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 Henry Thomas 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.) |
| Gross revenue | $193,772,504 (worldwide) |
| IMDb profile | |
Gangs of New York is a 2002 gangster 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 nonfiction book The Gangs of New York. It was distributed by Miramax Films.
The film begins in 1846 and quickly jumps to the early 1860s. The two principal issues of the era in New York were Irish immigration to the city and the northern federal government's execution of the American Civil War. The story follows Bill "The Butcher" Cutting in his roles as crime boss and political kingmaker under the helm of Boss Tweed (Jim Broadbent). The movie culminates in a confrontation between Cutting and his mob with the protagonist Amsterdam Vallon and his immigrant allies, which coincides with the New York Draft Riots of 1863.
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[edit] Plot
It is 1846. In the Lower Manhattan "Five Points" district, a territorial war raging for years between the gangs of the "Nativist" faction (comprising those born in the United States from earlier English & Dutch Protestant immigrants) and the recently arrived, predominantly Irish Catholic immigrants, is about to come to a head in Paradise Square.
The Nativists are led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day Lewis), a WASP, with an open hatred of recent immigrants. The leader of the immigrant Irish, the "Dead Rabbits," is Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson), who has a young son, Amsterdam (played as a child by Cian McCormack). Cutting and Vallon meet with their respective gangs in a battle, horrific and bloody, concluding when Bill kills Priest Vallon. Amsterdam is a witness. Cutting declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed and orders Vallon's body buried with honor. Amsterdam seizes his father's knife, races off and buries it. He is found and taken to the orphanage at Hellgate. Sixteen years later, Amsterdam leaves Hellgate a grown man (now played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Arriving in Five Points, he reunites with an old friend, Johnny Sirocco (Henry Thomas). Johnny, now a member of a clan of pickpockets and thieves, introduces Amsterdam to Bill, for whom the group steals. Amsterdam finds that many of his father's old loyalists are now under Bill's control, including Happy Jack Mulraney (John C. Reilly), now a corrupt police officer in Bill's pocket, and McGloin (Gary Lewis), now one of Bill's lieutenants. Amsterdam soon works his way into the Butcher's inner circle. Amsterdam learns that each year, on the anniversary of the Five Points battle (February 16), Bill leads the city in saluting the victory over the Dead Rabbits, and he makes plans to kill the Butcher during this ceremony, in front of the entire Five Points community, in order to exact public revenge.
Amsterdam meets Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a pickpocket and grifter, who preys upon Manhattan's upper class by impersonating a maid. Amsterdam is attracted to Jenny, but it is dampened when Amsterdam discovers that Jenny was once the Butcher's ward and still enjoys Bill's affections. Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence as Bill becomes his mentor. He becomes involved in the semi-criminal empire of William M. Tweed also known as "Boss Tweed" (Jim Broadbent), a corrupt politician who heads Tammany Hall, the local political machine. Tweed's influence is spread throughout Lower Manhattan from boxing matches to sanitation services and fire control. As Tammany Hall and its opponents fight for control of the city, the political climate is boiling. Immigrants, mostly Irish, are drafted into the Union Army as they depart the boats. $300 can buy one's way out of service, which only the wealthy can afford. Anti-Black sentiment runs rampant through the Five Points, as does a general hatred of the upper class.
During a performance of Uncle Tom's Cabin Amsterdam thwarts an assassination attempt that leaves the Butcher wounded. Amsterdam is tormented by the realization that he acted more out of honest devotion to Bill than from his own plan of revenge. Both retire to a brothel, where Jenny nurses Bill. Amsterdam confronts Jenny over Bill, and the two have a furious argument which dissolves into passionate sex. Late that night, Amsterdam wakes to find Bill sitting by his bed 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 says that Priest Vallon was the last enemy he ever fought that was worthy of real respect, and that the Priest once beat Bill soundly and then let him live in shame rather than kill him. Bill credits the incident with giving him 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. Johnny, who is in love with Jenny, reveals Amsterdam's true identity to Bill in a fit of jealousy and tells Bill of his plot to kill him. Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife-throwing act involving Jenny, where he targets her and superficially cuts her throat. As Bill makes the customary toast, Amsterdam throws a knife at Bill. Forewarned, Bill 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, 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.
