Gangs of New York
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| Gangs of New York | |
|---|---|
 original film poster |
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| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Produced by | Alberto Grimaldi Harvey Weinstein |
| Written by | Jay Cocks Steven Zaillian Kenneth Lonergan |
| Starring | Leonardo DiCaprio Daniel Day-Lewis Cameron Diaz Jim Broadbent John C. Reilly Liam Neeson Brendan Gleeson |
| Music by | Howard Shore |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Editing by | Thelma Schoonmaker |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films |
| Release date(s) | December 20, 2002 (USA release) |
| Running time | 166 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $97,000,000 US (est.) |
| IMDb profile | |
Gangs of New York is a 2002 film set in the middle 19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. The film is loosely inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 book The Gangs Of New York. It was distributed by Miramax Films.
Gangs of New York is about the conflict between the "native" criminal underworld associated with the Know-Nothings and the immigrant gangs controlled by Tammany Hall. Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) is a young Irish-American who gains the trust of William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Day-Lewis), leader of the Nativist gangs. The character of Cutting is based on Bill 'The Butcher' Poole, a real-life leader of the Bowery Boys gang who is buried in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
The film opens in 1846, but most of the action takes place in the early 1860s, when the two principal controversies in New York were the great wave of Irish immigration to the city and the federal government's prosecution of the American Civil War. The story follows the careers of Amsterdam and Cutting as they rise from crime bosses to political kingmakers during the reign of Boss Tweed (Broadbent), and culminates with a confrontation between them that coincides with the New York Draft Riots of 1863.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
The film opens in 1846 in Lower Manhattan, specifically the "Five Points" district (now the area near Two Bridges). A territorial war has been raging for years between the gangs of the "Nativist" faction (comprising those born in America) and the predominantly Irish immigrants.
The Nativists are led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, a WASP, who possesses an open hatred of immigrants. The leader of the immigrant Irish, the "Dead Rabbits," is Priest Vallon, a Catholic, who has a young son, Amsterdam; his lieutenants include "Happy Jack" Mulraney, Charles McGloin, Hell-Cat Maggie, and the mercenary Walter "Monk" McGinn, who is promised "ten per notch", i.e. ten (most likely) pennies per killing, to fight for the Rabbits. Cutting and Vallon confront each other in a formal challenge of war in Paradise Square, and the resulting battle is horrific and bloody. The battle concludes when Bill kills Priest Vallon, and Amsterdam is a witness. Cutting declares that the Dead Rabbits will exist no longer and that Vallon's body will be buried whole instead of being mutilated for souvenirs. Amsterdam, seizing the knife used to kill his father, races off and buries it. He is found and taken to the orphanage at Hellgate.
The story picks up sixteen years later when Amsterdam leaves Hellgate a grown man. He is exhorted to forgo revenge on those who have hurt him by the ministers who run the orphanage, but symbolically rejects this plea by tossing the Bible given to him in the river. He returns to the Five Points and almost immediately begins to plot his revenge against Bill. He reunites with an old friend, Johnny, who introduces him to Bill the Butcher. Johnny's small group also steals for Bill and Amsterdam quickly becomes Bill's right-hand man.
In voiceover, Amsterdam informs the viewer that the current political climate is about to explode: arriving immigrants, most of them Irish, are taken immediately from the boats and drafted into the Union Army. Anyone who has the waiver fee of $300 can buy their way out of service. Additionally, Tammany Hall, a local political machine, and its opponents are fighting for control of the city.
Amsterdam also meets a young lady, Jenny Everdeane, who is an expert pickpocket and grifter who preys upon Manhattan's upper class by pretending to be a maid. Shortly after meeting her, Amsterdam discovers that she has stolen his pendant of St. Michael, given to him by his father before his death. He stalks her to the Upper East Side and forces her to return it. It becomes apparent that he is strongly attracted to Jenny, and she to him; but their initial attraction is dampened when Amsterdam discovers (after a passionate encounter at a community dance hall) that Jenny was once a ward of the Butcher's, and still seems to enjoy some share of Bill's affections.
