45) Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York (2002)

Director: Martin Scorsese

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Brendan Gleeson, Henry Thomas, Gary Lewis, Liam Neeson

I watched Gangs of New York for the first time two years ago. I watch a lot of films, and I see a lot of very good films, but not a lot of them really impact me the way this one did. Every now and then you see a film which just completely engrosses you, and as soon as it's over you know that it is one of the best films you have seen in a long time. Gangs of New York was one of those films for me. It may have helped that for some reason or other I didn't come into it with hugely high expectations, but it really hit me and I've been wanting to give it another view ever since, if only to see if the film was as good as I remembered it. I had a evening at home to myself tonight, so decided it was time to have another look.

In the 1840s, 50s and 60s waves of Irish immigrants poured into New York's Five Points, much to the dissatisfaction of the citizens, mostly of British and Dutch heritage, who lived there. As a result of this tension the Five Points became a particularly volatile area, overrun with numerous gangs. In 1863, 16 years after witnessing the death of his father 'Priest' Vallen (Neeson) at the hand of William 'Bill the Butcher' Cutting (Day-Lewis) in a gang war for the control of the Five Points, Amsterdam Vallen (DiCaprio) returns to the Five Points seeking revenge against the Butcher.

Gangs of New York was a project a long time in the making. It is based on a non-fiction book written by Herbert Asbury in 1928 which Scorsese first read in 1970. In 1976 the first draft of the screenplay was written and in 1977 the project was announced in the film trade magazine Variety. But the project floundered, resurfacing in the early 1980s as a possible Scorsese/De Niro collaboration to follow up The King of Comedy, and then again in the early 1990s after the box office success of Cape Fear. But it was in 1998, when Scorsese and screenwriter Jay Cocks were onto their tenth redraft of the script, that Mike Ovitz suggested Scorsese consider making the film with Leonardo DiCaprio, a hot commodity after the success of Titanic, and really got things rolling. Initially Gangs of New York was to be a Disney film, but when concerns arose that the violent content would not sit with Disney's family friendly image the project passed to Miramax. With a budget of over $80million and a production which had trouble keeping to schedule, the film would have one final hurdle to jump. The September 11 attacks led to the decision to postpone the release of the film as it was deemed that the barbarism it depicted was not appropriate for the mood of the times (it wouldn't surprise me if this was also a factor in the Academy's decision to lean towards Chicago on Oscar night. Gangs of New York received 10 nominations but did not win any of them). Despite all of this, the film Scorsese produced is simply stunning.

Visually, this film is simply stunning. The combination of elaborate set design, art direction and costume has done an amazing job of bringing this world to life in great detail, and Michael Ballhaus' cinematography that captures it all is at times breathtaking (I particularly love the shot early in the film as The Priest is rallying the White Rabbits for battle against the natives and after convincing Monk to join them he opens the door and the camera moves out from the dark underground to the snow covered openness of the Five Points. It's a beautiful shot). All of the above mentioned departments were deservedly nominated for Oscars though the design awards ended up going to Chicago and the cinematography to Road to Perdition.

Initially the role of Butcher Bill was offered to Robert De Niro. Had he accepted it Gangs of New York could have been an interesting overlap between Scorsese's two main collaborating partners; De Niro and DiCaprio, but De Niro turned down the film. As much as I love Robert De Niro, I'm glad he turned it down, because as a second option Scorsese managed to persuade Daniel Day-Lewis to come out of his four year retirement and take the role and Day-Lewis's portrayal of Butcher Bill is one of the real keys to the film. Day-Lewis is a famously intense method actor who completely immerses himself in his characters, often choosing to stay in character for the entirety of the shooting schedule. In the past this has caused issues for him. In shooting his Oscar winning role in My Left Foot he broke two ribs as a result of sitting hunched over in a wheelchair for so long. There is also the infamous incident when he collapsed on stage during a 1989 performance of Hamlet. In the scene in which Hamlet sees the ghost of his father for the first time, Day-Lewis collapsed, started weeping uncontrollably and refused to return to the stage, later admitting that he had at that moment seen the ghost of his own deceased father. Day-Lewis's intense preparation, combined with his incredibly selective taking on of roles (in the 21 years since his first Oscar win he has only made nine films), leads to incredibly powerful performances of which his turn as Butcher Bill is a prime example. Butcher Bill is arguably the most fearsome and intimidating screen villain of the decade. He will make you sweat. The only other performance as a villain which I think has hit me the same way was the first time I saw Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

Critically, Gangs of New York seems to be quite a divisive film. Some have loved it, some have hated it, some think it's overrated, some think it's underrated. That being the case, as much as I love it I don't feel that I can guarantee others will feel the same. But from my perspective, it is an incredible historical epic, visually stunning with some amazing performances. I loved it the first time I watched it, and while a second viewing will often bring films down a few pegs, I still thought it was brilliant. Gangs of New York provides a variation on a familiar Scorsese theme and makes for one of his most entertaining films.