[Music] friends if you want to watch super hit movie Gangs of New York and English then you must like this video if you are visiting our channel for the first time don't forget to subscribe to our Channel friends and today's video the movie we are going to talk about is called Gangs of New York we will talk about what this movie is and where you can watch it all the interesting facts about this movie in today's video I am going to tell you I am also going to give you all the information on which platform or on which satellite channel you will get to watch this movie also we will talk in detail about the technical department music department pre-production filming post production budget box office collection of this film we will also talk about the story of this film and I will also give you a small review of the story of this film apart from this we will discuss about the facts of this film storyline starcast actor's performance in the film and which character has played which role that's why I request you friends to watch this video till the end so let's start the the video Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical drama film directed by Martin scorsis and written by Jay Cox Steven zelan and Kenneth lonan based on Herbert esp's 1927 book The Gangs of New York the film stars Leonardo da Caprio Daniel D Lewis and Cameron Das with Jim broadman John C Riley Henry Thomas Steven Graham Eddie Marson and Brendan gleon and supporting roles the film is set in 1863 when a long-running Catholic Protestant Feud erupts into violence just as an Irish immigrant group is protesting against the threat of conscription scors spent 20 years developing the project until murx films acquired it in 1999 principal photography took place in cetta Rome and Long Island City New York City kangs of New York was completed by 2001 but its release was delayed due to the September 11th attacks the film was theatrically released in the United States on December 20th 2002 and grossed over $193 million worldwide it was met with generally positive reviews and D Lewis's performance was highly acclaimed it received 10 nominations at the 75th Academy Awards including best picture best director for scores and best actor for D Lewis movie plot in the 1846 slum of the Five Points two rival gangs the Protestant Confederation of American natives led by William Bill the Butcher cutting and the Irish Catholic immigrant Dead Rabbits led by priest valon engaged in their final battle to determine which faction will hold sway over the territory at the end of the battle Bill kills valon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed having witnessed this valon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Blackwells Island in 1862 valon's son Amsterdam returns to the Five Points seeking revenge and retrieves the knife an old acquaintance Johnny srao familiarizes him with the local clans of gangs all of whom pay tribute to Bill who remains in control of the territory Amsterdam is introduced to Bill but keeps his past a secret as he seeks recruitment into the gang he learns many of of his father's former lieutenants are now in Bill's employ each year Bill celebrates the anniversary of his victory over the Dead Rabbits and Amsterdam secretly plans to kill him publicly during this celebration Amsterdam soon becomes attracted to pickpocket and grifter Jenny everine with whom Johnny is also infatuated Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence and becomes his Protege involving him in the dealings of corrupt tamony Hall politician William M twe Amsterdam saves bill from an assassination attempt and is tormented by the thought that he may have done so out of honest devotion on the evening of the anniversary Johnny in a fit of jealousy over Jenny's affection for Amsterdam reveals Amsterdam's true identity and intentions to Bill Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife throwing act involving Jenny as Bill toasts priest Bon Amsterdam throws his knife but Bill deflects it and wounds Amsterdam with a counter throw bill then beats him and burns his cheek with a hot blade going into hiding Jenny implores him to escape with her to San Francisco Amsterdam however returns to the Five Point seeking Vengeance and announces his return turned by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square in front of several Irish gangs that were allied with the dead rabbit Bill sends corrupt Irish policemen and former dead rabbit mainy to investigate but Amsterdam GRS him to death and hangs his body in the square in retaliation bill has Johnny beaten and run through with a pike leaving it to Amsterdam to end his suffering when Amsterdam's gang beats McGloin a former dead rabbit and one of Bill's lieutenants bill and the natives march on the church and are met by Amsterdam and the dead rabbit no violence ensues but Bill promises to return soon the incident Garners newspaper coverage an Amsterdam presents Tweed with a plan to defeat Bill's influence Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk minin for Sheriff and Amsterdam will secure the Irish vote for Tam monk wins in a landslide and a humiliated Bill murders him M Jin's death prompts an angry Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle in Paradise Square which Bill accepts the Civil War draft riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the riers as the rival gangs fight cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square interrupting their battle shortly before it begins many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire soldiers or riers Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until bill is wounded by shrap Amsterdam then uses his father's knife to Kill Bill Amsterdam buries the knife next to his father in a cemetery in Brooklyn erecting a makeshift headstone with the name William cutting over it now alongside the actual Tombstone of priest valy as Amsterdam and Jenny Le the skyline changes as modern New York City is built over the next Century from the Brooklyn Bridge to the World Trade Center and the cemetery becomes overgrown and forgotten cast Leonardo da Caprio as Amsterdam valent Daniel de Lewis as williiam Bill the Butcher cutting Cameron Das is Jenny everine Jim Broadbent is William Boss Tweed John C Riley is happy jack mainy Henry Thomas is Johnny srao Liam niss as priest Valen Brendan gleon as Walter monk maen Carrie Lewis as McGloin Steven Graham is shank Eddie Marson as kerin Alec mcohen as Reverend Raleigh David hemings as John F shermerhorn Lawrence Gillard Jr as Jimmy spoils Cara Seymour is Hellcat Maggie Roger Ashton Griffiths is PT baram Barbara bouchet is Mrs Shermer horn Michael ban is Horus gy John sessions is Harry Watkins Richard Graham is Harvey card player jaavan Lombardo rtis is Mr lry production Martin scorsis had grown up in Little Italy in the burrow of Manhattan and New York City during the 1950s at the time he had noticed there were parts of his neighborhood that were much older than the rest including tombstones from the 1,810 seconds in Old St Patrick's Cathedral cobblestone streets and small basements located under more recent large buildings this sparked scor's curiosity about the history of the area I gradually realized that the italian-americans weren't the first ones there that other people had been there before us as I began to understand this it fascinated me I kept wondering how did New York look what were the people like how did they walk eat work dress development in 1970 scorsis came across Herbert esp's book The Gangs of New York an informal history of the underworld about the city's 19th century criminal underworld and found it to be a revelation in the portraits of the city's criminals scores saw the potential for an American epic about the Battle for the modern American democracy scores immediately contacted his friend J Cox a film critic for Time Magazine think of it like a Western in outer space scores had told him Cox recalled they had considered Malcolm McDow in the lead role in framing the narrative with quotations from Bruce Springsteen but otherwise they intended to keep the period vernacular authentic at the time scorsis was a young director without Prestige by the end of the decade with the success of crime films such as Mean Streets about his old neighborhood and taxi driver he was a rising star in June 1977 producer Alberto Grimaldi ran a two-page ad in Daily variety announcing the film's production with scors set to direct that same year scores and Cox wrote the first draft but scors decided to direct Raging Bull instead in 1979 scors acquired the screen wrs to as's book however it took 20 years to get the production moving forward difficulties arose with reproducing the Monumental ccape of 19th century New York with the style and detail scores wanted almost nothing in New York City looked as it did in that time and filming elsewhere was not an option in 1991 galdi and scors resumed development on the project with universal pictures on a budget of $30 million at one point Robert dairo was set to portray Bill the Butcher however the studio transferred the rights to the project to Disney in 1997 whose then chairman Joe Roth turned down the film due to its excessive violence which was not appropriate for a Disney themed movie scores took the film to Warner Bros being contractually obligated to make a film for the studio the film was however declined by Warner Bros as well and after were declined similarly by 20th Century Fox Paramount Pictures and Metro Goldman mayor eventually in in 1999 scorsis was able to find a partnership with Harvey Weinstein noted producer and co-chairman of murx films as the film had a large budget of nearly $100 million Weinstein then sold International distribution rights to the project to Graham King's initial Entertainment Group for about $65 million to secure the required funds shortly after Touchstone pictures joined murx in funding the film in exchange for a portion of the proceeds from domestic distribution that same year Cox was retained by scors for the screenplay adaptation which underwent nine revised drafts however Weinstein was not pleased with the shooting script and wanted other screenwriters brought in for more rites to Plate Weinstein scores called Cox into a room and fired him telling the Globe and Mail Cox recalled the situation you ever been fired it's terrible terrible even if it's a job you don't like it pisses you off right well you can extrapolate from that exponentially due to this the final shooting script was not fully completed when filming began H IM was hired and wrote the last two drafts but he was uncredited for his work set design in order to create the sets that scors envisioned the production was filmed at the large cetta studio in Rome Italy production designer Dante Fetti recreated over a mile of mid 19th century New York building consisting of a five block area of lower Manhattan including the fivepoint slum a section of the East River Waterfront including two full-sized sailing ships a 30 building stretch of Lower Broadway a patrician mansion and replicas of Tam Hall a church a saloon a Chinese Theater and a gambling casino for the Five Points Fetti recreated George catlin's 1827 painting of the area rehearsals and character development particular attention was also paid to the speech of characters as loyalties were often revealed by their accents The film's Voice coach Tim Mish resisted using a generic Irish progue and instead focused on distinctive dialects of Ireland and Great Britain as da caprio's character was born in Ireland but raised in the United States his accent was designed to be a blend of accents typical of the half American eyes to develop the unique lost accents of the Yankee nativist such as Daniel Day Lewis's character Mish studied old poems ballads newspaper articles and the Rogues lexicon a book of Underworld idioms compiled by New York's police commissioner so that his men would be able to tell what criminals were talking about an important piece was an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word Earth as a and the oven nasal and flat like Mish concluded that native 19th century New Yorkers probably sounded something like the proverbial Brooklyn cabbie of the mid 20th century filming principal photography began in New York and Rome on December 18th 2000 and ended on March 30th 2001 due to the strong personalities and clashing visions of director and producer the three-year production became a story in and of itself scorsi strongly defended his artistic Vision on issues of taste and length while Weinstein fought for a streamline more commercial version during the delays noted actors such as Robert dairo and will and dafo had to leave the production due to conflicts with their other Productions toss overshot the original budget by 25% bringing the total cost over $100 million The increased budget made the film vital to murx film's short-term success post- production and distribution after post- production was nearly completed in 2001 the film was delayed for over a year the official justification was after the September 11th 2001 attacks certain elements of the picture may have made audiences uncomfortable the film's closing shot is a view of modern-day New York City complete with the World Trade Center's Towers despite them having been destroyed by the attacks over a year before the film's release however this explanation was refuted in scors se's own contemporary statements where he noted that the production was still filming pickups even into October 2002 the filmmakers had also considered having the towers dissolved out from the shot to acknowledge their disappearance or remove the entire sequence altogether it was ultimately decided to keep the towers unaltered Weinstein kept demanding cuts to the film's length and some of those cuts were eventually made in December 2001 film critic Jeffrey Wells reviewed a purported workprint of the film as it existed in the fall of 2001 Wells reported the workprint lack narration was about 20 minutes longer and although it was different than the version scene after scene after scene play exactly the same in both despite the similarities Wells found the work print to be richer and more satisfying than the theatrical version while scors has stated the theatrical version is his final cut he reportedly passed a long 3-hour plus version of gangs on tape and confi it putting aside my contractual obligation to deliver a shorter 2hour and 40-minute version to mmax this is the version I'm happiest with or words to that effect in an interview with Roger Ebert scorsis clarified the real issues in the cutting of the film Ebert notes his discussions with Weinstein he said were always about finding the length where the picture worked when that got to the press it was translated into fights the movie is is currently 168 minutes long he said and that is the right length and that's why there won't be any director's cut because this is the director's cut soundtrack Robbie Robertson supervised the soundtrack's collection of eclectic pop folk and neoclassical tracks historical accuracy scors received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film in a PBS interview for the history News Network George Washington University Professor Tyler anbinder said that the visuals and discrimination of immigrants in the film were historically accurate but both the amount of violence depicted in the number of Chinese particularly female immigrants were greater in the film than in reality the spar's book described The Bowery Boys Plug Uglies true blue Americans shirt taals and Dead Rabbits who were named after their battle standard a dead rabbit on a pike the book also described William P the inspiration for William Bill the Butcher cutting a member of The Bowery Boys a bare knuckle boxer and a leader of the no nothing political movement pool did not come from the Five Points of was assassinated nearly a decade before the draft riots both the fictional bill and the real onead butcher shops but p is not known to have killed anyone the book also described other famous gangsters from the era such as Red Rocks feral slobbery Jim and Hellcat Maddie who filed her front teeth to points and wore artificial brass fingernails anbinder said that scors is's Recreation of the visual environment of mid 19th century New York City and the Five Points couldn't have been much better all sets were built completely on the exterior stages of studios in Rome by 1860 New York City had 200,000 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants in a population of 800,000 according to Paul es Boyer the period from the 1830s to the 1850s was a time of almost continuous disorder and turbulence among the urban poor the decade from 83418 for forsaw more than 200 major gang wars in New York City alone and in other cities the pattern was similar as early as 1839 mayor Philip hon said this city is infested by gangs of hardened wretches who Patrol the streets making night hideous and insulting all who are not strong enough to defend themselves