By entertainment correspondent Tom Brook

DiCaprio (centre) and Day-Lewis (left) star in the film

Martin Scorsese's historical epic Gangs of New York has won plaudits for its director, Martin Scorsese, as well as one of its lead actors, Daniel Day-Lewis.

Gangs of New York opened in the United States before Christmas, with high expectations, and the critical reaction has been mixed.

The consensus from film reviewers is that this ambitious sprawling tale of warring gangs in mid-19th Century lower Manhattan is only intermittently great.

New York Times film critic AO Scott described it as a "brutal, flawed and indelible epic" that is "a near-great movie".

Less complimentary was David Denby at The New Yorker, who wrote that "Gangs never comes alive as a dramatic conception".

Scorsese has been criticised for not doing enough to set this story, which sees a son try to avenge the death of his gang leader father, against a wider historical background.

The film shows violent struggles in lower Manhattan

But he has won praise for creating some exhilarating cinematic moments and delivering a film that contains strong performances - most notably from Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays the notorious gang leader Bill the Butcher.

For Day-Lewis, it is his first major film role in five years and he says it was Scorsese who encouraged him to come out of hibernation and take on the part.

"He drew me into his orbit - and once you're in it, I know how far you'd have to travel to get around him. It's probably easier to do it than avoid it," he says.

Bill the Butcher leads the anti-immigrant gang that held sway over the notorious Five Points slum. Once Scorsese give him more details, Day-Lewis says he became intrigued.

"As he began to speak about the time and the place, the people that lived in the Five Points, the gangs and so on, it just began to get its hooks into me," he says.

I rediscovered everything that I most love about this work and have always loved Daniel Day-Lewis

But Day-Lewis, who has been widely tipped for an Oscar nomination, says working on Gangs did not necessarily change his ambivalence towards screen acting.

"I think I rediscovered everything that I most love about this work and have always loved - and I also reminded myself of all the reasons why I occasionally have to keep away from it."

Leonardo DiCaprio also has a major role, playing young Amsterdam Vallon, whose father - the leader of the rival Dead Rabbits gang - was slain by Bill the Butcher.

The film chronicles Amsterdam's efforts to kill Bill The Butcher, and DiCaprio sees it not just as a personal revenge story, but an epic that conveys the historical and violent roots of modern New York and America.

He says his character's story gets swept along by a "giant tidal wave of the transformation of our country" during the Civil War.

"It was beginnings and the true test of a pluralistic society at the time," he says.

It was a brutal world, so I think it's something that they had to give the audience a taste of Cameron Diaz on the violence

This Scorsese epic is dark and grisly - but there is a love story between DiCaprio's character and a feisty pickpocket called Jenny Everdeane, played by Cameron Diaz.

Their characters are "combustible", she says - like much of the film, which deals with an incendiary time in New York history.

The fights between the gangs are gruesome and some of Bill the Butcher's deeds are harrowing. But Diaz finds nothing gratuitous about the unremitting violence.

"It was a brutal world, so I think it's something that they had to give the audience a taste of," she says.

Martin Scorsese found inspiration in Herbert Asbury's book The Gangs of New York, published in 1927, and has been trying to make the film since the 1970s.

DiCaprio says Scorsese should win an Oscar

Production in Rome, where Gangs was shot, was reportedly beset by delays and budget overruns that led to struggles between the director and the film's producer Harvey Weinstein.

When questioned, Scorsese skirts the issue of behind-the-scenes battles and whether or not he was at loggerheads with Weinstein.

All he says is: "It's a matter of making a big picture, whether at loggerheads or not, you've got to all make it together."

On the matter of his dealings with Scorsese, Weinstein claims they had a wonderful relationship.

But he jokingly says: "We understood that if we had one fight, we could get a lot of press and save a lot of money in ad costs so we had one fake fight."

For Scorsese, Gangs of New York represents the culmination of a long and arduous creative process. When viewing it, many people find they have the sense they are watching his most important film.

For what he's done for American cinema... it's absolutely ridiculous Leonardo DiCaprio on Scorsese's lack of Oscars success

He revisits many of his trademark themes - but on a grander scale. His writing and directing have brought him five previous Oscar nominations, but never an actual trophy.

Many think his time for Oscar glory has now come.

DiCaprio wants him to walk home with a trophy, saying: "It's almost like a cruel practical joke at this point, it really is.

"For what he's done for American cinema, cinema worldwide and what he's done for film, it's absolutely ridiculous, it's a joke."

Indications from the early guessing game behind this year's Oscars race suggest that a trophy might once again elude Scorsese's grasp.