For three months, Jenny nurses Amsterdam while in hiding. She implores him to join her in an escape to San Francisco. The two are visited by Walter "Monk" McGinn (Brendan Gleeson), a barber who worked as a mercenary for Priest Vallon in the battle in which he was killed. McGinn gives Amsterdam the straight razor that belonged to his father. Amsterdam announces his return by placing a dead rabbit on a fence in Paradise Square. The rabbit finds its way to Bill, who sends Happy Jack to find out who sent the message. Jack tracks down Amsterdam and chases him through the catacombs into the local church where Amsterdam ambushes and strangles him. He hangs his body in Paradise Square. In retaliation, Bill has Johnny beaten and hung over a stake in the square. Suffering, Johnny pleads for Amsterdam to kill him, which he does.
The Natives march to the Catholic church as the Irish, along with the Archbishop, stand on the steps in defense. Bill promises to return when they are ready. The incident garners newspaper coverage. Boss Tweed approaches Amsterdam with a plan to defeat Bill and his influence, hoping to cash in on the publicity. Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk McGinn for sheriff in return for the support of the Irish vote, the first step towards defeating Bill. The election is rigged and Monk wins on a platform of working for the people. Bill visits Monk at his shop, where Monk refuses Bill's implicit attempt to start a fight, and offers to negotiate. As soon as Monk turns his back to head into his shop, Bill hits him in the back with a thrown meat cleaver, and kills Monk with his own shillelagh. During the funeral procession, Amsterdam pauses to issue a battle challenge to Bill. The two sides agree to the terms of the battle and Amsterdam's gang resurrects the name of the Dead Rabbits. Battle will take place in Paradise Square.
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.
As the rival gangs meet in Paradise Square, they are interrupted by cannon fire from Union Naval ships in the harbor directly into Paradise Square. Many are killed by the cannons as an enormous cloud of dust and debris covers the area. The destruction is followed by a wave of Union soldiers, who wipe out many of the gang members. Abandoning their gangs, Amsterdam and Bill exchange blows in the haze, then are thrown to the ground by another cannon blast. When the smoke clears, Bill discovers he has been impaled by a large piece of shrapnel. Looking at the devastation, both he and Amsterdam look upon members of both gangs helping each other trough the carnage, there is a sudden realisation of the rich and the government who are the true enemies of the working clas and not the devisions between them, he declares, "Thank God. I die a true American." Bill offers no resistance as Amsterdam stabs him, dying with his hand locked in Amsterdam's.
In the final scenes, the dead are collected for burial. Bill's body is buried in Brooklyn, in view of the Manhattan skyline, right adjacent to the grave of Priest Vallon. Jenny and Amsterdam visit as Amsterdam buries his father's razor. Amsterdam narrates that New York would be rebuilt, but that they are no longer remembered, as if "we were never here". The movie concludes as the frame shifts several times to reflect the intervening growth of the city between 1864 and the present day. As time progresses, the graves of the two gang leaders become overgrown and unrecognizable.
[edit] Historical accuracy
Scorsese has received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film. In a PBS interview for the History News Network, George Washington University professor Tyler Anbinder discussed the historical aspects of the film.[1]
Anbinder said that Scorsese's recreation of the visual environment of mid-19th century New York City and the Five Points "couldn't have been much better."[1] All sets were built completely on the exterior stages of Cinecittà Studios in Rome.[2] Anbinder also praised the depiction of the persecution and discrimination against immigrants at the time, particularly the Irish. The riot which opens the film, though fictional, was "reasonably true to history" for fights of this type, except for the amount of carnage depicted in the gang fights and city riots.[1]
In his book How The Irish Invented Slang, Daniel Cassidy claims that the film misrepresents the true meaning of the gangs name "the dead rabbits". He claims this name has nothing to do with the deceased animal at all, as repeated images in the film implies, but that the word "rabbit" is an English speakers misinterpretation of the Irish word "ráibéad", meaning "a hulking person, a big man". Adding the English slang word "dead" which was used as an intensifier (like very) the translation of "Dead Ráibéad" would've meant "very hulking men".