the large gang fight depicted in the film as occurring in 1846 is fictional though there was one between the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits and the five points on July 4th 1857 which is not mentioned in the film reviewer Vincent D gyal concludes that Gangs of New York becomes a historical epic with no change over time the effect is to freeze ethnocultural rivalries over the course of three decades and portray them as irrational ancestral hatreds unaltered by demographic shifts economic cycles and political realignment in the film the draft riots of July 1863 are depicted as both destructive and violent records indicate the riots resulted in more than 100 deaths including the lynching of 11 free African-Americans they were especially targeted by the Irish in part because of fears of job competition that more freed slaves would cause in the city the bombardment of the City by Navy ships offshore to Quil the riots is wholly fictitious the film references the Infamous Tweed Courthouse as Boss Tweed refers to plans for the structure as being modest and economical in the film Chinese Americans were common enough in the city to have their own community in public venues although Chinese people migrated to America as early as the 1840s significant Chinese migration to New York City did not begin until 1869 the time when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed the Chinese Theater on pelson was not finished until the 1890s the old Brewery the overcrowded tenement shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862 63 was actually demolished in 1852 release the original Target release date was December 21st 2001 in time for the 2001 Academy Awards but the production overshot that goal as scores was still filming a 20-minute clip built as an extended preview debuted at the 2002 cans film festival and was shown at a star studded event at the P desk festivals at desk Congers with scorsis da Caprio Das and Weinstein in attendance Harvey Weinstein then wanted the film to open on December 25th 2002 but a potential conflict with another film starring Leonardo Da capria Catch Me If You Can produced by Dream works caused him to move the opening day to an earlier position after negotiations between several parties including the interests of Da Caprio Weinstein and DreamWorks Jeffrey kenberg the decision was made on economic grounds DiCaprio did not want to face a conflict of promoting two movies opening against each other kenberg was able to convince Weinstein that the viol and adult material in Gangs of New York would not necessarily attract families on Christmas the main concern to all involved was attempting to maximize the film's opening day an important part of film industry economics after 3 years in production the film was released on December 20th 2002 a year after its original planned release date while the film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray there are no plans to revisit the theatrical cut or prepare a director's cut for home video release Marty doesn't believe in that editor Thelma Schoonmaker stated he believes in showing only the finished film Gangs of New York was released on VHS and a two- disk DVD July 1st 2003 the film was split on both discs a Blu-ray version of the film was released July 1st 2008 box office the film made 77 m812 th000 in Canada and the United States it also took 23,7 63,65 in Japan and6 m358 580 in the United Kingdom worldwide the film grossed a total of $3,772 54 critical reception on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 214 reviews with an average rating of 7 10 over 10 the website's critical consensus reads though flawed the sprawling messy Gangs of New York is Redeemed by impressive production design and D lewis' electrifying performance Metacritic gave the film a score of 72 out of 100 based on 39 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of Beyond in a plus to f scale Roger Ebert praised the film but believed it fell short of scors se's best work while his at the movies co-host Richard rooper called it a masterpiece and declared it a leading Contender for Best Picture Paul Clinton of CNN called the film a grand American epic in variety Todd McCarthy wrote that the film Falls somewhat short of great film status but is still a richly impressive and densely realized work that bracingly opens the eye and mind to untaught aspects of American History aarthy singled out the meticulous attention to historical detail and production designed for particular praise some critics were disappointed with the film with one review on Cinema Blend feeling it was overly violent with few characters worth caring about Norman bervy of the new English review wrote in a negative critique that some locals in Spain who had watched Gangs of New York had several anti-American beliefs confirmed afterwards which he felt was due to the film's gratuitous violence hisor iCal inaccuracies and general depiction of American society in the worst possible light others felt it tried to tackle too many themes without saying anything unique about them and that the overall story was weak Cameron das's divisive performance as Irish immigrant pickpocket Jenny everine has been cited as an example of poor casting and one of the worst Irish accents in film Gangs of New York movie review Martin scor's Gangs of New York rips up the postcards of American history and reassembles them into a violent blood soaked story of our bare knuckled past the New York it portrays in the Years between the 1840s and the Civil War as a character observes the forge of Hell In which groups clear space by killing their Rivals competing fire brigades and police forces fight in the streets audiences throw rotten fruit at an actor portraying Abraham Lincoln blacks and Irish are chased by mobs and navy ships fire on the city as the poor Riot against the draft the film opens with an extraordinary scene set beneath tenements in catacombs carved out of the Manhattan Rock an Irish American leader named priest valon prepares for battle almost as if preparing for the mass indeed as he puts on a collar to protect his neck we think for a moment he might be a priest with his young son Amsterdam trailing behind he walks through the Labyrinth of this torch lit Hades Gathering his forces the Dead Rabbits before stalking out into daylight to fight the forces of a rival American Born gang the nativist men use knives swords bayonets Cleavers cudgels the ferocity of their battle is animalistic at the end the field is littered with bodies including that of Allon slain by his enemy William cting aail the butcher this was the famous gang fight of Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan recorded in American history but not underline when it is over Amsterdam disappears into an orphanage the ominously named Hellgate House of Reform he emerges in his early 20 seconds and returns to Five Points still ruled by Bill and begins a scheme to avenge his father the Vivid achievement of scor's film is to visualize this history and people it with characters of deeni and grotas Bill the Butcher is one of the great characters in modern movies with his strangely elaborate diction his choked accent his odd way of combining ruthlessness with philosophy the canvas is filled with many other colorful characters including a pickpocket named Jenny everine a hired club named monk the shopkeeper Happy Jack and historical figures such as William Boss Tweed ruler of corrupt tamon Hall and PT Barnum whose Museum of curiosity scarcely Rivals the daily displays on the streets scor's hero Amsterdam plays much the same role as a dick hero like David Copperfield are Oliver Twist he is the eyes through which we see the others but is not the most colorful person on the canvas Amsterdam is not as wild as vicious or as eccentric as the people around him and may not be any tougher than his eventual girlfriend Jenny who like Nancy and Oliver Twist is a Hellcat with a fierce loyalty to her man Da caprio's character more focused and centered is a useful contrast to the wild men around him certainly D Lewis is inspired by an intense ferocity laced with humor and a certain analytical Det attachment as Bill the Butcher he is a fearsome man fond of using his knife to tap his glass eye and he uses a pig carcass to show Amsterdam the various ways to kill a man with a knife bill is a skilled knife artist and terrifies Jenny his Target for a knife throwing act not only by coming close to killing her but also by his ornate and ominous word choices dasas plays Jenny as a woman who at first insists on her own independence as a pickpocket she ranks high in the criminal hierarchy and even dresses up to pray on the rich people Uptown but when she finally caves into Amsterdam's love she proves tender and loyal in one love scene where they compare their scars and another where she nurses him back to health the movie is straightforward in its cynicism about democracy at that time tamy Hall buys and sells votes ethnic groups are delivered by their leaders and when the wrong man is elected Sheriff he does not serve for long that American democracy emerged from this cauldron is miraculous we put the founding fathers on our money but these founding Crooks for a long time held sway scores is probably our greatest active American director and he has given us so many masterpieces that this film which from another director would be a Triumph arrives as a more measured accomplishment it was a difficult film to make as we know from the reports that drifted back from the vast and expensive sets constructed at C and Rome the budget was enormous the running time was problematical the result is a considerable achievement a revisionist history linking the birth of American democracy An American Crime it brings us astonishing sites as in a scene that shows us the inside of a tenement with families stacked on top of one another in rooms like shelves or in the ferocity of the draft riots which all but destroyed the city it is instructive to be reminded that modern America was forged not in quiet rooms by great men and wigs but in the streets in The Clash of immigrant groups in a bloody darwinian struggle all of this is a Triumph for scories and yet I do not think this film is in the first rank of his Masterpiece it is very good but not great I wrote recently of Good Fellas that the film has the headlong momentum of a Storyteller who knows he has a a good one to share I didn't feel that here scor's films usually leap joyfully onto the screen the work of a master in command of his craft here there seems more struggle more weight to overcome more Darkness it is a story that scorsis has filmed without entirely internalizing the gangsters in his earlier films are motivated by greed ego and power they like nice cars shoes suits dinners women they murder as a cost of doing business the characters in Gangs of New York kill because they like to and want to they are bloodthirsty and most motivated by hate I think scors like the heroes of Good Fellas casino and mean streets but I'm not sure he likes this crowd other information about this film Martin scor's latest foray into the world of gang Warfare is quite a departure from the usual cter of scors epics instead of showing us a slice of criminal life in the 20th century Gangs of New York warps us back to the corruption and ethnic conflict of the early 1860s telling the story of a young Irish immigrant Amsterdam Valen seeking revenge on the man who killed his father when he was just a we at even though many critics swooned over marvelous storytelling when the film first hit theaters the plot in Gangs of New York is hardly original stuff the story of The Quiet stranger who returns to seek revenge and in the process has to save his nemesis from getting killed by someone else has been told many times before for example Sergio Leon sent a young Charles Bronson on the same quest in 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West and like Leonardo da caprio's Amsterdam Valen gets wrapped up in a much larger struggle than the expected one-on-one Showdown and to the had a predictable romance subplot a bumpy story Arch and a bland lead character and it's easy to see why our film Force reviewer wasn't exactly knocked off his chair when he reviewed J Cox and Steven aliens as of yet unshot script 3 years ago in the hands of a lesser director Gangs of New York could have been a disaster but scors sees with the help of production designer Dante faretti costume designer Sandy Powell and a season cast and crew transforms J Cox's story into a visual Masterpiece the film is quite a sight to behold from the violent Mass Street B battles of lower Manhattan's Five Points slums to the overstated costumes and wonderfully lit Interiors the movie beckons for a large screen to be truly appreciated scores Peppers the largely fictional story with historical characters like the infamous William Boss tweet and grounds it with the context of the 1863 draft Riot the outcome is an impressive motion picture that is able to capture the viewers attention despite its long running time of 167 minutes the cast does a fine job with both Leonardo da Caprio and Cameron di turn in respectable performances and Liam Mis and Jim broadman reliably fleshing out the supporting roles but it's once again the villain who steals the picture Daniel D Lewis's supercharged portrayal of nativist leader Bill the Butcher cutting makes everyone else look Bland by comparison just like Leon's choice of good guy Henry Fonda as the chilling blue-eyed baddy Franken Once Upon a Time in the West D Lewis is the magic element that makes the movie work and it's in the relationship between cutting and Bon that scors manages to give his two lead characters the necessary depth to actually make us care about them but when it all comes to an end amidst bloody battles and cannon fire the forced inclusion of you's the hands that built America may just bring you back down to earth and see Gangs of New York for what it really is a visually impressive big budget presentation of a fascinatingly ugly side of American history with an overused Revenge plot used as the throwaway anchor the video Gangs of New York is presented on two discs in an anamorphic transfer at its original aspect ratio of 235 1 the transfer is clean only on occasion a little soft around the edges but artifact free even in scenes with big crowds and plenty of movement from the excellent black levels to the vibrant colors this is one greatl looking transfer for a visually outstanding movie the audio in addition to a commentary Track by scors the movie features English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio selections as well as a punch your English DTS 5.1 track the surround channels are only used sparingly during crowd in most battle scenes but come to life with the cannon fire in the later scenes of of the movie Howard Shore seems to have accidentally given scorsis a few measures from his Lord of the Ring soundtrack but ignoring its derivative nature the score fits the movie well the extras given the historical setting the two dis set comes appropriately loaded with special features that explore both the era and the recreation of it dis one contains the first half of the movie with commentary by Martin scorsis and most of the additional content it's obvious that scorsis is deeply interested in the historical events that served as the foundation for his movie The fact fast talking director manages to provide sparse but interesting commentary and insight into the making of the film for the full duration of the picture though there are some lengthy pauses the commentary track editors thankfully Fade up the movie's audio to fill the gaps which makes for a better viewing experience there is a set design feature it where Dante faretti briefly outlines the process from drawing to finished set with additional behind the-scenes footage and crew and cast reaction but it's the separate tour of the set with scors SE and faretti that really shows off the immense size and scope of the sets created for this film the director and designer casually stroll from their Recreation of paradise Square to the harbor complete with its two full-size ships during their tour optional pop-up prompts let viewers access gimmicky 360° views of the set in addition to a featurette on costume design that has Sandy Powell explain her design choices and inspiration the first disc also houses an enjoyable look at the history of the Five Points with plenty of interviews all adding to give the necessary historical background information for even more background an additional study guide lays out the history in textt form and provides explanations of period vocabulary used in the movie though cast and crew biographies are sadly missing murx included both the full trailer and teaser trailer disc 2 contains the second part of the movie and commentary as well as the U2 music video and a good 35-minute Discovery Channel piece called uncovering the real Gangs of New York using contemporary sketches