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GANGS
OF NEW YORK
No
other filmmaker has looked at the human condition and the inner
struggle between flesh and spirit quite like Martin Scorsese.
In Gangs of New York, Scorsese again looks at the human condition
and the strongest of human emotions: love and hate.
Review by Simon Remark
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GANGS
OF NEW YORK
(2002)
This page was created on December 19, 2002
This page was last updated on
January 16, 2003
Review -click
here
Trailers, Photos -click here
About this Film -click here
Spiritual Connections -click
here
Forum -click
here
Dial up modems will take a few moments
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CREDITS
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 Directed
by Martin Scorsese
Story by Jay Cocks
Screenplay by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan
Leonardo DiCaprio .... Amsterdam Vallon
Daniel Day-Lewis .... Bill the Butcher
Cameron Diaz .... Jenny Everdeane
Jim Broadbent .... Boss Tweed
John C. Reilly .... Happy Jack
Henry Thomas .... Johnny Sirocco
Brendan Gleeson .... Monk
rest of cast listed alphabetically
Roger Ashton-Griffiths .... P.T.Barnum
Salvatore Billa .... Native
 Produced
by
Gerry Robert Byrne .... associate producer
Laura Fattori .... line producer
Alberto Grimaldi .... producer
Maurizio Grimaldi .... executive producer
Michael Hausman .... executive producer
Michael Jackman .... line producer: additional photography
Graham King .... co-executive producer
Joseph P. Reidy .... co-producer
Rick Schwartz .... co-executive producer
Martin Scorsese .... producer
Colin Vaines .... co-executive producer
Bob Weinstein .... executive producer
Harvey Weinstein .... producer
Rick Yorn .... executive producer
Original Music by
Bono (song "The Hands That Built America")
Peter Gabriel
Howard Shore (song "Brooklyn Heights")
Cinematography by Michael Ballhaus
Film Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker
Casting by P. Larry Kaplan and Ellen Lewis
Production Design by Dante Ferretti
Art Direction by Alessandro Alberti, Maria-Teresa Barbasso, Dimitri
Capuani, Robert Guerra, Stefano Maria Ortolani and Nazzareno Piana
Set Decoration by Francesca LoSchiavo
Costume Design by Sandy Powell
MPAA:
Rated R for intense strong violence, sexuality/nudity and
language.
Runtime: 168 min
For rating reasons, go to FILMRATINGS.COM,
and MPAA.ORG.
Parents, please refer to PARENTALGUIDE.ORG
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TRAILERS
AND CLIPS
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Teaser:
QuickTime,
Hi-Res, 20.9MB
QuickTime,
Med-Res, 6.9MB
QuickTime,
Lo-Res, 5.0MB
Windows
Media Player, Hi-Res
Windows
Media Player, Med-Res
Windows
Media Player, Lo-Res
Trailer A:
QuickTime,
Hi-Res
QuickTime,
Med-Res
QuickTime, Lo-Res
Trailer B:
Windows
Media Player
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CD
SOUNDTRACK
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Gangs
of New York
Howard Shore, Various Artists - 2002
Martin Scorsese's sprawling meditation on the rise of street gangs
in 19th-century New York (the roots of the modern mafia) also became
another soundtrack buff's "What If?" after the director
scrapped the original orchestral underscore of modern collaborator
(Cape Fear, The Age of Innocence, Bringing Out the Dead)/veteran scoring
legend Elmer Bernstein and replaced it with this typically rich, Robbie
Robertson-supervised collection of eclectic pop, folk, and neo-classical
tracks. The latter come courtesy of three brooding excerpts from film
composer Howard Shore's previously unpremiered concert piece Brooklyn
Heights, tracks that help emphasize the film's darker emotional gravitas.