Amsterdam gradually gains the confidence of Bill, who becomes his mentor. They become somewhat reluctant partners in the semi-criminal empire of Boss Tweed, a corrupt politician who heads Tammany Hall. Tweed's influence is spread throughout Lower Manhattan from boxing matches to sanitation services and fire control. Amsterdam also finds out that each year, on the anniversary of the Five Points battle (February 16), Bill leads the city in saluting the victory of his gang over the Dead Rabbits. Amsterdam plans to kill the Butcher during this ceremony, in front of the entire Five Points community, in order to make his revenge not just personal but public. However, he grows gradually more conflicted about his plan as his relationship with Bill becomes warmer and more respectful.
During a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin Amsterdam prevents an assassination attempt upon Bill, which leaves the Butcher wounded but alive. Though this was necessary for Amsterdam to complete his own plan, Amsterdam is nonetheless tormented by the realization that he acted more out of honest devotion to Bill than from his own plan of revenge. Both he and Bill retire to a brothel, where Amsterdam sees Jenny nursing Bill. He confronts Jenny, and the two have a furious argument which dissolves into passionate lovemaking. Late the same night, Amsterdam wakes to find Bill sitting in a rocking chair, draped in a tattered American flag. Bill speaks of the downfall of civilization and how he has maintained his power over the years through violence and the "spectacle of fearsome acts." He speaks of how Priest Vallon was the last enemy Bill ever fought that was worthy of real respect, and that Priest once beat Bill soundly and then let him live in shame rather than kill him -- a decision that gave Bill the strength of will and character to return and fight for his own authority. Bill implicitly admits that he has come to look upon Amsterdam as the son he never had.
The evening of the ceremony arrives. Unbeknownst to Amsterdam, Johnny, who was also attracted to Jenny, saw Amsterdam and Jenny in the throes of passion. Before the ceremony, he informs Bill of Amsterdam's true identity as Priest Vallon's son, and his plot to assassinate Bill. Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife-throwing act involving Jenny, where he aggressively targets her, even superficially cutting her throat. Bill becomes the center of attention when he makes the toast. At that moment Amsterdam throws a knife at Bill (the same knife Bill used to kill Priest Vallon years before); forewarned, Bill easily blocks the shot and counters with a throw of his own, hitting Amsterdam in the abdomen. Bill beats him, as the crowd cheers him on, and marks his cheek with a hot blade, and casts him out into the streets, proclaiming that for Amsterdam to live in shame is a worse fate than death -- mirroring Priest's action against Bill many years ago.
Amsterdam survives his wounds, largely because of Jenny's nursing. She implores him to join her in a voyage to San Francisco to escape New York. The two are visited by Monk McGinn, who gives Amsterdam the straight razor that belonged to his father (which Monk took from Vallon's body at the time of his death) and tells them that the time is right for Amsterdam to emerge from underground.
Amsterdam announces his return by placing a dead rabbit on a fence in Paradise Square. The rabbit finds its way to Bill, who charges Happy Jack (now the local policeman, in service to Bill) to find out who sent the message. Jack tracks down Amsterdam and chases him through the catacombs into the local church where Amsterdam kills him. He hangs his body in Paradise Square where Bill laments the loss of an easily bribed and manipulated policeman.
Boss Tweed approaches Amsterdam with a plan to defeat Bill and his influence: They will back the candidacy of Monk McGinn for sheriff, the first step towards defeating Bill. They rig the election and Monk wins on a platform of working for the people. Bill visits Monk at his shop and refuses Monk's offer to negotiate, first stabbing him in the back with a meat cleaver, then striking him in the skull with Monk's own shillelagh. "Burn him," declares Bill. "See if his ashes turn green."
The murder of Monk provokes Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle, much like the one that took place in 1846. They agree to various rules and will do battle in Paradise Square. Amsterdam's gang will resurrect the name of the Dead Rabbits.
The Draft Riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight. Many people of the city are attacked by those protesting the drafts. Union Army soldiers march through the city streets trying to control the rioters.