and paintings and plenty of historian and author sound bites the featurette manages to avoid being the typical pre-release hype pieces we we've seen on many other discs spiritual content faith in God fuels War as Protestants and Catholics clash in the new world just as they had in the old the priest and his men take communion before facing off with the butcher everyone prays that God will bless their Endeavors and scour their enemies from the face of the Earth valon teaches his son to pray to St Michael who cast Satan out of paradise taunting the immigrants before a battle cutting yells let the Christian Lord guide my hand valon retorts prepare to receive the true Lord years later after after being exhorted by a priest to forgive those who wronged him Amsterdam tosses his Bible into the river and sets off to seek their death after picking a person's pocket Jenny is fond of smirking I leave you in the grace and favor of the Lord when a preacher urges Amsterdam to come to church Amsterdam responds go to H one man credits Shakespeare for writing the King James Bible the holy spirit is said to give men the courage to kill to indict a politician for straddling the fence on immigration issues cutting quotes Revelation 3:16 mudity and sexual Conta content dances and drunken parties turn into orgies of exhibitionism and public sex classic statues of nude women are displayed but those Stone ladies aren't the only ones who are naked bare breasted women are seen dancing being groped and having sex completely nude two women cuddle together on a bed while cutting watches in another scene two nude women drape themselves over cutting Amsterdam has sex with Jenny worse their intercourse has preceded by an angry altercation later cuting sneaks into their room and watches the two sleeping when Amsterdam wakes up cutting make a vulgar reference about them having had oral sex a man dressed as a woman lines up with the rest of the ladies at a dance violent content the violence in Gangs of New York is so pervasive and graphic that to itemize it all would be at best nauseating what struck me throughout the nearly 3-hour film was that nearly every social Gathering triggered some sort of brawl or RI various police forces fight one another more than they fight crime competing fire departments battle each other while intended buildings Blaze beside them dances turn into durges as dead bodies pile up politicians make public speeches and if someone doesn't like what they have to say they murder them in the doorways of their own homes blood flows thick on the cobblestone streets as flesh is pummeled with axes Spears knives clubs bullets and Bricks dozens of scenes include Gore one so extreme I'm compelled to mention it only in the broadest Strokes shows the butcher ripping a man's intestines from his belly and dumping them on the floor arms are severed bones broken throats slit skulls split chests impaled cannon fire decimates buildings kills hundreds of people and sets large sections of the city on fire four men are executed in a public hanging more than once a knife that is plunged into a man's cut is twisted and turned to cause as much damage as possible a dead man is hung on a makeshift cross for passers by to see Amsterdam's face is branded with a red hot knife blade crude or profane language 6f words and one s word a dozen milder profanities are all but drowned out in the den but the same number of profane uses of the lord's name stand out starkly seven or eight times car abuse the names Jesus in Christ drug and alcohol content drinking is common several scenes are shot in pubs and at wild parties Amsterdam and others in cuting gang smoke an unnamed drug from a long pipe Amsterdam and cuting smoke cigars and pipes others smoke cigarettes other negative elements men wager on everything from brutal boxing matches to animal fights when valon is about to die he holds his young son's head in his hands and forces him to watch as cutting turns the knife in his gut one of the men who is hanged calls out to his watch son and entreats him to watch both of these scenes are used to communicate an intense commitment to avenging loved one's deaths a mission Amsterdam devotes his life to in contrast God tells us that vengeance is his and that we are to trust him with our lives and with our death racism rears its ugly head repeatedly in the film epithets are hurled against blacks Chinese and other immigrants such sentiments and the cruel Behavior it inspires aren't condoned in the story neither are they condemned they just are politicians set a disturbing example clinging to popularity and and power rather than truth and ethics the appearance of the law must be upheld declares one such man of considerable sway especially while it is being broken citizens are forced to vote for the candidate with the most devoted henchmen conclusion oddly enough Gangs of New York was shot in Rome the ancient streets and teetering tenements found they made a perfect backdrop for 19th century New York we cocooned ourselves in this little environment Leonardo die Caprio said we woke up every day and went on set and went back in time that commitment to authenticity and realism radiates from every nook and cranny of the film as Daniel de Lewis is apt to do he completely loses himself in his role as the butcher it's one of his most distinctive roles yet and he's had a lot of them da Caprio has fully rebounded from his Titanic slump giving Amsterdam layers of complexity and conflicted Nuance he's at his best when tormented by the fact that his desire for revenge is softening under an inscrutable affection for his enemy I've been taken under the wing of the Dragon Amsterdam mutters and I found it to be surprisingly warm the history lesson Crawford here is well taken I'll leave its accuracy for the historians to debate and suffice it to say that I walked away more grateful than ever for my kushy 21st century life what's missing from New York in 1863 is the rule of law and that makes all the difference today we thrive in a society governed by law and order to be envied by all other countries and this movie makes one immensely grateful for that if the actual events of Civil War New York were only 1/5th as frightening as what emanates from scors se's imagination not many of us would dare wish its return what's not so well taken is the level of brutality and sexual arousal shown openly and enthusiastically on screen its violence puts gangs in the same league as Saving Private Ryan Black Hawk Down We Were Soldiers and Wind Talkers some of its viciousness actually surpasses that of such modern war movies because it is so intensely gruesome with knives and clubs getting more close-up screen time than bullets and bombs likewise it's nudity and sexual activity Teeter just shy of nc17 territory this is as far from a PBS documentary as scors could possibly get he's proud of that but it makes his long awaited vision of the past inaccessible to millions of families in the present who preferring not to risk psychological desensitization keep their appetites for destruction in check more details onck 20202 Martin scors unveiled a new crime epic Gangs of New York and theaters the film went on to be nominated for 10 honors at the 75th Academy Awards but left without a single win the Hollywood reporter's original review is below scors se's career-long exploration of the role of violence in American society culminates in Gangs of New York The View here is that brutality and Corruption played midwives to The American Nation that the American dream of Liberty from European despotism monarchy and aristocratic privilege ran a foul of the new world vices of bigotry an anarchy almost immediately this is a Relentless pitch black portrait of New York in 1863 that while thoroughly rooted in historical fact is nonetheless painted from limited pigments astonishing and audacious the film certainly creates a kind of perverse Beauty and excitement out of its Horrors scors seems to want the viewer to get a voyerism fights featuring knives Cleavers and bats and just as certainly gangs poses a major challenge to Mur Max's marketing department here is a movie from arguably America's most brilliant filmmaker yet one so dark and disturbing you might label it a feel bad movie it's a gangster film one of Cinema's more durable genres yet mired in Arcane history and forgotten political movement score seizes reput ensures a solid opening here and perhaps even better in Europe but murx will have a hard time recouping the enormous cost of recreating 19th century New York at Rome C Studios inspired by Herbert as's 1928 classic study the script by J Cox Steven Zan and Kenneth lonan embroils the viewer in a now forgotten District of lower Manhattan known as fiveo here everyone prays to one God or another but in reality God does not Venture into this satanic terrain ruled by an underworld Barbarian known as Bill the Butcher the area's only business is crime theft racketeering prostitution gambling drugs and murder bill has made a devil's alliance with Boss Tweed supplying muscle to the political boss who would rule the city it is into this cauldron that immigrants mostly Catholics despised by nativists surge on a daily basis unlike scores' previous gangster movies such as Good Fellas or Casino there is little complexity to this 1863 underw World there is a bad guy in Bill the Butcher who carves up people and pigs with equal enthusiasm and there is a young hero in an American bornn Irish orphan named Amsterdam determined to avenge Bill's murder of his father priest valon an Irish immigrant leader 16 years earlier Amsterdam somewhat implausibly worms his way into Bill's nativist gang and then into his confidence becoming a son to the chief the lad gets involved romantically with a beaus headstrong pickpocket Jenny who has links to Bill as well other characters fill out the Rogues Gallery monk a strong arm enforcer settled into shopkeeping Happy Jack a former gang member turned corrupt copper and Johnny an Amsterdam loyalist with strong instincts for self-preservation against the backdrop of the civil war of President Lincoln's unpopular conscription and coffins arriving daily in the city come the political maneuverings of Boss Tweed and a betrayal that alerts Bill to Amsterdam's true intention this lead to a climax amid the worst riot in American history the draft riots where much of Manhattan was destroyed first by immigrant mobs then by soldiers and navy guns DiCaprio makes the protagonists thirst for revenge and Reclamation of family honor palpa but he doesn't look the part of a street tough nor is the script helpful by insisting that despite 16 long years in a religious House of Refuge he has lost none of his street smarts the film's great performance belongs to De Lewis a sociopath given free reign to spill blood in copious amounts hear anger at politicians foreign Invaders High Society mingles with humor and a sense of Detachment he's a literate yet understands how power works and how to hold it through Terror cinematographer Michael ballhouse designer Dante faretti and costumer Sandy Powell conspired to bring to Life paintings and Engravings of old New York its interior is almost monochromatic the streets filled with Smoky colors and nights made Sinister by Gaslight and flickering fires that dot the landscape yet this 168 minute movie reportedly cut down from a 195 minute version never gets you inside the story so you understand how the characters feel about their deeds whether or not a longer version would have given the film more texture and dimension this one presents a blinkered vision of American History relegated to a few streets and alleys of lower Manhattan and a few Thugs who left no Mark except perhaps on the collective unconscious Kirk Hut originally published on Deck 602 Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical drama film directed by Martin scorsis and written by Jay Cox Steven zelan and Kenneth lonan based on Herbert esp's 1927 book The Gangs of New York the film stars Leonardo da Caprio Daniel D Lewis and Cameron Das with Jim broadman John C Riley Henry Thomas Steven Graham Eddie Marson and Brendan gleon in supporting roles the film is set in 1863 when a long running Catholic Protestant Feud erupts into violence just as an Irish immigrant group is protesting against the threat of conscription scors spent 20 years developing the project until murx films acquired it in 1999 principal photography took place in CA Rome and Long Island City New York City Gangs of New York was completed by 2001 but its release was delayed due to the September 11th ATT ta the film was theatrically released in the United States on December 20th 2002 and grossed over $193 million worldwide it was met with generally positive reviews and D Lewis's performance was highly acclaimed it received 10 nominations at the 75th Academy Awards including best picture best director for scores and best actor for D Lewis movie plot in the 1846 slum of the Five Points two rival gangs the Protestant Confederation of American natives led by William Bill the butcher cutting and the Irish Catholic immigrant Dead Rabbits led by priest valon engage in their final battle to determine which faction will hold sway over the territory at the end of the battle Bill kills valon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed having witnessed this valon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Blackwells Island in 1862 valon's son Amsterdam returns to the Five Points seeking revenge and retrieves the knife an old acquaintance Johnny srao familiarizes him with the local clans of gangs all of whom pay tribute to Bill who remains in control of the territory Amsterdam is introduced to Bill but keeps his past a secret as he seeks recruitment into the gang he learns many of his father's former lieutenants are now in Bill's employ each year Bill celebrates the anniversary of his victory over the Dead Rabbits and Amsterdam secretly plans to kill him publicly during this celebration Amsterdam soon becomes attracted to pickpocket and grifter Jenny aine with whom Johnny is also infatuated Hamsterdam gains Bill's confidence and becomes his Protegé in involving him in the dealings of corrupt tamony Hall politician William M tweet Amsterdam saves bill from an assassination attempt and is tormented by the thought that he may have done so out of honest devotion on the evening of the anniversary Johnny in a fit of jealousy over Jenny's affection for Amsterdam reveals Amsterdam's true identity and intentions to Bill Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife throwing act involving Jenny as Bill toasts priest Bon Amsterdam throws his knife but Bill deflects it and wounds Amsterdam with a counter throw bill then beats him and burns his cheek with a hot blade going into hiding Jenny implores him to escape with her to San Francisco Amsterdam however returns to the Five Points seeking Vengeance and announces his return by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square in front of several Irish gangs that were allied with the dead rabbit Bill sends corrupt Irish policemen and former dead rabbit mol to investigate but Amsterdam grats him to death and hangs his body in the square in retaliation bill has Johnny beaten and run through with a pike leaving it to Amsterdam to end his suffering when Amsterdam's gang beats mlo a former dead rabbit and one of Bill's lieutenants bill and the natives march on the church and are met by Amsterdam and the Dead Rabbits no violence ensues but Bill promises to return soon the incident Garners newspaper coverage an Amsterdam presents Tweed with a plan to defeat Bill's influence Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk minin for Sheriff and Amsterdam will secure the Irish vote for tamine monk wins in a landslide and a humiliated Bill murders him ma Jin's death prompts an angry Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle in Paradise Square which Bill accepts the Civil War draft riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the riers as the rival gangs fight cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square interrupting their battle shortly before it begins many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire soldiers or rioter Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until bill is wounded by shrap Amsterdam then uses his father's knife to Kill Bill Amsterdam buries the knife next to his father in a cemetery in Brooklyn erecting a makeshift headstone with the name William cutting over it now alongside the actual Tombstone of priest Bon as Amsterdam and Jenny leave the skyline changes as modern New York City is built over the next Century from the Brooklyn Bridge to the World Trade Center and the cemetery becomes overgrown and forgotten cast Leonardo da Caprio as Amsterdam valent Daniel de Lewis as William Bill the Butcher cutting Cameron Diaz is Jenny everine Jim Broadband is William Boss tweet John C Riley is happy Jack mol Henry Thomas is Johnny srao Liam niss as priest valon Brendan gleon as Walter monk