"Gangs of New York" begins with a masterful seven-minute long tracking shot through the unbelievably complex catacombs of the Old Brewery, in what was known as the Five Points in Manhattan.

The shot follows a father and his son as they are slowly supplemented with soldiers ready to do battle. The man stops at the door to shoot the breeze with hired hand Monk McKinn (a wonderful Brendan Gleeson of "Mission Impossible II").

Suddenly the pugnacious McKinn kicks open the Brewery door to reveal a silent, snow covered square. The year is 1846 and Priest Vallon (a short-lived performance by Liam Neeson of "Star Wars: Episode II") leads his young son Amsterdam and the Irish "Dead Rabbits" gang of Five Points to do battle with the natives led by Bill the Butcher.

As anyone who's seen the trailer can attest, things are soon over and young Amsterdam is left fatherless and in exile from the Five Points.

Now all grown-up, Amsterdam (Leonardo Dicaprio, "Catch Me If You Can") finally returns to the Five Points to have his way with the Butcher. What he does not expect, however, is to find himself swept up under Bill's wing, becoming his burgeoning protg and learning the ins and outs of crime and politics in the Points.

He spends the majority of the movie carefully observing the Butcher and the colorful characters around him as well as getting caught up in a superfluous romance with a terribly miscast Cameron Diaz ("My Best Friend's Wedding"). The climax of the film plays out as Amsterdam and Bill have their final tussle against the backdrop of the wildly chaotic New York Draft Riots of 1863.

Scorcese is a master storyteller and "Gangs of New York" rings of his well-established talent. It is an extremely well edited and gripping, if not consistent, narrative. One would expect no less from a Scorcese picture, especially with the aide of his long-time collaborator, editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

Day-Lewis inhabits one of the most nuanced and carefully constructed villains in recent memory. With his glass eye, handlebar moustache and indescribably complex accent, Day-Lewis is a colorful and idiosyncratic mound of hate waiting to burst.

The role is hugely theatrical; some critics have noted it as Shakespearean, and Day-Lewis is completely aware of his power and potential.

The infinite energy in his portrayal of Bill allows one to see the massive amounts of energy that have built up during his five-year retirement as a cobbler in Italy. It is going to be a close race this year at the Oscar's between Day-Lewis and Jack Nicholson as Warren Schmidt in "About Schmidt."

Bill is as contradictory as he is massive, and solemnly celebrates his dead adversary, Father Vallon. One of the only quiet moments comes in an obviously allegoric scene where Amsterdam awakens in Bill's bed with Diaz to find the Butcher himself watching over him from a nearby chair. Draped in an American flag he sadly lectures Amsterdam on the downfall of his beloved America of the past and the inevitable force of the "foreign hordes."

The script for "Gangs of New York" is hideously uneven, leaving out scenes explaining key moments. Of course, a film with slow-motion battle sequences timed with the unbearable melody of U2's "The Hands that Built America" not once, but twice, is not quite up to being a masterpiece. This or a painfully unnecessary three-minute sepia photo Civil War summary that would look more appropriate in a Ken Burns documentary rather than the Once Upon a Time in America-meets-Dickens mess of a movie that Scorcese has constructed.

Still Scorcese, even in his failure has produced a piece of filmmaking with extensive reach, underlying a key and under appreciated moment in America's history that emphasizes the tragic and chaotic past that has helped construct the multi-ethnic patchwork of a country in which we live.