Gangs
of New York Took Me By Force!
Gangs
of New York Took Me By Force!
I don't want to speak out of turn here about Gangs of New York. I don't
want to wallow in past rumors of behind-the-scenes friction, high-level arguments
behind close doors of a powerful director and powerful executives clashing over
this and that. And I certainly don't want to ruminate on the strategies of when
to schedule a film, when to delay it, and when to finally release it.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York was SUPPOSED to
be released LAST December with a three-hour-plus running time, loads of bloody
violence, and an inside shot at the Best Picture Oscar as it would have competed
directly with A Beautiful Mind and Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship
of the Ring. Instead, the release was pushed back to July of this year,
then to December. In its present form, the film is still violent, but you can
tell where practically every cut was made to avoid the NC-17 rating. The final
running time is now a theater-friendly 2 hours and 45 minutes, and it has a
very audience-friendly pace. The result? It's still gonna nab a bundle of Oscar
nominations come mid-February.
This is one spectacular film, folks! Full of passion, majesty, history, and
peril. It features the single best acting performance I have seen this year
with Daniel Day-Lewis absolutely owning the screen as Bill the Butcher.
And the climax of the film is just a remarkable piece of planning, filming,
editing, and ... ahem, spending. Some major bucks were put into this film, and
it's all there on screen.
Now, that said. Pardon me, while I clear my throat and channel Sam Kinison.
Ahem. Cough, cough. A sip o' the ol' water. Patooey! That's not water. OK, here
goes. I WANT THE LONG VERSION OF THIS MOVIE!!! I WANT THE FOUR-HOUR CUT!!! OR,
AT LEAST THE THREE-AND-A-HALF HOUR EDIT!!! AHHHH!!! As it stands now, Gangs
of New York will likely make my Top 10 list in a few weeks. But I have the
feeling that if given all the material that Scorsese wanted to put up on screen,
this would CLEARLY have been my pick for the BEST film of the year. Instead,
Gangs of New York is just merely a great film that has me salivating
for an extended DVD.
Even 15 minutes put back in Gangs of New York would have made a world
of difference, especially in the film's third hour that is unnecessarily choppy.
The film centers around Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio), the son of the
slain Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) who returns to Civil War-era New York
City to avenge his family's honor. Bill the Butcher (Day-Lewis) is the target
of his wrath, having killed the honorable Irish gang leader years earlier. The
Butcher fashions himself an "original New Yorker," having seized power
over the poor masses by killing, whoring, scheming, and generally being smarter
and quicker than everyone else. His hatred of the Irish immigrants who arrive
in droves to the East Coast seaport every week is palpable. But he always has
an eye for young talent, and the intense and angry Amsterdam intrigues him upon
first meeting.
It's unfortunate that DiCaprio has been the object of so much scorn for his
large female following and tabloid romances, which are largely the result of
Titanic and the Romeo + Juliet update from the late '90s. In such
earlier films as What's Eating Gilbert Grape and The Basketball Diaries,
the guy distinguished himself as an actor of range and power when I was just
a young film critic. I've always liked the guy. In Gangs of New York,
DiCaprio accepts his leading man status with an assured performance in a role
that demanded both an actor AND a star.
But it is Daniel Day-Lewis who RULES this movie. His Bill the Butcher is an
immoral, demonic control freak capable of horrible violence, yet still with
a charisma, a code of conduct, and a way of speaking uniquely his own. Remember
how absolutely and perfectly cool every single line of dialogue Val Kilmer's
Doc Holliday uttered in Tombstone? You'll feel the same way about the
Bill the Butcher character. You'll wish you were that smooth, that quick-witted,
that charismatic. The Butcher is cocky, but with good reason. There truly is
no one better than him in all the city. Witness the first meeting DiCaprio's
character has with him. The younger man states, "I'm Amsterdam." The
Butcher's simple reply: "I'm New York."
Into the mix are thrown a supporting cast of memorable characters, ranging from
the corrupt Boss Tweed (Jim Broadbent, perfectly cast as always) to young
neighborhood thief Johnny (Henry Thomas) to Happy Jack (John C. Reilly),
an Irish cop who once fought alongside Priest Vallon but now is under the thumb
of the Butcher. Amsterdam's plot for revenge is muddled further by his growing
attraction to Jenny (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful pickpocket who hides
secrets of her own.
The bulk of story is told against the backdrop of the impending Draft Riots
of 1863, when America's own Army had to be called into Manhattan to quell the
violence. Even the Navy fired on the city! My guess is the original cut of this
film put the story in a LOT more historical context than the version being released
this coming Friday. I don't think there has ever been a movie to depict what
happened when New York was plunged into four days of horrific violence in which
blacks were slaughtered and the city burned.
The blending of the personal and the historic is a bit awkward at times, but
Scorsese's aim is so vast and ambitious (a long tracking shot showing immigrants
coming off a boat, past draft registers, past coffins, and then following a
group of newly uniformed soldiers onto another boat headed to the war is simply
the work of a master filmmaker) that you just go with the film even as it loses
its grip on the audience late. Oh, you still hang onto the director's shaky
guiding hand, slipping out of his grasp and down his shirt sleeve until finally
you land in the theater lobby looking at your buddy or your movie date and exclaiming
things like: "Wow, I had no idea THAT happened in New York!" or "Man,
that was one HUMONGOUS flick."
Those were just two reactions I heard exclaimed after my recent preview screening
of the film. But then the calls for the longer version started. OK, I was the
one who started them. Pretty much everyone else seemed to love the flick as
is. But, man oh man, I wanted even more. I'll sit still in a theater for a longer
film if it completes the director's vision. And I just don't see Gangs of
New York as Scorsese's complete vision. But I do see it as an undeniably
great Hollywood epic.
Gangs of New York is rated R for graphic violence, sexual content,
nudity, and language.
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