minin Carrie Lewis as McGloin Steven Graham is Shang Eddie Marson is kerin Alec mcohen is Reverend Raleigh David hemings is John F Shermer horn Lawrence Gillard Jr as Jimmy spoils Cara Seymour as Hellcat Maggie Roger Ashton Griffiths as PT Barnum Barbara bouett as Mrs Shermer horn Michael Bayan is Horus gley John sessions is Harry Watkins Richard Graham is Harvey C player javanni Lombardo rtis as Mr lry production Martin scorsis had grown up in Little Italy in the burough of Manhattan and New York City during the 1950s at the time he had noticed there were parts of his neighborhood that were much older than the rest including tombstones from the 1,810 seconds in Old St Patrick's Cathedral cobblestone streets and small basements located under more recent large buildings this sparked scor seases curiosity about the history of the area I gradually realized that the italian-americans weren't the first ones there that other people had been there before us as I began to understand this it fascinated me I kept wondering how did New York look what were the people like how did they walk eat work dress development in 1970 scores came across Herbert as's book The Gangs of New York an informal history of the underworld about the city's 19th century criminal underworld and found it to be a revelation in the portraits of the city's criminals scores saw the potential for an American epic about the Battle for the modern American democracy scores immediately contacted his friend Jay Cox a film critic for Time Magazine think of it like a Western in outer space scorsis had told him Cox recalled they had considered Malcolm McDow in the lead role in framing the narrative with quotations from Bruce Springsteen but otherwise they intended to keep the period vernacular authentic at the time scorsis was a young director without Prestige by the end of the decade with the success of crime films such as Mean Streets about his old neighborhood and taxi driver he was a rising star in June 197 7 producer Alberto Grimaldi ran a two-page ad in Daily variety announcing the film's production with scors set to direct that same year scors and Cox wrote the first draft but scors decided to direct Raging Bull instead in 1979 scors acquired the screen writs to aar's book however it took 20 years to get the production moving forward difficulties arose with reproducing the Monumental ccape of 19th century New York with the style and detail scores wanted almost nothing in New York City looked as it did in that time and filming elsewhere was not an option in 1991 galdi and scors resumed development on the project with universal pictures on a budget of $30 million at one point Robert dairo was set to portray Bill the Butcher however the studio transferred the rights to the project to Disney in 1997 whose then chairman Joe Roth turned down the film due to its excessive violence which was not appropriate for a Disney themed movie scores took the film to Warner Bros being contractually obligated to make a film for the studio the film was however declined by Warner Bros as well and afterward declined similarly by 20th Century Fox Paramount Pictures and Metro Goldman mayor eventually in 1999 scorsis was able to find a partnership with Harvey Weinstein noted producer and co-chairman of murx films as the film had a large budget of nearly $100 million Weinstein then sold International distribution rights to the project to Graham King's initial Entertainment Group for about $65 million to secure the required funds shortly after after Touchstone pictures joined mmax in funding the film in exchange for a portion of the proceeds from domestic distribution that same year Cox was retained by scorsis for the screenplay adaptation which underwent nine revised drafts however Weinstein was not pleased with the shooting script and wanted other screenwriters brought in for more rewrites to Plate Weinstein scores called Cox into a room and fired him telling the globe in mail Cox recalled the situation you ever been fired it's terrible terrible even if it's a job you don't like it pisses you off right well you can extrapolate from that exponentially due to this the final shooting script was not fully completed when filming began Hy amini was hired and wrote the last two drafts but he was uncredited for his work set design in order to create the sets that scores envisioned the production was filmed at the large cett studio in Rome Italy production designer Dante Fetti recreated over a mile of mid 19th century New York building consisting of a five block area of lower Manhattan including the five 5 point slum a section of the East River Waterfront including two full-sized sailing ships a 30b building stretch of Lower Broadway a patrician mansion and replicas of tamy Hall a church a saloon a Chinese Theater and a gambling casino for the Five Points Fetti recreated George catlin's 1827 painting of the area rehearsals and character development particular attention was also paid to the speech of characters as loyalties were often revealed by their accents The film's Voice coach Tim Mish resisted using a generic Irish brogue and instead focused on distinctive dialects of Ireland and Great Britain as DiCaprio's character was born in Ireland but raised in the United States his accent was designed to be a blend of accents typical of the half Americanized to develop the unique lost accents of the Yankee nativists such as Daniel D Lewis's character Mish studied old poems ballads newspaper articles and the Rogues lexicon a book of Underworld idioms compiled by New York's police commissioner so that his men would be able to tell what criminals were talking about and an important piece was an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word Earth as a and the oven nasal and flat likeon Mish concluded that native 19th century New Yorkers probably sounded something like the proverbial Brooklyn cabbie of the mid 20th century filming principal photography began in New York and Rome on December 18th 2000 and ended on March 30th 2001 due to the strong personalities and clashing visions of director and producer the three-year production became a story in and of itself scorsi strongly defended his artistic Vision on issues of taste and length while Weinstein fought for a streamline more commercial version during the delays noted actors such as Robert dairo and will and dafo had to leave the production due to conflicts with their other Productions costs overshot the original budget by 25% bringing the total cost over $100 million The increased budget made the film vital to mamax film's short-term success post- production and distribution after post- production was nearly completed ated in 2001 the film was delayed for over a year the official justification was after the September 11th 2001 attacks certain elements of the picture may have made audiences uncomfortable the film's closing shot is a view of modern-day New York City complete with the World Trade Center's Towers despite them having been destroyed by the attacks over a year before the film's release however this explanation was refuted in scors se's own contemporary statements where he noted that the production was still filming pickups even into October 2002 the filmmakers had also considered having the towers dissolved out from the shot to acknowledge their disappearance or remov the entire sequence altogether it was ultimately decided to keep the towers unaltered Weinstein kept demanding cuts to the film's length and some of those cuts were eventually made in December 2001 film critic Jeffrey Wells reviewed a reported workprint of the film as it existed in the fall of 2001 Wells reported the workprint lack narration was about 20 minutes longer and although it was different than the version seen after scene after scene play exactly the same in both despite the similarities Wells found the work print to be richer and more satisfying than the theatrical version while scorsis has stated the theatrical version is his final cut he reportedly passed a long three-hour plus version of gangs on tape and confin it putting aside my contractual obligation to deliver a shorter 2hour and 40-minute version to murx this is the version I'm happiest with or words to that effect in an interview with Roger Ebert scors clarified the real issues in the cutting of the film Ebert notes his discussions with Weinstein he said were always about finding the length where the picture worked when that got to the press it was translated into fights the movie is currently 168 minutes long he said and that is the right length and that's why there won't be any directors cut because this is the director's cut soundtrack Robbie Robertson supervised the soundtrack's collection of eclectic pop folk and neoclassical tracks historical accuracy scores received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film in a PBS interview for the history News Network George Washington University Professor Tyler anbinder said that the visuals and discrimination of immigrants in the film were historically accurate but both the amount of violence depicted in the number of Chinese particularly female immigrants were greater in the film than in reality the spar's book described the bowy boys Plug Uglies true blue Americans shirt tailes and Dead Rabbits who were named after their battle standard a dead rabbit on a pike the book also described William po the in Iration for William Bill the Butcher cutting a member of The Bowery Boys a bare knuckle boxer and a leader of the no nothing political movement po did not come from the five points and was assassinated nearly a decade before the draft riots both the fictional bill and the real onead butcher shops but p is not known to have killed anyone the book also described other famous gangsters from the era such as Red Rocks feral slobbery Jim and Hellcat Maggie who filed her front teeth to points and wore artificial brass fingernails anbinder said that scor se's Recreation of the visual environment of mid 19th century New York City and the Five Points couldn't have been much better all sets were built completely on the exterior stages of cett studios in Rome by 1860 New York City had 200,000 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants in a population of 800,000 according to Paul es Boer the period from the 1830s to the 1850s was a time of almost continuous disorder and turbulence among the urban poor the decade from 18341 184 fora more than 200 major gang wars in New York City alone and in other cities the pattern was similar as early as 1839 mayor Philip hon said this city is Infested by gangs of hardened wretches who Patrol the streets making night hideous and insulting all who are not strong enough to defend themselves the large gang fight depicted in the film as occurring in 1846 is fictional though there was one between the bowy Boys and Dead Rabbits and the five points on July 4th 1857 which is not mentioned in the film reviewer Vincent D gyo concludes that Gangs of New York becomes a historical epic with no change over time the effect is to freeze ethnocultural rivalries over the course of three decades and portray them as irrational ancestral hatreds unaltered by demographic shifts economic cycles and political realignment in the film the draft riots of July 1863 are depicted as both destructive and violent records indicate the riots resulted in more than 100 deaths including the lynching of 11 free African-Americans they were especially targeted by the Irish in part because of fears of job competition that more freed slaves would cause in the city the bombardment of the City by Navy ships offshore to quell the riots is wholly fictitious the film references the infamous Tweed Courthouse as Boss Tweed refers to plans for the structure as being modest and economical in the film Chinese Americans were common enough in the city to have their own community in public venues although Chinese people migrated to America as early as the 1840s significant Chinese migration to New York City did not begin until 1869 the time when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed the Chinese Theater on pelson was not finished until the 1890s the old Brewery the overcrowded tenament shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862 63 was actually demolished in 1852 release the original Target release date was December 21st 2001 in time for the 2001 Academy Awards but the production overshot that goal as scores was still filming a 20-minute clip buil as an extended preview debuted at the 2002 hans's film festival and was shown at a star studded event at the palet Des festivals at desk Congers with scors da Caprio Das and winstein and attendant Harvey Weinstein then wanted the film to open on December 25th 2002 but a potential conflict with another film starring Leonardo Da capria Catch Me If You Can produced by Dream works caused him to move the opening day to an earlier position after negotiations between several parties including the interests of Da Caprio Weinstein and DreamWorks Jeffrey kenberg the decision was made on economic grounds da Caprio did not want to face a conflict of promoting two movies opening against each other kenberg was able to convince Weinstein that the violence and adult material in Gangs of New York would not necessarily attract families on Christmas the main concern to all involved was attempting to maximize the film's opening day an important part of film industry economics after 3 years in production the film was released on December 20th 2002 a year after its original planned release date while the film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray there are no plans to revisit the theatrical cut or prepare a director's cut for home video release Marty doesn't believe in that editor Thelma Schoonmaker stated he believes in showing only the finished film Gangs of New York was released on VHS and a two- dis DVD July 1st 2003 the film was split on both discs a Blu-ray version of the film was released July 1st 2008 box office the film made $77,200 in Canada and the United States it also took 23 m763 699 in Japan and 16, 35858 in the United Kingdom worldwide the film grossed a total of $3,772 54 critical reception on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 214 reviews with an average rating of 7 10 over 10 the website's critical consensus reads though flawed the sprawling messy Gangs of New York is Redeemed by impressive production design and D Lewis's electrifying performance Metacritic gave the film a score of 72 out of 100 based on 39 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of Beyond an A plus to f scale Roger Ebert praised the film but believed it fell short of scors se's best work while his at the movies co-host Richard rooper called it a masterpiece and declared it a leading Contender for Best Picture Paul Clinton of CNN called called the film a grand American epic in variety Todd McCarthy wrote that the film Falls somewhat short of great film status but is still a richly impressive and densely realized work that bracingly opens the eye and mind to untaught aspects of American History aari singled out the meticulous attention to historical detail and production designed for particular praise some critics were disappointed with the film with one review on Cinema Blend feeling it was overly violent with few characters worth caring about Norman bervy of the new English review wrote in a negative critique that some locals in Spain who had watched Gangs of New York had several anti-American beliefs confirmed afterwards which he felt was due to the film's gratuitous violence historical inaccuracies and general depiction of American society in the worst possible light others felt it tried to tackle two many themes without saying anything unique about them and that the overall story was weak Cameron das's divisive performance as Irish immigrant pickpocket Jenny Everdine has been cited as an example of poor casting and one of the worst Irish accents in film gangs of of New York movie review Martin scors se's Gangs of New York rips up the postcards of American history and reassembles them into a violent blood soaked story of our bare knuckled past the New York it portrays in the Years between the 1840s and the Civil War as a character observes the forge of Hell In which groups clear space by killing their Rivals competing fire brigades and police forces fight in the streets audiences throw rotten fruit at an actor portraying Abraham Lincoln blacks and Irish are chased by mobs and navy ships fire on the city as the poor Riot against the draft the film opens with an extraordinary scene set beneath tenements in catacombs carved out of the Manhattan Rock an Irish American leader named priest valon prepares for battle almost as if preparing for the mass indeed as he puts on a collar to protect his neck we think for a moment he might be a priest with his young son Amsterdam trailing behind he walks through the Labyrinth of this torch lit Hades Gathering his forces the Dead Rabbits before stalking out into daylight to fight the forces