Gangs of New York

Long before “Gangs of New York” was release, it had its own story that was nearly as fascinating as the story it has to tell. The time, money, and effort spent making this movie have become a Hollywood legend. Director Martin Scorsese spent the better part of thirty years trying to get this movie made. The film was reported to have a massive budget (which, the story goes, it easily exceeded). An early cut of the film was rumored to by several hours long (the final cut is a lean 165 minutes). Even great directors are capable of making huge, expensive, horrible films, and, sure, this one seemed to have a good chance of becoming Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate” or Coppola’s “Godfather III.” To Scorsese’s credit, for all its flaws, it has little in common with either.

In 1846, with Irish immigrants arriving in the New York neighborhood of Five Points (“the forge of hell”) by the boatload, a group of American-born citizens of British and Dutch heritage, led by William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting, form a gang known as the “The Native Americans” for the purpose of terrorizing and brutalizing the rapidly growing immigrant population. In order to defend themselves, the Irish immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, “The Dead Rabbits,” organized by a priest name Vallon. The neighborhood skirmishes between the two gangs continue to escalate until a final savage battle in the streets which ends with Bill the Butcher killing Vallon as Vallon’s young son watches. The boy is taken from Five Points and locked away in brutal reform school for orphans—the Hellgate House of Reform.

Flash forward to 1862. The boy, now a young man known as Amsterdam (DiCaprio), returns to Five Points for revenge on Bill the Butcher (Lewis), the man who murdered his father, the man who now controls Five Points through intimidation, arson, violence, and good political connections.

Posing as a nativist, Amsterdam infiltrates the Native Americans and becomes Bill the Butcher’s right-hand man, hiding his true identity until the time is right. Amsterdam’s plan is further complicated, when he falls in love with Jenny Everdeane (Diaz), a street-smart pickpocket from the neighborhood, and before he can exact his revenge on his father’s murderer, his true identity is revealed.

Surrounding the fictionalized story of Amsterdam’s quest from vengeance is the historically accurate story of the political corruption rampant in New York at that time (under the unfetteredly corrupt leadership of New York politician "Boss" Tweed), and the horrors of the New York Draft Riots of 1863, a violent uprising in response to Lincoln’s March 3, 1863, Enrollment Act of Conscription. On June 12, 1863, the names of the draftees drawn the day before by the Provost Marshall were published in newspapers. Within hours, groups of angry citizens, many of them Irish immigrants, banded together across the city. The mob, eventually numbering some 50,000 people, terrorized the East Side of New York for three days, attacking police and newspaper offices, burning the draft office, looting stores and homes. Much of the violence was directed at African Americans, whom the rioters blamed for the war, and by the time Federal troops—at the time returning home from the Battle of Gettysburg—were deployed to suppress the riot, a black church and orphanage had been burned to the ground, and eleven black men had been lynched. Troops opened fire on the mob, and many more people lost their lives. At the time, the official death toll was listed as 119, though contemporary speculations have estimated that as many as 1,000 may actually have died.

Against this historical backdrop, Amsterdam will attempt to carry out his revenge and still get the girl. The revenge drama/love story that are the center of Jay Cocks’ screenplay and little more than rote Hollywood screenwriting which isn’t quite sucessful in merging itself into the real historical events in which Scorsese is really interested. While most of the supporting cast is excellent, and while Daniel Day Lewis performance is instantly memorable scenery-chewing villainous greatness, Cameron Diaz’s performance is merely adequate. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance is not great, and, unfortunately, not really even adequate . . . but you need stars to get a movie like this made in Hollywood, so here he is.

In the end, though, this film makes obvious what has been true of most of Scorsese’s work all along—his subject is not limited to the characters that people his stories; his subject is New York itself.

Despite a somewhat clumsy screenplay and some poor casting choices, “Gangs of New York” is a terrific film. If for no other reason, see this movie because Scorsese is the greatest American film director currently making films.

Matt Parks (May 5, 2003)