Gangs of New York (2002)
Drama, History, Crime • 2h 48m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Gary Lewis, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, Alec McCowen, David Hemmings, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Cara Seymour, Roger Ashton-Griffiths, Peter-Hugo Daly, Cian McCormack, Andrew Gallagher, Philip Kirk, Rab Affleck, Bill Barclay, Nick Bartlett, Robert Goodman, Tim Pigott-Smith, Liam Carney, Gary McCormack, David McBlain, Dick Holland, Katherine Wallach, Carmen Hanlon, Ilaria D'Elia, Laurie Ventry, Ford Kiernan, Alec McMahon, Nevan Finegan, Dominique Vandenberg, Stuart Yung Sai-Kit, Basil Chung, Finbar Furey, Sean Gilder, Richard Graham, Richard Strange, Douglas Plasse, R. Bruce Steinheimer, David Bamber, Barbara Bouchet, Michael Byrne, Lucy Davenport, Maura O'Connell, Alex Howden, James Ramsay, Iain McColl, Louie Brownsell, Gennaro Condemi, Kieran Hurley, John Sessions, Michael Billingsley, Steven Blake, Giovanni Lombardo Radice, Alexia Murray, Flaminia Fegarotti, Bronco McLoughlin, Channing C. Holmes, Eliane Chappuis, Roberta Quaresima, Marta Pilato, Jian Su, Man Cao, Kathy Shao-Lin Lee, Alexander Deng, Peter Berling, Patrick Gordon, Brendan White, Brendan Dempsey, Taddeo Harbutt, Nazzareno Natale, Colin Hill, Robert Linge, Richard Syms, Christian Burgess, Gerry Robert Byrne, David J. Nicholls, Tim Faraday, Sean McGinley, John Anthony Murphy, Terry O'Neill, Vincent Pickering, Nick Miles, Ian Pirie, John McGlynn, Larry Kaplan, Leo Burmester, Justin Brennan, Brian Mallon, Joseph P. Reidy, Joel Strachan, Bill Murdoch, Angela Pleasence, Iain Agnew, Michael Hausman, Bob Colletti, Martin Scorsese, Trevor Cooper, Massimo Vanni, Salvatore Billa, Marcello Fonte, Vincenzo Tanassi, Paolo Lorimer, Michele Bevilacqua, Franco Venditti, Katy Monique Cuomo, Pietro Torrisi, Corrado Scalia, Loretta Rossi Stuart, Mauro Cremonini, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Arnaldo Dell'Acqua, Alberto Dell'Acqua, Franco Daddi, Virgilio Ponti, Clemente Ukmar, Patrizio Pelizzi, Raffaella Ponzo
Best English-friendly, video & audio release
Italian Fox Blu-Ray
Italian Fox Blu-Ray > 2010 Miramax Blu-Ray
German Splendid Film Blu-Ray has better sounding commentary
Updated 9 months ago
About the film
In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.
Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray > Paramount US and Capelight DE, same black crush on all three but the Arrow is encoded by FiM and has very good new supplements, the Capelight looks slightly low-passed, but in motion it probably looks about the same as the Paramount, see caps comparison for all three.
Arrow and Paramount basically sound the same, the Arrow has a slightly higher bitrate. Capelight is probably the same too but for now it's TBA.
Paramount US 4K Blu-ray has FEL Dolby Vision
Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray and Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray have MEL Dolby Vision
Director: Martin Scorsese
Other releases have horrendous DNR
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab) · slow.pics (opens in a new tab)
(same as all tracks since the DVD)
Criterion 4K Blu-ray see caps
Phenomenal disc, and perhaps the single greatest testament to NexSpec's positive 180 this year. Highlights are beautifully handled and grain structure is fully intact in areas where NexSpec's (and Pixelogic's) encodes would frequently fall apart in 2025 and before then. Criterion BD encode also looks to be robust from linked caps, save for this one frame: https://slow.pics/c/cMjMefmi
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook
Sources: blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab)
2024 Sony 4K Blu-ray Steelbook fixes duplicate shot seen on the previous Columbia Classics release and has better encoding
Original mono mix: 1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1991 Columbia LaserDisc
The 4K Blu-ray mono is only minimally worse (see blah-ray).
5.1 remix: Sony 4K Blu-ray
Director: Martin Scorsese
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · blah-ray.blogspot.com (opens in a new tab) · facebook.com (opens in a new tab)
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has slightly better compression than Criterion 4K Blu-ray.
The master in DV looks all but identical to the Criterion’s HDR grade. Detail-wise, FiM’s encode looks like it uncovered a tiny bit of extra high-frequency information that got filtered on the Criterion. See nicolas review
1990 Criterion LaserDisc/1993 MGM LaserDisc/2002 R2 MGM DVD are the best. See blah-ray https://blah-ray.blogspot.com/2018/01/raging-bull-1980.html
Imprint Australia 4K Blu-ray has better audio than Criterion 4K Blu-ray, from nicolas:
I believe that what’s on Imprint’s 4K is one of the good mixes MGM and Criterion released during the LaserDisc days. Music is powerful and detailed, dialogues have excellent fidelity and ambient sounds have perceptible depth. I compared the "new" 2.0 with the anemic 5.1 as well as the Criterion 4K mix and could clearly hear the improvements.
Director: Martin Scorsese
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
MVD 4K Blu-ray see caps but it has the encoding error with the dropped frames
Director: Martin Scorsese
2024 Second Sight 4K Blu-ray
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Director: Martin Scorsese
But Warner Bros 4K Blu-ray is very similar.
More Drama on Blu-ray
Director: Robert Altman
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Cinematrographe's HDR grading is overcooked, which is a known VinSyn tendency. Additionally, their booklet mis-credits the encode to FiM.
YMMV, but for some, the included BD encoded by Marcus Johnson—ironically may make for a more pleasing experience.
Director: Roman Polanski
Sources: Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
UK 4K teased by 88 Films https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?p=24252379
Carlotta France 4K Blu-ray > Vinegar Syndrome 4K Blu-ray (better encode on Carlotta without any low-pass filtering, more extras and English subtitles on Vinegar Syndrome)
Director: John Woo
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab) · Blu-ray.com (opens in a new tab)
Arrow has a different grade and a better encode than the Shout! Factory, though the difference in either is not major. Imprint release, which leaves Shout! Factory's master and subtitles as is, is encoded by FiM. https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.php?p=24473097&postcount=56
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Original mix: Shout! Factory 4K Blu-ray (similar to Criterion LaserDisc, but less distorted)
Alternate mix: Scanbox Nordic PAL DVD
Surround remix: HK Video France 4K Blu-ray (5.0)
Arrow used the alternate mix, but with extra filtering and lowered dynamic range. The alternate mix has much better fidelity.
Imprint presumably used the Shout! Factory original mix and left it as is, though no official confirmation.
Director: Richard Brooks
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Director: Vincent Sherman
4K restoration from Original Camera Negative
Sources: Criterion Forum (opens in a new tab)
Arrow 4K Blu-ray > Criterion 4K Blu-ray > Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray
1991 Orion LaserDisc vs 2024 Arrow 4K Blu-ray
Edit history
Every recommendation follows the same method — how these calls are made.