of a rival American Born gang the nativist men use knives swords bayonets Cleavers cudgels the ferocity of their battle is animalistic at the end the field is littered with bodies including that of valon slain by his enemy William cting aail the butcher this was the famous gang fight of Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan recorded in American history but not underline when it is over Amsterdam disappears into an orphanage the ominously named Hellgate House of Reform he emerges in his early 20 seconds and returns to Five Points still ruled by Bill and begins a scheme to avenge his father the Vivid achievement of scor's film is to visualize this history and people it with characters of deeni and grot tesra Bill the Butcher is one of the great characters in modern movies with his strangely elaborate diction his choked accent his odd way of combining ruthlessness with philosophy the canvas is filled with many other colorful characters including a pickpocket named Jenny everine a hired club named monk the shopkeeper Happy Jack and historical figures such as William Boss Tweed ruler of corrupt tamon Hall and PT Barnum whose Museum of curiosity scarcely Rivals the daily displays on the streets scores' hero Amsterdam plays much the same role as a Dickens hero like David Copperfield or Oliver Twist he is the eyes through which we see the others but is not the most colorful person on the canvas Amsterdam is not as wild as vicious or as eccentric as the people around him and may not be any tougher than his eventual girlfriend Jenny who like Nancy and all ofer twist is a Hellcat with a fierce loyalty to her man DiCaprio's character more focused and centered is a useful contrast to the wild men around him certainly D Lewis is inspired by an intense ferocity laed with humor and a certain analytical Detachment as Bill the Butcher he is a fearsome man fond of using his knife to tap his glass eye and he uses a pig carass to show Amsterdam the various ways to kill a man with a knife bill is a skilled knife artist and terrifies Jenny his Target for a knife throwing act not only by coming close to killing her but also by his ornate and ominous word choices thas plays Jenny as a woman who at first insists on her own independence as a pickpocket she ranks high in the criminal hierarchy and even dresses up to pray on the rich people Uptown but when she finally caves into Amsterdam's love she proves tender and loyal in one love scene where they compare their scars and another where she nurses him back to health the movie is straightforward in its cynicism about democracy at that time tamon Hall buys and sells votes ethnic groups are delivered by their leaders and when the wrong man is elected Sheriff he does not serve for long that American democ y emerged from this cauldron is miraculous we put the founding fathers on our money but these founding Crooks for a long time held sway scorsis is probably our greatest active American director and he has given us so many masterpieces that this film which from another director would be a Triumph arrives as a more measured accomplishment it was a difficult film to make as we know from the reports that drifted back from the vast and expensive sets constructed at CA en R the budget was enormous the running time was problematical the result is a considerable achievement a revisionist history linking the birth of American democracy An American Crime it brings us astonishing sites as in a scene that shows us the inside of a tenement with families stacked on top of one another in rooms like shelves or in the ferocity of the draft riots which all but destroyed the city it is instructive to be reminded that modern America was forged not in quiet rooms by great men and wigs but in the streets in The Clash of immigrant groups in a bloody darwinian struggle all of this is a Triumph for scories and yet I do not think this film is in the first rank of his Masterpiece it is very good but not great I wrote recently of Good Fellas that the film has the headlong momentum of a Storyteller who knows he has a good one to share I didn't feel that here scor's films usually leap joyfully onto the screen the work of a master in command of his craft here there seems more struggle more weight to overcome more Darkness it is a story that scores has filmed without entirely internalizing the gangsters in his earlier films are motivated by greed ego and power they like nice cars shoes suits dinners women they murder as a cost of doing business the characters in Gangs of New York kill because they like to and want to they are bloodthirsty and motivated by hate I think scors like the heroes of Good Fellas casino and mean streets but I'm not sure he likes this crowd other information about this film Martin scor's latest foray into the world of gang Warfare is quite a departure from the usual Cotter of scors epics instead of showing us a slice of criminal life in the 20th century Gangs of New York warps us back to the corruption and ethnic conflict of the early 1860s telling the story of a young Irish immigrant Amsterdam valon seeking revenge on the man who killed his father when he was just a wead even though many critics swooned over marvelous storytelling when the film first hit theaters the plot in Gangs of New York is hardly original stuff the story of The Quiet stranger who returns to seek revenge and in the process has to save his nemesis from getting killed by someone else has been told many times before for example Sergio Leon sent a young Charles Bronson on the same quest in 19 68s Once Upon a Time in the West and like Leonardo da caprio's Amsterdam Valley gets wrapped up in a much larger struggle than the expected oneon-one Showdown and to that a predictable romance subplot a bumpy story Arch and a bland lead character and it's easy to see why our film Force reviewer wasn't exactly knocked off his chair when he reviewed J Cox and Steven aliens as of yet unshot script 3 years ago in the hands of a lesser director Gangs of New York could have been a disaster but scores with the help of production designer Dante faretti costume designer Sandy Powell and a season cast and crew transforms J Cox's story into a visual Masterpiece the film is quite a sight to behold from the violent Mass Street battles of lower Manhattan's Five Points slums to the overstated costumes and wonderfully lit Interiors the movie beckons for a large screen to be truly appreciated scores Peppers the largely fictional story with historical characters like the infamous William Boss tweet and grounds it with the context of the 1863 draft Riot the outcome is an impressive motion picture that is able able to capture the viewers attention despite its long running time of 167 minutes the cast does a fine job with both Leonardo dicapro and Cameron D turning in respectable performances and Liam Mis and Jim broadman reliably fleshing out the supporting roles but it's once again the villain who steals the picture Daniel de lewis' supercharged portrayal of nativist leader Bill the Butcher cutting makes everyone else look Bland by comparison just like Leon's choice of good guy Henry Fonda as the chilling blue-eyed baddy Franken Once Upon a Time in the West D Lewis is the magic element that makes the movie work and it's in the relationship between cutting and valon that scors manages to give his two lead characters the necessary depth to actually make us care about them but when it all comes to an end amidst bloody battles and cannon fire the forced inclusion of you's the hands that built America may just bring you back down to earth and see Gangs of New York for what it really is a visually impressive big budget presentation of a fascinatingly ugly side of American history with an overused Revenge plot used as the throwaway anchor the video Gangs of New York is presented on two discs in an anamorphic transfer at its original aspect ratio of 235 1 the transfer is clean only on occasion a little soft around the edges but artifact free even in scenes with big crowds and plenty of movement from the excellent black levels to the vibrant colors this is one greatl looking transfer for a visually outstanding movie the audio in addition to a commentary Track by scories the movie features English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio selections as well as a punch your English DTS 5.1 track the surround channels are only used sparingly during crowd and most battle scenes but come to life with the can and fire in the later scenes of the movie Howard Shore seems to have accidentally given scors a few measures from his Lord of the Ring soundtrack but ignoring its derivative nature the score fits the movie well the extras given the historical setting the two dis set comes appropriately loaded with special features that explore both the era and the recreation of it dis one contains the first half of the movie with commentary by Martin scorsis and most of the additional content it's obvious that scorsis is deeply interested in the historical events that served as the foundation for his Movie the fast talking director manages to provide sparse but interesting commentary and insight into the making of the film for the full duration of the picture though there are some lengthy pauses the commentary track editors thankfully Fade up the movie's audio to fill the gaps which makes for a better viewing experience there is a set design feature at where Dante Fetti briefly outlines the process from drawing to finished set with additional behind thes scenes footage and crew and cast reactions but it's the separate tour of the set with scors and fretti that really shows off the immense size and scope of the sets created for this film the director and designer casually stroll from their Recreation of paradise Square to the harbor complete with its two full-size ships during their tour optional pop-up prompts let viewers access gimmicky 360° views of the set in addition to a featurette on costume design that has Sandy Powell explain her design choices and Inspirations the first disc also houses is an enjoyable look at the history of the Five Points with plenty of interviews all adding to give the necessary historical background information for even more background an additional study guide lays out the history in text form and provides explanations of period vocabulary used in the movie though cast and crew biographies are sadly missing murx included both the full trailer and teaser trailer this 2 contains the second part of the movie and commentary as well as the YouTube music video and a good 35-minute Discovery Channel piece called uncovering the real G of New York using contemporary sketches and paintings and plenty of historian and author sound bites the featurette manages to avoid being the typical pre-release hype pieces we've seen on many other discs spiritual content faith in God fuels War as Protestants and Catholics clash in the new world just as they had in the old the priest and his men take communion before facing off with the butcher everyone prays that God will bless their Endeavors and scour their enemies from the face of the Earth valon teaches his son to pray to St Michael who cast Satan out of of paradise taunting the immigrants before a battle cting yells let the Christian Lord guide my hand valon retorts prepare to receive the true Lord years later after being exhorted by a priest to forgive those who wronged him Amsterdam tosses his Bible into the river and sets off to seek their death after picking a person's pocket Jenny is fond of smirking I leave you in the grace and favor of the Lord when a preacher urges Amsterdam to come to church Amsterdam responds go to H one man credits Shakespeare for writing the King James Bible the Holy Spirit is said to give men the courage to kill to indict a politician for straddling the fence on immigration issues cutting quotes Revelation 3:16 mudity and sexual content dances and drunken parties turn into orgies of exhibitionism and public sex classic statues of nude women are displayed but those Stone ladies aren't the only ones who are naked bare breasted women are seen dancing being groped and having sex completely nude two women cuddle together on a bed while cutting watches in another scene two nude women drape themselves over cutting and Amsterdam has sex with Jenny worse their intercourse is preceded by an angry altercation later cutting sneaks into their room and watches the two sleeping when Amsterdam wakes up cuting make a vulgar reference about them having had oral sex a man dressed as a woman lines up with the rest of the ladies at a dance violent content the violence in Gangs of New York is so pervasive and graphic that to itemize it all would be at best nause what struck me throughout the nearly 3-hour film was that nearly every social Gathering triggered some sort of brawl or R various police Forces fight one another more than they fight crime competing fire departments battle each other while intended buildings Blaze beside them dances turn into durges as dead bodies pile up politicians make public speeches and if someone doesn't like what they have to say they murder them in the doorways of their own homes blood flows thick on the cobblestone streets as flesh is pummeled with axes Spears knives clubs bullets and Bricks dozens of scenes include Gore one so extreme I'm compelled to mention it only in the broadest Strokes shows the butcher ripping a man's in intestines from his belly and dumping them on the floor arms are severed bones broken throat slit skulls split chests impaled cannon fire decimates buildings kills hundreds of people and sets large sections of the city on fire four men are executed in a public hanging more than once a knife that is plunged into a man's cut is twisted and turned to cause as much damage as possible a dead man is hung on a makeshift cross for passers by to see Amsterdam's face is branded with a red hot knife blade crude or profane language 6f words in 1 s word a dozen milder profanities are all but drowned out in the den but the same number of profane uses of the lord's name stand out starkly seven or eight times characters abuse the names Jesus and Christ drug and alcohol content drinking is common several scenes are shot in pubs and at wild parties Amsterdam and others in cuting gang smoke an unnamed drug from a long pipe Amsterdam and cting smoke cigars and pipes others smoke cigarettes other negative elements men wager on everything from brutal boxing matches to animal fights when valon is about to die he holds his young son's head in his hands and forces him to watch as cuting turns the knife in his gut one of the men who is hang calls out to his watching son and entreats him to watch both of these scenes are used to communicate an intense commitment to avenging loved one's deaths a mission Amsterdam devotes his life to in contrast God tells us that vengeance is his and that we are to trust him with our lives and with our death racism rears its ugly head repeatedly in the film epithets are hurled against blacks Chinese and other immigrants such sentiments and the cruel Behavior it inspires aren't condoned in the story neither are they condemned they just are politicians set a disturbing example clinging to popularity and power rather than truth and ethics the appearance of the law must be upheld declares one such man of considerable sway especially while it is being broken citizens are forced to vote for the candidate with the most devoted henchmen conclusion oddly enough Gangs of New York was shot in Rome the ancient streets and teetering tenements found their made a perfect backdrop for 19th century New York we cocooned ourselves in this little environment Leonardo da Caprio said we woke up every day and went on set and went back in time that commitment to authenticity and realism radiates from every nook and cranny of the film as Daniel D Lewis is apt to do he completely loses himself in his role as the butcher it's one of his most distinctive roles yet and he's had a lot of them da Caprio has fully rebounded from his Titanic slump giving amram layers of complexity and conflicted Nuance he's at his best when tormented by the fact that his desire for Revenge is softening under an inscrutable affection for his enemy I've been taken under the wing of the Dragon Amsterdam mutters and I found it to be surprisingly warm the history lesson Crawford here is well taken I'll leave its accuracy for the historians to debate and suffice it to say that I walked away more grateful than ever for my kushy 21st century life what's missing from New York in 1863 is the rule of law and that makes all the difference today we thrive in a society governed by law and order to be envied by all other countries and this movie makes one one immensely grateful for that if the actual events of Civil War in New York were only 1if as frightening as what emanates from scors se's imagination not many of us would dare wish its return what's not so well taken is the level of brutality and sexual arousal shown openly and enthusiastically onscreen