Bill's gang and Amsterdam's meet in Paradise Square. At the moment they are ready to fight each other, the Union Navy fire their cannons into the city, directly into Paradise Square. Many of both gangs are killed, and an enormous cloud of dust and debris covers the area. This destruction is followed up by a wave of Union soldiery, who wipe out many of the gang members (including McGloin) with massed rifle fire. Abandoning their gangs, Amsterdam and Bill exchange blows in the haze, then are both thrown to the ground by another cannon blast. When the smoke clears, Bill discovers he has been mortally wounded by a piece of shrapnel impaling his side. Looking around at the devastation, he declares, "Thank God I die a true American," and allows Amsterdam to stab him, dying with his hand locked in Amsterdam's.
In the film's final scenes, the dead are collected for burial. Bill's body is taken to Brooklyn and buried in view of the Manhattan skyline, next to Priest Vallon. Jenny and Amsterdam both visit the grave as Amsterdam buries the knife there which killed his father. The frame shifts several times to reflect the intervening growth of the city between 1864 and the present day. The final shot includes the World Trade Center towers.
[edit] Criticism
While praised for the accuracy in costumes and the environment of the mid-1800 New York City (all sets were built completely on the exterior stages of Cinecitta Studios in Rome), the film has been criticized for exaggerating the violence in the gang fights and city riots, and also for historical inaccuracies. Though Bill "The Butcher" Cutting is an admitted fictionalization of real-life gang leader Bill Poole (Poole did not come from the Five Points and was assassinated before the Draft Riots -- see for example [1], [2] and [3]), other historical alterations are more problematic:
- The movie implies that Chinese people were common enough in New York to have their own community and public venues, despite the fact that only 25 Chinese people are known to have lived there at the time. [4]
- Other major ethnic groups among New York immigrants that were underrepresented in the film's characters included Scots-Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Italian, Polish, English, German and Jewish immigrants.
- The film has been criticized for playing down the explicitly racist nature of the Draft Riots, and of the gangs in general. Though Amsterdam's gang includes a young black man, Jimmy Spoils, a scripted scene where Amsterdam asks Jimmy not to join him for the final battle, out of worry that Jimmy's being black will cost him the loyalty of the reassembled Dead Rabbits, was cut. (In the finished film Jimmy is shown as being one of the victims of the riots, but it is never explained why he is not at Paradise Square with the other gang members.)
One of Scorsese's more controversial choices is seen in the film's closing shot: a view of modern-day New York City, complete with the World Trade Center Towers, despite their having been leveled by the September 11, 2001 attacks only a year before the films release. When he was asked about this he replied "I wanted to make a film about the ones who built New York, not the ones who tried to destroy it".
Many critics have opined that the film is flawed compared to other Scorsese films, though it has its share of vocal supporters. Roger Ebert, one of Scorsese's longtime supporters, while giving the film a positive review, wrote that it fell short of greatness. The weaknesses frequently cited are its comparatively slow pacing (the film has a running time of over 160 minutes) and perceived lack of character depth. It has also been criticized for its wide-ranging thematic content; William Goldman, in a Variety guest editorial, claimed that the film attempted to touch on so many different themes that it failed to adequately explore any of them, though this argument was strongly rebutted by producer Irvin Winkler among others. On the other hand, many critics praised the film, including eminent New York Times reviewer A.O. Scott, who gave it a glowing review.
The film was shelved for over a year, and rumors have abounded of disputes between the producer Harvey Weinstein and the director, resulting in Scorsese being required to make damaging cuts. Because of this, some fans have requested a director's cut in the belief that such a cut would clear up the film considerably. However, Scorsese has stated that the theatrical version is his final cut and has spurned the practice of releasing directors' cuts several times.
[edit] Awards
Gangs of New York won the Golden Globe of Best Director - Motion Picture for Martin Scorsese and Best Original Song for the song "The Hands That Built America" by the Musical Group U2. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.
[edit] Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Cameron Diaz
- Daniel Day-Lewis
- Jim Broadbent
- John C. Reilly
- Henry Thomas
- Brendon Gleeson
- Gary Lewis
- Liam Neeson
[edit] See also
- Soundtrack from Gangs of New York
- Irish Americans in New York City
- Irish Brigade (US)
- Battle of Lundy's Lane (the battle in which Bill Cutting's father was killed)