Much of the other catalog choices by Robertson and Scorsese lean on
an evocative slate of Celtic and folk-tinged selections that range
from hammered dulcimers, fiddles, and tin whistles to the spare, emotive
balladry of Linda Thompson and Shu-De; even U2's main theme, "The
Hands That Built America," is cast in a similar mold. But that
Irish musical stew gets leavened by everything from the postmodern
dirges of Peter Gabriel and Jocelyn Pook to a black field hand recording
by legendary musicologist Alan Lomax and even the Chinese flavors
of "Beijing Opera Suite." It's an imaginative, compelling
mix, one that gratifyingly pushes the usually staid boundaries of
what film scores can truly encompass. --Jerry McCulley
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POSTER
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No
available poster as of December 19, 2002
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BOOK
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The
Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld
by Herbert Asbury, Jorge Luis Borges (Foreword)
Gangs
of New York: Making the Movie
by Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron
Diaz
Set in the turbulent streets of Lower Manhattan in the mid-nineteenth
century, Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York depicts the politically
corrupt and volatile social climate of New York during the early
years of the Civil War. While the North is fighting in the South,
the difference between the insular opulence of uptown life and the
lawless destitution of those living downtown becomes more intolerable.
Irish immigrants and emancipated slaves add to the swelling numbers
of the poor. The city is a bomb ready to explode.
The
action unfolds at the Five Points, a notoriously corrupt, gang-infested
area between New York harbor and lower Broadway, where the native-born
(Protestant) Americans and the Irish (Catholic) immigrants battle
for control of the city. Amsterdam Vallon (played by Leonardo DiCaprio)
is a young Irish-American who has returned to New York, after fifteen
years in a house of reform, to seek revenge against Bill the Butcher
(Daniel Day-Lewis), the Nativist gang leader who had killed Vallon's
father. The movie follows Amsterdam as he infiltrates Bill's inner
circle, falls in love with Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a beguiling
pickpocket, and fights for the honor of his family and people. His
personal struggle explodes in tandem with the 1863 draft riots,
the most dramatic episode of urban unrest in American history.
Included
in the book are interviews of the principal people involved with
the making of the film: the director, actors, cinematographer, designers,
screenwriters, and producers; the complete shooting script; a historical
introduction by the writer Luc Sante, the film's technical advisor;
color stills taken during the shooting; sketches of the lavish sets
and costumes, and a portfolio of behind-the-scenes photographs taken
by Brigitte Lacombe. This is an inside look at how an epic movie,
one which the director had envisioned for twenty-five years, got
made.
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SYNOPSIS
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 Martin
Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” unfolds in 1860s lower
Manhattan during a period of great unrest in America. With the Civil
War underway, the country was torn apart and on the brink of chaos.
For the lower-class inhabitants of New York City, a war was also raging
closer to home.
 Their
home was the Five Points, one of the poorest neighborhoods in America,
where rival gangs fought continuously for control of the streets.
An area of poverty and criminality between New York harbor, the
flourishing Wall Street business district, and lower Broadway (home
to P. T. Barnum’s famous American museum), it was a magnet
for underworld activity.
 In
this time of lawlessness and the rampant political corruption that
filled the halls of city government, the film follows the story
of Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo Di Caprio), a young Irish-American
immigrant. Released from prison after fifteen years, he returns
to the Five Points bent on revenge against William Cutting, a.k.a.
Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis), the powerful anti-immigrant
gang leader who killed Amsterdam’s father. Amsterdam knows
the first step toward accomplishing his mission is to infiltrate
Bill's inner circle.  However,
Amsterdam finds his difficulties increasing when he meets Jenny
Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), an enigmatic pickpocket whose fierce independence
and undeniable beauty fascinate him. Yet Jenny has a past too, which
unexpectedly complicates his plan.
Amsterdam's
journey becomes a fight, for both personal survival and to find
a place for his people. The struggle reaches a fevered crescendo
during the 1863 Civil War Draft Riots - the most explosive episode
of urban unrest the American nation had yet seen.
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 REVIEW
By SIMON REMARK
simon_remark@hotmail.com
Film Reviewer
Simon
graduated from Trinity Western University where he studied film
under prolific screenwriter Ned Vankevich. He prefers independent
and lower-budget films.