its violence puts gangs in the same league as Saving Private Ryan Black Hawk Down We Were Soldiers and Wind Talkers some of its viciousness actually surpasses that of such modern war movies because it is so intensely gruesome with knives and clubs getting more close-up screen time than bullets and bombs likewise it's nudity and sexual activity Teeter just shy of nc7 territory this is as far from a PBS documentary as scores could possibly get he's proud of that but it makes his long awaited vision of the past inaccessible to millions of families in the present who preferring not to risk psychological desensitization keep their appetites for destruction in check more details onck 20202 Martin scors unveiled a new crime epic Gangs of New York in theaters the film went on to be nominated for 10 honors at the 75th Academy Awards but left without a single win the Hollywood reporter's original review is below Martin scor's career-long exploration of the role of violence in American society culminates in Gangs of New York The View here is that brutality and Corruption played midwives to The American Nation that the American dream of Liberty from European despotism monarchy and aristocratic privilege ran a foul of the new world viic of bigotry an anarchy almost immediately this is a Relentless pitch black portrait of New York in 1863 that while thoroughly rooted in historical fact is nonetheless painted from limited pigments astonishing and audacious the film certainly creates a kind of perverse Beauty and excitement out of its Horrors scors seems to want the viewer to get a vois rush from gut spilling fights featuring knives Cleavers and bats and just as certainly gangs poses a major challenge to mx's marketing department here is a movie from arguably America's most brilliant filmmaker yet one so dark and disturbing you might label it a feel bad movie it's a gangster film one of Cinema's more durable genres yet mired in Arcane history and forgotten political movement scors se's reputation ensures a solid opening here and perhaps even better in Europe but murx will have a hard time recouping the enormous cost of recreating 19th century New York at Rome cin Studios inspired by Herbert Esper's 1928 classic study the script by J Cox Steven Zan and Kenneth lonan embroils the viewer in a now forgotten District of lower Manhattan known as five points here everyone prays to one God or another but in reality God does not Venture into this satanic terrain ruled by an underworld Barbarian known as Bill the Butcher the area's only business is crime theft racketeering prostitution gambling drugs and murder bill has made a devil's alliance with Boss Tweed supplying muscle to the political boss who would rule the city it is into this cauldron that immigrants mostly Catholics despised by nativists surge on a daily basis unlike scors se's previous gangster movies such as Good Fellas or Casino there is little complexity to this 1863 underworld there is a bad guy in Bill the Butcher who carves up people and pigs with equal enthusiasm and there is a young hero in an American Born Irish orphan named Amsterdam determined to avenge Bill's murder of his father priest Bon an Irish immigrant leader 16 years early Amsterdam somewhat implausibly worms his way into Bill's nativist gang and then into his confidence becoming a son to the chief the L gets involved romantically with a beaus headstrong pickpocket Jenny who has linked to Bill as well other characters fill out the Rogues Gallery monk a strong arm enforcer settled into shopkeeping Happy Jack a former gang member turned corrupt copper and Johnny an Amsterdam loyalist with strong instincts for self-preservation against the backdrop of the civil war of President Lincoln's unpopular conscription and coffins arriving daily in the city come the political maneuverings of Boss Tweed and a betrayal that alerts Bill to Amsterdam's true intention this lead to a climax amid the worst riot in American history the draft riots were much much of Manhattan was destroyed first by immigrant mobs then by soldiers and navy guns da Caprio makes the protagonists thirst for revenge and Reclamation of family honor palpable but he doesn't look the part of a street tough nor is the script helpful by insisting that despite 16 long years in a religious House of Refuge he has lost none of his street smarks the film's great performance belongs to De Lewis a sociopath given free reign to spill blood in copious amounts he anger at politicians foreign Invaders High Society mingles with humor and a sense of Detachment he's literate yet understands how power works and how to hold it through Terror cinematographer Michael bhouse designer Dante faretti and costumer Sandy Powell conspired to bring to Life paintings and Engravings of old New York its interior is almost monochromatic the streets filled with Smoky colors and nights made Sinister by Gaslight and flickering fires that dot the landscape yet this 168 minute movie reportedly cut down from a 195 minute version never gets you inside the story so you understand how the character characters feel about their deeds whether or not a longer version would have given the film more texture and dimension this one presents a blinkered vision of American History relegated to a few streets and alleys of lower Manhattan and a few Thugs who left no Mark except perhaps on the collective unconscious Kirk Hut originally published on Deck 6 2002 Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical drama film directed by Martin scorsis and written by Jay Cox Steven zelan and Kenneth lonan based on Herbert espar 1927 book The Gangs of New York the film stars Leonardo da Caprio Daniel de Lewis and Cameron Das with Jim broadman John C Riley Henry Thomas Steven Graham Eddie Marson and Brendan gleon in supporting roles the film is set in 1863 when a long-running Catholic Protestant Feud erupts into violence just as an Irish immigrant group is protesting against the threat of conscription scors spent 20 years developing the project until murx films acquired it in 1999 principal photography took place in Sina Rome and Long Island City New York City Gangs of New York was completed by 2001 but its release was delayed due to the September 11th attacks the film was theatrically released in the United States on December 20th 2002 and grossed over $193 million worldwide it was met with generally positive reviews and D Lewis's performance was highly acclaimed it received 10 nominations at the 75th Academy Awards including best picture best director for scories and best Act for D Lewis movie plot in the 1846 slum of the Five Points two rival gangs the Protestant Confederation of American natives led by William Bill the Butcher Cy and the Irish Catholic immigrant Dead Rabbits led by priest Valen engag in their final battle to determine which faction will hold sway over the territory at the end of the battle Bill kills valon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed having witnessed this valon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Blackwells Island in 1862 Valen son Amsterdam returns to the Five Points seeking revenge and retrieves the knife an old acquaintance Johnny srao familiarizes him with the local clans of gangs all of whom pay tribute to Bill who remains in control of the territory Amsterdam is introduced to Bill but keeps his past a secret as he seeks recruitment into the gang he learns many of his father's former lieutenants are now in Bill's employ each year Bill celebrates the anniversary of his victory over the Dead Rabbits and Amsterdam secretly plans to kill him publicly during this celebration am am Dam soon becomes attracted to pickpocket and grifter Jenny everine with whom Johnny is also infatuated Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence and becomes his Protege involving him in the dealings of corrupt tamon Hall politician William M twe Amsterdam saves bill from an assassination attempt and is tormented by the thought that he may have done so out of honest devotion on the evening of the anniversary Johnny in a fit of jealousy over Jenny's affection for Amsterdam reveals Amsterdam's true identity and intentions to Bill Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife throwing act involving Jen as Bill toasts priest Bon Amsterdam throws his knife but Bill deflects it and wounds Amsterdam with a counter throw bill then beats him and burns his cheek with a hot blade going into hiding Jenny implores him to escape with her to San Francisco Amsterdam however returns to the Five Points seeking Vengeance and announces his return by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square in front of several Irish gangs that were allied with the dead rabbit B sends corrupt Irish policemen and former dead rabbit mol to investigate but Amsterdam GRS him to death and hangs his body in the square in retaliation bill has Johnny beaten and run through with a pike leaving it to Amsterdam to end his suffering when Amsterdam's gang beats mlo a former dead rabbit and one of Bill's lieutenants bill and the natives march on the church and are met by Amsterdam in the Dead Rabbits no violence ensues but Bill promises to return soon the incident Garners newspaper coverage an Amsterdam presence Tweed with a plan to defeat Bill's influence Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk magin for Sheriff and Amsterdam will secure the Irish vote for Tam monk wins in a landslide and a humiliated Bill murders him majin's death prompts an angry Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle in Paradise Square which Bill accepts the Civil War draft riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the riers as the rival gangs fight cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square interrupting their battle shortly before it begins many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire soldiers or riers Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until bill is wounded by shrap Amsterdam then uses his father's knife to Kill Bill Amsterdam buries the knife next to his father in a cemetery in Brooklyn erecting a makeshift headstone with the name William cutting over it now alongside the actual Tombstone of priest Val as Amsterdam and Jenny Lee the skyline changes as modern New York City is built over the next Century from the Brooklyn Bridge to the World Trade Center and the cemetery becomes overgrown and forgotten cast Leonardo da Caprio as Amsterdam valent Daniel D Lewis as William Bill the Butcher cutting Cameron Diaz is Jenny everine Jim Broadbent as William Boss tweet John C Riley is happy jack mol Henry Thomas is Johnny srao Liam niss is priest Valen Brendan gleon as Walter monk maen Carrie Lewis is McGloin Steven Graham is Shang Eddie Marson is kerin Alec mcohen is Reverend Raleigh David hemings is John F Shermer horn Lawrence Gillard Jr as Jimmy spoils Cara Seymour is Hellcat Maggie Roger Aston Griffiths is PT baram Barbara bouchet is Mrs Shermer horn Michael Bayan is Horus gy John sessions is Harry Watkins Richard Graham is Harvey card player jaavan Lombardo rtis is Mr legy production Martin scors had grown up in Little Italy in the burough of Manhattan in New York City during the 1950s at the time he had noticed there were parts of his neighborhood that were much older than the rest including tombstones from the 1,810 seconds in Old St Patrick's Cathedral cobblestone streets and small basements located under more recent large buildings this sparked scor's curiosity about the history of the area I gradually realized that the Italian amans weren't the first ones there that other people had been there before us as I began to understand this it fascinated me I kept wondering how did New York look what were the people like how did they walk eat work dress development in 1970 scores came across Herbert esp's book The Gangs of New York an informal history of the underworld about the city's 19th century criminal underworld and found it to be a revelation in the portraits of the city's criminals scores saw the potential for an American epic about the Battle for the modern American democracy scores immediately contacted his friend J Cox a film critic for Time Magazine think of it like a Western in outer space scores had told him Cox recalled they had considered Malcolm McDow in the lead role in framing the narrative with quotations from Bruce Springstein but otherwise they intended to keep the period vernacular authentic at the time scors was a young director without PR es by the end of the decade with the success of crime films such as Mean Streets about his old neighborhood and taxi driver he was a rising star in June 1977 producer Alberto Grimaldi ran a two-page ad in Daily variety announcing the film's production with scors set to direct that same year scors and Cox wrote the first draft but scors decided to direct Raging Bull instead in 1979 scors acquired the screen rights to as Sperry's book however it took 20 years to get the production moving forward difficulties arose with reproducing the Monumental ccape of 19th century New York with the style and detail scores wanted almost nothing in New York City looked as it did in that time and filming elsewhere was not an option in 1991 Grimaldi and scors resumed development on the project with universal pictures on a budget of $30 million at one point Robert dairo was said to portray Bill the Butcher however the studio transferred the rights to the project to Disney in 1997 whose then chairman Joe Roth turned down the film due to its excessive violence which was not appropriate for a Disney themed movie scores took the film to Warner Bros being contractually obligated to make a film for the studio the film was however declined by Warner Bros as well and afterward declined similarly by 20th Century Fox Paramount Pictures in Metro Goldman mayor eventually in 1999 scors was able to find a partnership with Harvey Weinstein noted producer and co-chairman of murx films as the film had a large budget of nearly $100 million WI Stein then sold International distribution rights to the project to Graham King's initial Entertainment Group for about $65 million to secure the required funds shortly after Touchstone pictures joined murx in funding the film in exchange for a portion of the proceeds from domestic distribution that same year Cox was retained by scores for the screenplay adaptation which underwent nine revised drafts however Weinstein was not pleased with the shooting script and wanted other screenwriters brought in for more rewrites to Plate Weinstein scors called Cox into a room and fired him telling the Globe and Mail Cox recalled the situation you ever been fired it's terrible terrible even if it's a job you don't like it pisses you off right well you can extrapolate from that exponentially due to this the final shooting script was not fully completed when filming began Hy amini was hired and wrote the last two drafts but he was uncredited for his work set design in order to create the sets that scors envisioned the production was filmed at the large cetta studio in Rome it production designer Dante faretti recreated over a mile of mid 19th century New York building consisting of a five block area of lower Manhattan including the fivepoint slum a section of the East River Waterfront including two full-size sailing ships a 30 building stretch of Lower Broadway a patrician mansion and replicas of Tam Hall a church a saloon a Chinese Theater and a gambling casino for the Five Points Fetti recreated George catlin's 1827 painting of the area rehearsals and character development particular attention was also paid to the speech of characters as loyalties were often revealed by their accents The film's Voice coach Tim monish resisted using a generic Irish brogue and instead focused on distinctive dialects of Ireland and Great Britain as DiCaprio's character was born in Ireland but raised in the United States his accent was designed to be a blend of accents typical of the half American eyes to develop the unique lost accents of the Yankee nativist such as Daniel D Lewis's character Mish studied old poems ballads newspaper articles and the Rogues lexicon a book of Underworld idioms compiled by New York's police commissioner so that his men would be able to tell what criminals were talking about an important piece was an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt whitmann reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word Earth is of and the oven nasal and flat like ion Mish concluded that native 19th century New Yorkers probably sounded something like the proverbial Brooklyn cabbie of the mid 20th century filming principal photography began in New York and Rome on December 18th 2000 and ended on March 30th 2001 due to the strong personalities and clashing visions of director and producer the three-year production became a story in and of itself scorsi strongly defended his artistic Vision on issues of taste and length while Weinstein fought for a streamline more commercial version during the delays noted actors such as Robert