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(122702) Martin Scorsese's "Gangs of New York" takes all the
themes that have been coursing through the great director's body of work --
class, religion, man's brutal nature -- and sets them against a wonderfully rich
historical backdrop on the meanest streets that New York has ever seen.
At first glance, "Gangs" is a story of revenge set among the gang warfare that
plagued Manhattan's seedy Lower East Side -- an area known as the Five Points.
But Scorsese has much larger ambitions than to simply craft a bloody period
piece. "Gangs" spans the years 1846-63, but is set predominantly in the Civil
War era, a crossroads in American history full of prejudice, political
corruption and class warfare. The movie vividly illuminates this time while
subtly noting parallels in modern America.
The film's story follows a young man, Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio),
looking to avenge the death of a loved one at the hands of William Cutting, aka
"Bill the Butcher" (Daniel Day-Lewis, in an incendiary performance that will be
talked about for years). The Butcher (based on a real person) runs the Five
Points, heading the American-born Nativists gang. He hates immigrants, at one
point telling New York's famously corrupt political kingpin, William "Boss"
Tweed (Jim Broadbent, great as usual): "If only I had the guns, Mr. Tweed, I'd
shoot each and every one of them before they set foot on American soil."
Young Vallon ingratiates himself with Bill, becoming something of a protege and,
oddly, learning to become the kind of man that could eventually bring down the
savage Butcher. In the process, he meets Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a
beautiful pickpocket whose connections to Bill put her in the middle of the
inevitable conflict between the two men.
The film's screenplay, credited to longtime Scorsese collaborator Jay Cocks,
along with Steven Zaillian ("Schindler's List") and Kenneth Lonergan ("You Can
Count on Me"), turns the relationship between Vallon and Bill into a
fascinatingly ambivalent one. As Vallon notes: "It's a funny feeling being taken
under the wing of a dragon. It's warmer than you think." Bill, meanwhile, in a
riveting midmovie monologue, confides to Vallon that he considers him a son.
But as "Gangs" gradually unfolds and its interests move from personal to
cultural, we see that the cocksure Bill has a more dangerous enemy -- Boss Tweed
of the notoriously corrupt Tammany Hall. Bill looks at the daily arrival of
thousands of Irish immigrants to New York as an abomination; Tweed sees votes.
The federal government sees draftees to fight the Confederates.
Scorsese visually illustrates the dynamic as only he can, his camera following
young men disembarking from their journey across the Atlantic, then being
immediately conscripted and put on a troop ship. The shot -- a single -- ends
with the sight of cranes lifting the troop ship's cargo: scores of coffins
containing Union soldiers.
It's an unforgettable image in a movie full of fantastic visual flourishes (the
film's 15-minute opening gang fight is jaw-dropping) that combine an urgent
intensity with poetic beauty. It all culminates in a final gang battle that
takes a back seat to the brutal Draft Riots of 1863, when the Civil War came to
New York and despots far and wide invoked God's name for their cause.
Two more things of note: Day-Lewis is so good, so volcanic, as the strutting,
elongated gang leader that he seems to be acting in a separate stratosphere from
the rest of the cast (who are all quite capable, by the way). We've seen him
inhabit roles before with his ferocious power, but nothing could prepare us for
the extraordinary work here. He succeeds in revealing not only the savagery of
the Butcher, but also the peculiar nobility of the man. Simply amazing.
The same can be said for production designer Dante Ferretti's awe-inspiring
re-creation of the Five Points. Built on a 15-acre soundstage in Rome,
Ferretti's Five Points reveals a New York that lives up to Vallon's description:
"It wasn't a city. It was a furnace where a city might one day be forged."
And ultimately, that's what "Gangs" is about: the birth of both a city and a
nation. The wild frontier of America's bloody past has been paved over, but the
back-stabbing, government corruption and class struggles contained in the
country's dark heart remain. We've survived, but it's still a jungle out there,
boyo.
The movie is an epic summation of a master's career -- an endlessly fascinating,
landmark movie that is as bold as anything the cinema has seen in years.
Needless to say, it is the year's best film.
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