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No
other filmmaker has looked at the human condition and the inner
struggle between flesh and spirit quite like Martin Scorsese. From
Mean Streets to Taxi Driver to Raging Bull
to The Last Temptation of Christ,
Scorsese has presented protagonists that are often unlikable, and
sometimes grotesque. All of these protagonists, however, desire
to transcend their environments, themselves, and their sin. And
in Gangs of New York, Scorsese again looks at the human condition
and the strongest of human emotions: love and hate.
Scorsese might be the greatest living filmmaker. In Gangs
he has created another brilliantly shot, directed and acted, sorry
ACTED-Bill the Butcher merits all caps-masterpiece.  It
is a period piece, taking place in the late 18 hundreds, with the
gritty feel of New York street flicks Mean Streets, Taxi
Driver and Bringing Out
the Dead. It looks at how the streets of New York were just
as grimy, corrupt and violent back then as they are now, which is
interesting because people often lament about how bad things are
now, when, actually the state of things is no better or worse now
than it was then. Humans have, and always will be, broken, sinful,
hateful, greedy, materialistic, grotesque.
Is there always redemption for Scorsese's protagonists, or characters
in general? Perhaps. But Scorsese's films are too honest for happy
endings, because in life things don't always work out; people don't
always overcome huge obstacles, learn valuable lessons and come
out victorious, or more virtuous, like most movies show us. More
often, people fail, lose everything and sometimes die: in Mean
Streets Charlie loses his friend, in Raging Bull Jake
LaMotta loses everything, and in The
Last Temptation of Christ chooses death on the cross.
 Leonardo
DiCaprio plays Amsterdam Vallon, an orphan who, at around the age
of five, watched his father die at the hands of Bill the Butcher,
inhumanly played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Amsterdam's father, Priest
Vallon, died while leading gangs of Irish immigrants in a battle
for sway over New York's Five Points against the Butcher's Nativists.
We rejoin Vallon 15 years later when he returns to the Five Points.
 Vallon
hides his identity from the Butcher, who takes him under his wing,
creating an interesting dynamic, as Vallon often seems ambivalent
about the Butcher-we know that he is seeking vengeance, but at times
it seems as though he almost cares for Bill, as in one scene we
see him risk his life to save the Butcher from an assassin. There's
another scene towards the end of the film, without giving anything
away, where Bill the Butcher and Amsterdam Vallon look at each other
with tremendous empathy.
 Now,
of all the admirable aspects of this film, perhaps the most notable
is Daniel Day-Lewis's performance as William Cutting, or Bill the
Butcher. He is phenomenal. He brings so much fear, angst and rage
to this character it's scary. In Gangs Day-Lewis is Bill
the Butcher, not an actor portraying him. I heard that long-time
Scorsese collaborator Robert De Niro was considered for the role,
who sometimes seems like a caricature of his former self, although
his best work is under Scorsese's direction. Not to diss De Niro,
I just cannot imagine someone other than Day-Lewis in this role.
He brought to this character what De Niro brought to Travis Bickle
and Jake LaMotta.
 Gangs
raises some interesting questions, especially that of redemption
through violence. There is an interesting scene where the film cuts
to three different characters praying to the same God, but for very
different reasons, each quoting Scripture to suit their purpose.
It's interesting to see how ones experiences and condition influence
their perception and understanding of God: Vallon and the Butcher
both pray that God will help them defeat their enemies, while a
wealthy, high-society type thanks God for His mercies.
Gangs
of New York is another great Scorsese work of art, with rich
spiritual themes and imagery. And while Day-Lewis's Butcher is
by far the strongest character in the film, each actor holds his
or her own, giving each scene the right mood. Scorsese again proves
to be one of the most significant, profound filmmakers of our
time.
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PHOTOS
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CONTINUE:
Review -click here
Trailers, Photos -click here
About this Film -click here
Spiritual Connections -click here
Forum -click
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Gangs of New York ©
2002 Miramax Films. All Rights Reserved.
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