dairo and will and dafo had to leave the production due to conflicts with their other Productions costs overshot the original budget by 25% bringing the total cost over 00 million The increased budget made the film vital to murx film's short-term success post- production and distribution after postproduction was nearly completed in 2001 the film was delayed for over a year the official justification was after the September 11th 2001 attacks certain elements of the picture may have made audiences uncomfortable the film's closing shot is a view of modern-day New York City complete with the World Trade Center's Towers despite them having been destroyed by the attacks over a year before the film's released however this explanation was refuted in scor's own contemporary statements where he noted that the production was still filming pickups even into October 2002 the filmmakers had also considered having the towers dissolved out from the shot to acknowledge their disappearance or remov the entire sequence Al together it was ultimately decided to keep the towers unaltered Weinstein kept demanding cuts to the film's length and some of those cuts were eventually made in December 2001 film critic Jeffrey Wells reviewed a purported workprint of the film as it existed in the fall of 2001 Wells reported the work print lack narration was about 20 minutes longer and although it was different than the version scene after scene after scene play exactly the same in both despite the similarities Wells found the work print to be richer and more satisfying than the theatrical version while scorsis has stated the theatrical version is his final cut he reportedly passed a long 3-hour plus version of gangs on tape and confin it putting aside my contractual obligation to deliver a shorter 2hour and 40-minute version to mmax this is the version I'm happiest with or words to that effect in an interview with Roger Ebert scors clarified the real issues in the cutting of the film Evert notes his discussions with Weinstein he said we always about finding the length where the picture worked when that got to the press it was translated into fights the movie is currently 168 minutes long he said and that is the right length and that's why there won't be any director's cut because this is the director's cut soundtrack Robbie Robertson supervised the soundtrack collection of eclectic pop folk and neoclassical tracks historical accuracy scors received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film in a PBS interview for the history News Network George Washington University Professor Tyler anbinder said that the visuals and discrimination of immigrants in the film were historically accurate but both the amount of violence depicted in the number of Chinese particularly female immigrants were greater in the film than in reality the spar's book described the bowy boys plug ugly true blue Americans shirt tales and Dead Rabbits who were named after their battle standard a dead rabbit on a pip the book also described William P the inspiration for William Bill the Butcher cutting a member of The Bowery Boys a bare knuckle boxer and a leader of the no nothing political movement po did not come from the five points and was assassinated nearly a decade before the draft riots both the fictional bill and the real onead butcher shops but pool is not known to have killed anyone the book also described other famous gangsters from the such as Red Rocks feral slobbery Jim and Hellcat Maggie who filed her front teeth to points and wore artificial brass fingernails anbinder said that scor's Recreation of the visual environment of mid 19th century New York City and the Five Points couldn't have been much better all sets were built completely on the exterior stages of C studios in Rome by 1860 New York City had 200,000 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants in a population of 800,000 according to Paul es Boer the period from the 1830s to the 1850s was a time of almost continuous disorder and turbulence among the urban poor the decade from 83418 for forsaw more than 200 major gang wars in New York City alone and in other cities the pattern was similar as early as 1839 mayor Philip hon said this city is Infested by gangs of hardened wretches who Patrol the streets making night hideous and insulting all who are not strong enough to defend themselves the large gang fight depicted in the film as occurring in 1846 is fictional though there is one between the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits in the five points on July 4th 1857 which is not mentioned in the film reviewer Vincent D gyalo concludes that Gangs of New York becomes a historical epic with no change over time the effect is to freeze ethnocultural rivalries over the course of three decades and portray them as irrational ancestral hatreds unaltered by demographic shifts economic cycles and political realignment in the film the draft riots of July 1863 are depicted as both destructive and violent records indicate the riots resulted in more than 100 deaths including the lynching of 11 free African-Americans they were especially targeted by the Irish in part because of fears of job competition that more freed slaves would cause in the city the bombardment of the City by Navy ships offshore to quell the riots is wholly fictitious the film references the infamous Tweed Courthouse as Boss Tweed refers to plans for the structure as being modest and economical in the film Chinese Americans were common enough in the city to have their own community in public venues although Chinese people migrated to America as early as the 1840s significant Chinese migration to New York City did not begin until 1869 the time when the Transcontinental Railroad was completed the Chinese Theater on pelson was not finished until the 1890s the old Brewery the overcrowded tenement shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862 63 was actually demolished in 1852 release the original Target release date was December 21st 2001 in time for the 2001 Academy Awards but the production overshot that goal as scories was still filming a 20-minute clip build as an extended preview debuted at the 2002 can film festival and was shown at a star studded event at the pet Des festivals at desk congress with scories die Caprio Das and Weinstein an attendant Harvey Weinstein then wanted the film to open on December 25th 2002 but a potential conflict with another film starring Leonardo Da capria Catch Me If You Can produced by Dream works caused him to move the open opening day to an earlier position after negotiations between several parties including the interests of Da Caprio Weinstein and DreamWorks Jeffrey kenberg the decision was made on economic grounds da Caprio did not want to face a conflict of promoting two movies opening against each other kenberg was able to convince Weinstein that the violence and adult material in Gangs of New York would not necessarily attract families on Christmas the main concern to all involved was attempting to maximize the film's opening day an important part of film industry econom Comics after 3 years in production the film was released on December 20th 2002 a year after its original planned release date while the film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray there are no plans to revisit the theatrical cut or prepare a director's cut for home video release Marty doesn't believe in that editor Thelma Schoonmaker stated he believes in showing only the finished film Gangs of New York was released on VHS and a two- dis DVD July 1st 2003 the film was split on both discs a Blu-ray version of the film was released July 1st 2008 box office the film made $77,200 in Canada and the United States it also took 23,7 63,65 in Japan and 16, 35858 in the United Kingdom worldwide the film grossed a total of $3,772 54 critical reception on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 214 reviews with an average rating of 7 10 over 10 the website's critical consensus reads though flawed the sprawling messy Gangs of New York is Redeemed by impressive production design and D Lewis's electrifying performance Metacritic gave the film a score of 72 out of 100 based on 39 critics indicating generally favorable reviews audiences pulled by Cinema score gave the film an average grade of Beyond an A plus to f scale Roger Ebert praised the film but believed it fell short of scors se's best work while his at the movies co-host Richard rooper called it a masterpiece and declared it a leading Contender for Best Picture Paul Clinton of CNN called the film a grand American epic in variety Todd McCarthy wrote that the film Falls somewhat short of great film status but is still a richly impressive and densely realized work that bracingly opens the eye and mind to untaught aspects of American History Mardy singled out the meticulous attention to historical detail and production designed for particular praise some critics were disappointed with the film with one review on Cinema Blend feeling it was overly violent with few characters worth caring about Norman beresi of the new English review wrote in a negative critique that some locals in Spain who had watched Gangs of New York had several anti-American beliefs confirmed afterwards which he felt was due to the film's gratuitous violence historical inaccuracies and general depiction of American society in the worst possible light others felt it tried to tackle too many themes without saying anything unique about them and that the overall story was weak Cameron das's divisive performance as Irish immigrant pickpocket Jenny everine has been cited as an example of poor casting and one of the worst Irish accents in film Gangs of New York movie review Martin scors se's Gangs of New York rips up the postcards of American history and reassembles them into a violent blood soaked story of our bare knuckled past the New York it portrays in the Years between the 1840s and the Civil War as a character observes the forge of Hell In which groups clear space by killing their Rivals competing fire brigades and and police forces fight in the streets audiences throw rotten fruit at an actor portraying Abraham Lincoln blacks and Irish are chased by mobs and navy ships fire on the city as the poor Riot against the draft the film opens with an extraordinary scene set beneath tenements in catacombs carved out of the Manhattan Rock an Irish American leader named priest valon prepares for battle almost as if preparing for the mass indeed as he puts on a collar to protect his neck we think for a moment he might be a priest with his young son Amsterdam trailing behind he walks through the Labyrinth of this torchet Hades Gathering his forces the Dead Rabbits before stalking out into daylight to fight the forces of a rival American Born gang the nativist men use knives swords bayonets Cleavers cudgels the ferocity of their battle is animalistic at the end the field is littered with bodies including that of valon slain by his enemy William cting aail the butcher this was the famous gang fight of Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan recorded in American history but not underline when it is over Amsterdam disappears into an orphanage the ominously named Hellgate House of Reform he emerges in his early 20 seconds and returns to Five Points still ruled by Bill and begins a scheme to avenge his father the Vivid achievement of scor's film is to visualize this history and people it with characters of deeni and grotas Bill the Butcher is one of the great characters in modern movies with his strangely elaborate diction his choked accent his odd way of combining ruthlessness with philosophy the canvas is filled with many other colorful characters including a pocket named Jenny everine a hired club named monk the shopkeeper Happy Jack and historical figures such as William Boss Tweed ruler of corrupt tamon Hall and PT Barnum whose Museum of curiosity scarcely Rivals the daily displays on the streets scors se's hero Amsterdam plays much the same role as a Dickens hero like David Copperfield or Oliver Twist he is the eyes through which we see the others but is not the most colorful person on the canvas Amsterdam is not as wild as vicious or as eccentric as the people around him and may not be any tougher than his eventual girlfriend Jenny who like Nancy and ol ofer twist is a Hellcat with a fierce loyalty to her man DiCaprio's character more focused and centered is a useful contrast to the wild men around him certainly de Lewis is inspired by an intense ferocity laced with humor and a certain analytical Detachment as Bill the Butcher he is a fearsome man fond of using his knife to tap his glass eye and he uses a pig carcass to show Amsterdam the various ways to kill a man with a knife bill is a skilled knife arti artist and terrifies Jenny his Target for a knife throwing act not only by coming close to killing her but also by his ornate and ominous word choices Das plays Jenny as a woman who at first insists on her own independence as a pickpocket she ranks high in the criminal hierarchy and even dresses up to pray on the rich people Uptown but when she finally caves into Amsterdam's love she proves tender and loyal in one love scene where they compare their scars and another where she nurses him back to health the movie is straightforward in its cynicism about democracy at the that time tamon Hall buys and sells votes ethnic groups are delivered by their leaders and when the wrong man is elected Sheriff he does not serve for long that American democracy emerged from this cauldron is miraculous we put the founding fathers on our money but these founding Crooks for a long time held sway scorsis is probably our greatest active American director and he has given us so many masterpieces that this film which from another director would be a Triumph arrives as a more measured accomplishment it was a difficult film to make as we know from the report that drifted back from the vast and expensive sets constructed at C and Rome the budget was enormous the running time was problematical the result is a considerable achievement a revisionist history linking the birth of American democracy and American Crime it brings us astonishing sites as in a scene that shows us the inside of a tenement with families stacked on top of one another in rooms like shelves or in the ferocity of the draft riots which all but destroyed the city it is instructive to be reminded that modern America was forged not in quiet rooms by great men and wigs but in the streets in The Clash of immigrant groups in a bloody darwinian struggle all of this is a Triumph for scores and yet I do not think this film is in the first rank of his masterpieces it is very good but not great I wrote recently of Good Fellas that the film has the headlong momentum of a Storyteller who knows he has a good one to share I didn't feel that here scor's films usually leap joyfully onto the screen the work of a master in command of his craft here there seems more struggle more weight to overcome more Darkness it is a story that scorsis has filmed without entirely internalizing the gangsters in his earlier films are motivated by greed ego and power they like nice cars shoes suits dinners women they murder as a cost of doing business the characters in Gangs of New York kill because they like to and want to they are bloodthirsty and motivated by hate I think scors like the heroes of Good Fellas casino and mean streets but I'm not sure he likes this crowd other information about this film Martin scors se's latest foray into the world of gang Warfare is quite a departure from the usual Cotter of scors epics instead of showing us a slice of criminal life in the 20th century Gangs of New York warps us back to the corruption and ethnic conflict of the early 1860s telling the story of a young Irish immigrant Amsterdam valon seeking revenge on the man who killed his father when he was just a we at even though many critics swooned over marvelous storytelling when the film first hit theaters the plot and Gangs of New York is hardly original stuff the story of The Quiet stranger who returns to seek revenge and in the process has to save his nemesis from getting killed by someone else has been told many times before for example Sergio Leon sent a young Charles Bronson on the same quest in 1968 Once Upon a Time in the West and like Leonardo die caprio's Amsterdam Valen gets wrapped up in a much larger struggle than the expected one-on-one Showdown add to that a predictable romance subplot a bumpy story Arch and a bland lead character and it's easy to see why our film Force reviewer wasn't exactly knocked off his chair when he reviewed J Cox and Steven alens as of yet unshot script 3 years ago in the hands of a lesser director Gangs of New York could have been a disaster but scors with the help of production designer Dante faretti costume designer Sandy Powell and a season cast and crew transforms J Cox's story into a visual Masterpiece the film is quite a sight to behold from the violent Mass Street battles