An ironic, emotional, gory revision of the American Experiment, marred by narrative problems but sufficiently awesome in its ambitious scale and intentions to rate as a must-see.
That American democracy emerged from this cauldron is miraculous. We put the Founding Fathers on our money, but these Founding Crooks for a long time held sway.
Every resident in the whole, grimy mosaic of Scorsese's Olde Big Apple -- the thieves and the reformers, the poor and the dirt-poor -- knows how to needle the guy next to him.