There is a large gang fight in 1846 depicted in the film. While there actually was a riot between the Bowery Boys and the Dead Rabbits in the Five Points on July 4, 1857 in actual history, it occurs between the fictional film battle of 1846 and the point of time that Amsterdam returns in 1862. The 1857 riot goes unmentioned.[3] William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting was inspired by Bill Poole, a member of the New York City gang, the Bowery Boys, a bare-knuckle boxer, and a leader of the Know Nothing political movement. Poole himself did not come from the Five Points and was assassinated nearly a decade before the Draft Riots. While Cutting had a glass eye in the film, lost following a beating from Priest Vallon, the real Poole did not. Both the fictional Bill and the real one had butcher shops, but Poole was not known to directly kill anyone.[4][5]
The movie also references the infamous Tweed Courthouse humorously, as "Boss" Tweed refers to plans for the structure as being "modest" and "economical."
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.[6]. Additionally, the film has been criticized for playing down the explicitly racist nature of the New York 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. At the end of the 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.
The museum run by Phineas T. Barnum is shown being burned down by the Draft Riots. While this museum actually survived the riots, two years later, on July 13, 1865, Barnum's American Museum was demolished by fire; Barnum put up the Museum again elsewhere in the city, but fire consumed that version of the museum in March 1868.
The Old Brewery, the overcrowded tenement shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862-3, was actually demolished in 1852.
In addition, historical liberties have been taken with the final scene in which Union soldiers fire upon the rioters. The drill positions, line commands and tactics used in this scene (such as "present arms!") have been completely fabricated. The position wherein the soldiers move their legs forward and aim their rifles also was never an actual command. For more information, see Casey's Infantry Tactics, the manual at the time.
[edit] Critical reaction and production notes
One of Scorsese's 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 film's release. Scorsese chose to end the shot there because he "wanted to make a film about the ones who built New York, not the ones who tried to destroy it."[7]
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, gave the film a positive review, saying it was "a triumph, [but not] in the first rank of his masterpieces."[8] 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.[citation needed] 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 Irwin 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. As a result, 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 Award of Best Director - Motion Picture for Martin Scorsese and Best Original Song for the song "The Hands That Built America" by U2. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role & the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. However, the film was largely overshadowed by Chicago, which took half of the awards for which Gangs of New York was nominated, and the film failed to win any Academy Awards at all.
[edit] Cast
- Leonardo DiCaprio as Amsterdam Vallon
- Daniel Day-Lewis as William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting
- Cameron Diaz as Jenny Everdeane
- Jim Broadbent as William "Boss" Tweed
- John C. Reilly as "Happy Jack" Mulraney
- Henry Thomas as Johnny Sirocco
- Brendan Gleeson as Walter "Monk" McGinn
- Liam Neeson as "Priest" Vallon
- Gary Lewis as McGloin
- Stephen Graham as Shang
- Eddie Marsan as Killoran
- Alec McCowen as Reverend Raleigh
- David Hemmings as Mr. Schermerhorn
- Larry Gilliard Jr. as Jimmy Spoils
- Cara Seymour as Hellcat Maggie
Full cast and crew credits at IMDB
[edit] References
- ^ a b c History News Network
- ^ Mixing Art and a Brutal History
- ^ Virtual New York City, CUNY VNY: Riots
- ^ Herbert Asbury website Gangs of New York
- ^ Herbert Asbury website Bill the Butcher
- ^ New York Daily News "Trampling city's history"
- ^ Internet Movie Database Gangs of New York trivia
- ^ Roger Ebert website