of lower Manhattan's Five Points slums to the overstated costumes and wonderfully lit Interiors the movie beckons for a large screen to be truly appreciated scores Peppers the largely fictional story with his hisorical characters like the infamous William Boss tweet and grounds it with the context of the 1863 draft riots the outcome is an impressive motion picture that is able to capture the viewer's attention despite its long running time of 167 minutes the cast does a fine job with both Leonardo da Caprio and Cameron D turning in respectable performances and Liam niss and Jim broadman reliably flushing out the supporting roles but it's once again the villain who steals the picture Daniel de Lewis's supercharged portrayal of nativist leader Bill the Butcher cutting makes everyone else look Bland by comparison just like Leon's choice of good guy Henry Fonda as the chilling blue-eyed baddy Frank and Once Upon a Time in the West D Lewis is the magic element that makes the movie work and it's in the relationship between cutting and valon that scors manages to give his two lead characters the necessary depth to actually make us care about them but when it all comes to an end amidst bloody battles and cannon fire the forced inclusion of you two's the hands that built America may just bring you back down to earth and see Gangs of New York for what it really is a visually impressive big budget presentation of a fascinatingly ugly side of American history with an overused Revenge plot used as the throwaway anchor the video Gangs of New York is presented on two discs in an anamorphic transfer at its original aspect ratio of 235 one the transfer is clean only on occasion a little soft around the edges but artifact free even in scenes with big crowds and plenty of movement from the excellent black levels to the vibrant colors this is one greatl looking transfer for a visually outstanding mov movie the audio in addition to a commentary Track by scores the movie features English and French Dolby Digital 5.1 audio selections as well as a punchier English DTS 5.1 track the surround channels are only used sparingly during crowd and most battle scenes but come to life with the cannon fire in the later scenes of the movie Howard Shore seems to have accidentally given scorsis a few measures from his Lord of the Ring soundtrack but ignoring its derivative nature the score fits the movie well the extras given the iCal setting the two dis set comes appropriately loaded with special features that explore both the era and the recreation of it dis one contains the first half of the movie with commentary by Martin scorsis and most of the additional content it's obvious that scorsis is deeply interested in the historical events that served as the foundation for his Movie the fast talking director manages to provide sparse but interesting commentary and insight into the making of the film for the full duration of the picture though there are some lengthy pauses the commentary track editors thankfully Fade up up the movie's audio to fill the gaps which makes for a better viewing experience there is a set design feature at where Dante Fetti briefly outlines the process from drawing to finish set with additional behind the-scenes footage and crew and cast reaction but it's the separate tour of the set with scors SE and faretti that really shows off the immense size and scope of the sets created for this film the director and designer casually stroll from their Recreation of paradise Square to the harbor complete with its two full-size ships during their tour optional popup prompts let viewers access gimmicky 360° views of the set in addition to a featurette on costume design that has Sandy Powell explain her design choices and inspiration the first disc also houses an enjoyable look at the history of the Five Points with plenty of interviews all adding to give the necessary historical background information for even more background an additional study guide lays out the history in text form and provides explanations of period vocabulary used in the movie though cast and crew biographies are sadly missing murx included both the full trailer and teaser trailer trailer disc 2 contains the second part of the movie and commentary as well as the YouTube music video and a good 35-minute Discovery Channel piece called uncovering the real Gangs of New York using contemporary sketches and paintings and plenty of historian and author sound bites the featurette manages to avoid being the typical pre-release hype pieces we've seen on many other discs spiritual content faith in God fuels War as Protestants and Catholics clash in the new world just as they had in the old the priest and his men take communion before facing off with the bsh everyone prays that God will bless their Endeavors and scour their enemies from the face of the Earth valon teaches his son to pray to St Michael who cast Satan out of paradise taunting the immigrants before a battle cutting yells let the Christian Lord guide my hand valon retorts prepare to receive the true Lord years later after being exhorted by a priest to forgive those who wronged him Amsterdam tosses his Bible into the river and sets off to seek their death after picking a person's pocket Jenny is fond of smirking I leave you in the grace and favor of the Lord when a preacher urges Amsterdam to come to church Amsterdam responds go to H one man credits Shakespeare for writing the King James Bible the holy spirit is said to give men the courage to kill to indict a politician for straddling the fence on immigration issues cutting quotes Revelation 3:16 mudity and sexual content dances and drunken parties turn into orgies of exhibitionism and public sex classic statues of nude women are displayed but those Stone ladies aren't the only ones who are naked bare breasted women are seen dancing being groped and having sex completely nude two women cuddle together on a bed while cutting watches in another scene two nude women drape themselves over cutting Amsterdam has sex with Jenny worse their intercourse is preceded by an angry altercation later cutting sneaks into their room and watches the two sleeping when Amsterdam wakes up cuting make a vulgar reference about them having had oral sex a man dressed as a woman lines up with the rest of the ladies at a dance violent content the violence in Gangs of New York is so pervasive and graphic that to itemize it all would be at best nauseating what struck me throughout the nearly 3-hour film was that nearly every social Gathering triggered some sort of brawl or RI various police forces fight one another more than they fight crime competing fire departments battle each other while intended buildings Blaze beside them dances turn into durges as dead bodies pile up politicians make public speeches and if someone doesn't like what they have to say they murder them in the doorways of their own homes blood flows thick on the cobblestone streets as flesh is pummeled with axes spear knives clubs bullets and Bricks dozens of scenes include Gore one so extreme I'm compelled to mention it only in the broadest Strokes shows the butcher ripping a man's intestines from his belly and dumping them on the floor arms are severed bones broken throats slit skulls split chests impaled cannon fire decimates buildings kills hundreds of people and sets large sections of the city on fire four men are executed in a public hanging more than once a knife that is plunged into a man's gut is twisted and turned to cause as much damage as possible possible a dead man is hung on a makeshift cross for passers by to see Amsterdam's face is branded with a red hot knife blade crude or profane language 6 F words and one s word a dozen milder profanities are all but drowned out in the den but the same number of profane uses of the lord's name stand out starkly seven or eight times characters abuse the names Jesus and Christ drug and alcohol content drinking is common several scenes are shot in pubs and at wild parties Amsterdam and others in cuting gang smoke an unnamed drug from a long pipe Amsterdam and cutting smoke cigars and pipes others smoke cigarettes other negative elements men wager on everything from brutal boxing matches to animal fights when valon is about to die he holds his young son's head in his hands and forces him to watch as cutting turns the knife in his gut one of the men who is hanged calls out to his watching son and entreats him to watch both of these scenes are used to communicate an intense commitment to avenging loved one's deaths a mission Amsterdam devotes his life to in contrast God tells us that vengeance is his is and that we are to trust him with our lives and with our death racism rears its ugly head repeatedly in the film epithets are hurled against blacks Chinese and other immigrants such sentiments and the cruel Behavior it inspires aren't condoned in the story neither are they condemned they just are politicians set a disturbing example clinging to popularity and power rather than truth and ethics the appearance of the law must be upheld declares one such man of considerable sway especially while it is being broken citizens are forced to vote for the candidate with the most of Ed henchmen conclusion oddly enough Gangs of New York was shot and Rome the ancient streets and teetering tenements found their made a perfect backdrop for 19th century New York we cocooned ourselves in this little environment Leonardo da Caprio said we woke up every day and went on set and went back in time that commitment to authenticity and realism radiates from every nook and cranny of the film as Daniel de Lewis is apt to do he completely loses himself in his role as the butcher it's one of his most distinctive roles yet and he's had a lot of them Caprio has fully rebounded from his Titanic slum giving Amsterdam layers of complexity and conflicted Nuance he's at his best when tormented by the fact that his desire for revenge is softening under an inscrutable affection for his enemy I've been taken under the wing of the Dragon Amsterdam mutters and I found it to be surprisingly warm the history lesson proferred here is well taken I'll leave its accuracy for the historians to debate and suffice it to say that I walked away more grateful than ever for my cushy 21st century life what's missing from New York and 1963 is the rule of law and that makes all the difference today we thrive in a society governed by law in order to be envied by all other countries and this movie makes one immensely grateful for that if the actual events of Civil War in New York were only oneth as frightening as what emanates from scor's imagination not many of us would dare wish its return what's not so well taken is the level of brutality and sexual arousal shown openly and enthusiastically on screen its violence puts gangs in the same league as Saving Private Ryan Black Hawk Down We Were Soldiers and Wind Talkers some of its viciousness actually surpasses that of such modern war movies because it is so intensely gruesome with knives and clubs getting more close-up screen time than bullets and bombs likewise its nudity and sexual activity Teeter just shy of nc7 territory this is as far from a PBS documentary as scores could possibly get he's proud of that but it makes his long awaited vision of the past and accessible to millions of families in the present who preferring not to risk psychological desensitization keep their appetites for destruction in check more details UND deck 20202 Martin scors unveiled a new crime epic Gangs of New York and theaters the film went on to be nominated for 10 honors at the 75th Academy Awards but left without a single win the Hollywood reporter's original review is below Martin scor's career-long exploration of the role of violence in American society culminates in Gangs of New York The View here is that brutality and Corruption played midwives to The American Nation that the American dream of Liberty from European despotism monarchy and aristocratic privilege ran a foul of the new world vices of bigotry an anarchy almost immediately this is a Relentless pitch black portrait of New York in 1863 that while thoroughly rooted in historical fact is nonetheless painted from limited pigments astonishing and audacious the film certainly creates a kind of perverse Beauty and excitement out of its Horrors scors seems to want the viewer to get a voyerism fights featuring knives Cleavers and bats and justce certainly gangs poses a major challenge to Mur Max's marketing department here is a movie from arguably America's most brilliant filmmaker yet one so dark and disturbing you might label it a feel bad movie it's a gangster film one of Cinema's more durable genres yet mired in Arcane history and forgotten political movement scors se's reputation ensures a solid opening here and perhaps even better in Europe but murx will have a hard time recouping the enormous cost of recreating 19th century New York at Rome cin Studios inspired by her Herbert esp's 1928 classic study the script by Jay Cox Steven Zan and Kenneth lonan embroils the viewer in a now forgotten District of lower Manhattan known as Five Points here everyone prays to one God or another but in reality God does not Venture into this satanic terrain ruled by an underworld Barbarian known as Bill the Butcher the area's only business is crime theft racketeering prostitution gambling drugs and murder bill has made a devil's alliance with Boss Tweed supplying muscle to the political boss who would rule the city it is into this cauldron that immigrants mostly Catholics despised by nativists surge on a daily basis unlike scor's previous gangster movies such as Good Fellas or Casino there is little complexity to this 1863 underworld there is a bad guy in Bill the Butcher who carves up people and pigs with equal enthusiasm and there is a young hero in an American Born Irish orphan named Amsterdam determined to avenge Bill's murder of his father priest Bon an Irish immigrant leader 16 years earlier Amsterdam somewhat implausibly wormed his way into Bill's nativist gang and then into his confidence becoming a son to the chief the lad gets involved romantically with a beaus headstrong pickpocket Jenny who has links to Bill as well other characters fill out the Rogues Gallery monk a strong arm enforcer settled into shopkeeping Happy Jack a former gang member turned corrupt copper and Johnny an Amsterdam loyalist with strong instincts for self-preservation against the backdrop of the civil war of President Lincoln's unpopular conscription and coffins arriving daily in the city come the political maneuverings of Boss Tweed and a betrayal that alerts Bill to Amsterdam's true intention this lead to a climax amid the worst riot in American history the draft riots where much of Manhattan was destroyed first by immigrant mobs then by soldiers and navy guns da Caprio makes the protagonists thirst for revenge and Reclamation of family honor palpable but he doesn't look the part of a street tough nor is the script helpful by insisting that despite 16 long years in a religious House of Refuge he has lost none of his street smarts the film's great performance belongs to Day Lewis a sociopath given free reign to spill blood in copious amounts hear anger at politicians foreign Invaders High Society mingles with humor and a sense of Detachment he's literate yet understands how power works and how to hold it through Terror cinematographer Michael bhouse designer Dante faretti and costumer Sandy Powell conspired to bring to Life paintings and Engravings of old New York its interior is almost monochromatic the streets filled with Smoky colors and nights made Sinister by Gaslight and flickering fires that dot the lamp skape yet this 168 minute movie reportedly cut down from a 195 minute version never gets you inside the story so you understand how the characters feel about their deeds whether or not a longer version would have given the film more texture and dimension this one presents a blinkered vision of American History relegated to a few streets and alleys of lower Manhattan and a few Thugs who left no Mark except perhaps on the collective unconscious Kirk Hut originally published on Deck 6 2002 this film directed by Martin gorsy screenplay by Jay Cox Steven zalium Kenneth lonan Story by J Cox based on The Gangs of New York by Herbert asper produced by Alberto Grimaldi Harvey Weinstein starring Leonardo da Caprio Daniel D Lewis Cameron Das Jim Broadbent John C Riley Henry Thomas Brendan gleon cinematography Michael bhouse edited by felma scon maker music by Howard Shore production companies Touchstone pictures murx films Alberto Grimaldi Productions distributed by murx films initial Entertainment Group release date December 20th 2002 running time 167 minutes country United States language English budget $97 minus 100 million box office $13.8 million so guys this is the review of Gangs of New York movie and some information about it how do you like our today's video please let us know by commenting and if you like this video please like it