GANGS OF NEW YORK
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Martin Scorsese recreates slum and gang life in Civil War Era New York City. It is a cutthroat world where virtually everyone is a criminal and everyone is a victim to some degree. The historic background alone is worth the price of admission, even if the foreground story is a little hackneyed at times. This is an always-fascinating historical film with a lot of factual detail. Rating: 8 (0 to 10), high +2 (-4 to +4)
It is 1846 in Manhattan. There are still living Americans who still remember the American Revolution. The Five Points district of Manhattan has the worst and most dangerous slum in the world. Five roads and at least as many criminal gangs meet at Paradise Square, about as far from Paradise as any place the US had to offer.
We open with one Irish gang's ritualistic preparations for war before meeting on the icy streets with another gang, the Nativists, dedicated to stopping foreign immigration with murder as frequently as possible. Irishman Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) is killed in the melee by Nativist Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (a swaggering Daniel Day-Lewis). Priest's young son watches his father die. Then he goes off to the orphanage named Hellgate House of Reform. Flash forward sixteen years. There is a Civil War going on. Bill the Butcher rules the Five Points with fear and ruthlessness. Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is now about 23. He is just about old enough to avenge his father, if he can move into Bill the Butcher's organization. And once he does get in if he can shut out an involuntary admiration for the Butcher's style. He works for the day that he can kill the Butcher. Through his eyes we see this world, building to an account and dramatization of the draft riots of July 11 to 13, 1863. Immigrants who were forced into the army and used as cannon fodder protested against a law that allowed the rich to buy their way out of the draft for the cost of $300.
The plot is surprisingly familiar for a film from Martin Scorsese. The first two hours of this three-hour film bears some resemblance to the last chapters of both APOCALYPSE NOW and CONAN THE BARBARIAN. There are even more parallels to the 1959 western THE JAYHAWKERS! But the story is still good enough and that is not really the thrust of the film. Much more import is the historical background created in exquisite detail. Scorsese plunges us into what must be the worst neighborhood in United States history. Everyone fights and fears everyone else. A person's protection is not in the law but in what alliances he can make. Fire companies loot burning houses and clash like gangs. The Metropolitan police and the Municipal police compete and fight each other like gangs. And dozens of gangs fight worse than gangs, gangs like the Plug Uglies, the Bowery Boys, the Dead Rabbits, and the Shirt Tails. The corrupt police have little reason to protect any but the rich and gangs are the only way the poor can protect themselves. The events are real, though the story connecting them is fictional and Martin Scorsese is not above bending the truth for dramatic effect. (Barnum's Museum, which Scorsese would have us believe burned in the Draft Riots actually did not burn until 1865.) There was a fearsome Bill the Butcher, though his last name was not Cutting and he died before these events. The Draft riots, the fragmentation and gang war, bloody sports like the terrier and rat fights are all real. Scorsese just embeds items of the history of this urban snake pit with minor modifications into a fictional story.
Scorsese gives us an education in the history of crime and corruption in New York City. The corruption goes right up to political boss "Boss" Tweed, probably the most famously corrupt official in United States history. He is anxious to maintain the illusion of legality who raping the city's taxpayers. Tweed befriends whatever gang leader can deliver the most votes. People were paid to grow heavy beards as election day approached. They would vote in the heavy beards, collect their bribe, shave just enough off to change their appearance and vote again, collect again, shave again, vote again, collect again. This, too, was part of the new immigrant experience in New York. There is much that is toned down of the film. There is the human and animal waste in the cesspools and the streets. A bed was six cents a night in the part of town most people could not even stand to walk through, considered the worst slum in the world. It was all blacks, Irish, some native-born, and Chinese could afford. When the locals were not having a good time at the public hangings they engaged in a variety of blood sports like betting on how long it would take a terrier to kill rats.
King of this world was Bill the Butcher. Day-Lewis's performance is eccentric but memorable. He speaks from behind a big mustache in what seems to be an affected accent of his own invention. Even the various plaids of his suits seem to be in a battle for supremacy over each other. His words are extremely distinct in a film where much is said in impenetrable accents. His words are articulate and frequently chosen to be threatening. On the other hand, DiCaprio does little to characterize his Amsterdam. He leaves the scene-stealing to Day-Lewis. Neither he nor Henry Thomas is believably tough. Only a little better is Cameron Diaz as a versatile pickpocket. None of these three young actors conveys much memorable emotion. She allowed the filmmakers to give her too much makeup and plays her role a little too impishly for a woman who had had the hard knocks she had. She conveys no strong emotion. Liam Neeson has a small role as Priest, but his shadow is over the entirety of the film. Even Scorsese manages a small cameo for himself.
Multiple cultures were living in the Five Points and Scorsese show us a little of the culture of each, almost as if he had a checklist. This is a well-crafted recreation of history. I rate it an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net
Copyright 2002 Mark R. Leeper
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