Gangs of New York

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Gangs of New York
original film poster
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 Barbara Bouchet
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.

[edit] Plot

Gangs of New York is about the conflict between the "native" criminal underworld associated with the Know-Nothings and the immigrant gangs aligned with Tammany Hall. Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) is a young Irish-American, son of a slain Priest/gangleader of the Dead Rabbits. Vallon grows up attempting to gain trust of William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Day-Lewis), leader of the Nativist gangs and killer of Amsterdam's father.

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] Five Points, Manhattan

At Five Points' height, only certain areas of London's East End vied with it in sheer population density, disease, infant and child mortality, unemployment, violent crime, and other classic ills of the destitute. But to characterize Five Points, Manhattan as a pure wasteland would be misleading, for it had a certain rough vibrancy that gave rise to some of the more admirable aspects of modern American life. It was the original melting pot, at first consisting primarily of newly emancipated African Americans and newly arrived Irish. The confluence of African, Irish, Anglo and, later, Jewish and Italian culture, seen first in Five Points, would be an important leavening in the growth of the United States. Today Irish-Americans are the second-largest ethnic group in America.

[edit] Trivia

• 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 real Poole's last words - "I die a true American!" - are used by the fictional Cutting, who outlives his real-life counterpart by eight years.

• It was anticipated that the film would be released in the winter of 2001, but was held back because of the 9-11 attacks.

• Some controversy was aroused as to why Scorsese included the World Trade Center Towers in the final montage shot of the New York City skyline morphing to modern day. Scorsese has defended this choice by stating that his characters helped set the stage for the creation of the skyline, not the destruction of it.

Gangs of New York received mixed, but generally positive reviews. Roger Ebert lamented that it was 'very good, but not great', while his working partner Richard Roeper named it the best film of 2002. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone also named it best of that year, giving it a 4-star review and commenting: '...something better than perfect, it's thrillingly alive.'

[edit] Cast

• Leonardo DiCaprio
• Daniel Day-Lewis
• Cameron Diaz
• Jim Broadbent
• John C. Reilly
• Henry Thomas
• Brendon Gleeson
• Barbara Bouchet
• Gary Lewis
• Liam Neeson

[edit] See also

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message. This article has been tagged since March 2007.

• Films with no title
• 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)
• The Westies
• The Departed
• State of Grace (film)
• Five Points, Manhattan

[edit] Herbert Asbury's Book

• Asbury, Herbert: The Gangs of New York; 1927,1928, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; 1989 Dorset Press; ISBN 0-88029-429-9

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Gangs of New York at the Internet Movie Database
• Gangs of New York at Rotten Tomatoes
• Full cast and crew credits

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