Legendary film director Martin Scorsese ("Taxi Driver",
"Good Fellas", "Raging Bull") seemingly takes a break from his excellent urban
dramas by making "Gangs Of New York", a period piece dealing with criminal gangs
in the Five Points Section of New York City in 1863. And, indeed, when "Gangs"
first begins--in a prologue that is set in the 1840s--it truly feels as unlikely
a Scorsese film as "The Age Of Innocence". In the opening minutes, we witness a
massive and violent street battle between two rival gangs for control of the Five
Points area. This is full-scale warfare, fought by hand-to-hand combat out
in the open, which contrasts sharply to the shadowy underworld violence that is
perpetrated by the thugs in Scorsese's previous films. At the end of the battle,
one gang loses its leader, and a little boy loses his father.
As we jump ahead to 1863, that little boy has become a young man named Amsterdam
Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) who arrives back in New York area with one
goal in mind: to kill the man who murdered his father. That man is none other
than Bill The Butcher, a notorious gang leader in the Five Points sections of
the city. Daniel Day-Lewis plays the brutal Bill with the kind of confident
sadistic swagger that befits a man in his position. Lewis wisely stops just
short of chewing the scenery, and in doing so creates a character who is
fascinating to watch, and who nearly steals the film from his co-stars.
Scorsese, ever the master storyteller, expertly manages to set this personal
conflict against the infamous Draft Riots without it getting lost. The Draft
Riots occurred when hundreds of New Yorkers violently rose up for four days
against the recently installed national draft, which would have sent them to
the battlefields of the American Civil War (while wealthy young men could avoid
military service by paying $300). Scorsese's staging of the Draft Riots is
fittingly spectacular, with armed troops shooting down protestors in the
streets and US Navy ships bombarding the city from the harbor.
However, as "Gangs" plays on, one begins to realize that perhaps Scorsese has
not wandered too far from his cinematic body of work after all. The lurid street
gangs who rule and war against each other in New York in the 1860s are actually
the forerunners of the mob in the twentieth century. With the police of this
era little more than thugs themselves who are for sale to the highest bidder,
the gangs--most notably Bill The Butcher's Natives--literally have the run of
the land, with corrupt politicians seeking their partnership in various illegal
schemes. It would not be too long before real law and order would finally exert
control in New York City, driving gang life into the underworld, as we know it
today. "Gangs Of New York" may not be Martin Scorsese's best film--it lacks the
subtle power of his earlier work, and Cameron Diaz is all but wasted in a flat,
cliché "love interest" role--but any Martin Scorsese movie, good or bad, still
stands head and shoulders over the more mundane product that Hollywood spews out
on a daily basis. If nothing else, "Gangs Of New York" is recommended just for
Daniel Day-Lewis' performance alone.
The almost three hour long "Gangs" is spread out over two DVDs. The special
features include a mesmerizing commentary by Scorsese, the video of U2's song,
"Hands The Built America" and various "making of" featurettes. There's also
documentaries on the real Five Points area of New York, as well as a Discovery
Channel special, "Uncovering The Real Gangs Of New York". --SF