Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz
Director: Martin Scorsese
Rated: MA15+
DIRECTOR Martin Scorsese says that the screenplay for Gangs of New York was already settled before September 11, 2001.
This is astounding given that the story focuses on the fear of outsiders, acts of terrorism, revenge and lawlessness in New York. Scorsese says after 9/11 he did not change a thing in the script. His courage has paid off.
In 1846, a young boy, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio), is involved in a bloody turf war between the immigrant gang led by his father, Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) and the nationalist gang led by William ‘Bill the Butcher’ Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). Butcher Bill kills Priest Vallon in the fight. As Amsterdam weeps over his father, he vows revenge.
Sixteen years later he gets his opportunity when he returns to the Bowery from an orphanage. No one recognises him.
He joins the Butcher boys and quickly becomes Bill’s adopted son. He ruthlessly plays his part in maintaining Bill’s supremacy over Lower Manhattan.
As the 1863 Civil War draft riots in New York reach a crescendo, Amsterdam is exposed as Priest Vallon’s son. He gathers a force of disaffected immigrants against Butcher Bill and leads them into a gangland war.
It’s not easy to get into this rich and complex film, but those viewers who do will be amply rewarded for their commitment. Scorsese is not known for period films for their own sake. The historical events, upon which this film is very loosely based, are the background against which Scorsese makes social comments about the here and now.
This is not to say that the attention to period detail is sloppy. Quite the opposite. With a US$150 million budget for this film we should expect that the sets, costumes, props and digital reconstruction of New York is epic in scale and masterly rendered. But Gangs of New York is an allegory. All this was true in The Age of Innocence as well.
There are references to the Northern Irish conflict where political prejudices are dressed up in religious diatribes, and marches and funeral processions can incite riots. The film refers to the immigration debate in every wealthy Western nation where outsiders are vilified for the sins of the society and right-wing nationalism becomes the creed of the angry. This film also tells the story of the oppressed urban poor in every generation who, in turn, oppress those below them in the social hierarchy and turn to violence to assert their clout. And there’s much more besides.
Scorsese’s familiar themes are on display again. His world is usually brutal. The physical and emotional violence of Gangs of New York will be too much for many viewers to watch. By Scorsese’s standards, however, things are more muted this time. He is famous for making ‘boys’ own films’ where men define their world by violence.
Cameron Diaz, as Amsterdam’s love interest, is simply decorative. And there is his usual mixture of religion and violence that is as confronting as ever.
Daniel Day-Lewis is outstanding as the sociopath, Butcher Bill. Leonardo DiCaprio has just the right mix of innocence and steel to carry off Amsterdam. And even though she has less to work with as Jenny Everdeane, Diaz is miscast.
Scorsese won a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for this film. As demanding as it is, it is among his most accessible work and proves what a master he is at reflecting back to us the darker realities of our society and exposing the roots of our present day problems in the sins of our fathers and mothers.
Gangs of New York is not pretty, but Jesus had something to say about bringing things hidden out into the light and so, just maybe, Scorsese is doing us a favour.
