Gangs of New York
directed by Martin Scorsese
Plot:
1863. America was born in the streets. In this movie, we see Amsterdam Vallon returning to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin Bill the Butcher who murdered his father years ago. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area. However this is more said than done.
Top-Billed Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, and Brendan Gleeson
Academy Awards:
Best Picture (nominee), Best Actor in Leading Role for
Daniel Day-Lewis (nominee), Best Director for Martin Scorsese (nominee), Best Writing of an Original Screenplay (nominee), Best Cinematography (nominee), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (nominee), Best Costume Design (nominee), Best Film Editing (nominee), Best Sound (nominee), Best Original Song for "The Hands That Built America" (nominee)
Director, Martin Scorsese, prided himself in the historical accuracy he claimed to establish in the film Gangs of New York, and for the most part he did that. However, his disregard for the small, yet very important, details took away from his "historical accuracy." Five Points missionary Lewis Pease told National Geographic, "Every house was a brothel." Prostitution was touched upon in the film, but not nearly as much as it should have. The writers made the film more about the crowd pleaser, violence and big street fights, rather than have it be about what it should have been, America's dirty, little secret, prostitution. It just irked me that something that defined Five Points at that time was avoided. Historian Tyler Anbinder, who wrote the book Five Points and reviewed the Gangs of New York script for Scorsese, actually said "I looked at the statistics, and other than public drunkenness and prostitution, there was no more crime in Five Points than in any other part of the city."
However, Gangs did not completely fail to deliver historical accuracy. As mentioned above, it was Oscar-nominated for Scenic Design, an accolade most definitely deserved. The scenic designer, Dante Ferretti claimed that after construction was complete the new Five Points was just that, it was too "new". So he had a team assigned to specifically just age the entire set, and I believe they did a great job. When watching the film and then comparing the set to old images of the Five Points neighborhood, the two are almost identical.
1863. America was born in the streets. In this movie, we see Amsterdam Vallon returning to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic gangland kingpin Bill the Butcher who murdered his father years ago. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a whole new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area. However this is more said than done.
Top-Billed Cast:
Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, and Brendan Gleeson
Academy Awards:
Best Picture (nominee), Best Actor in Leading Role for
Daniel Day-Lewis (nominee), Best Director for Martin Scorsese (nominee), Best Writing of an Original Screenplay (nominee), Best Cinematography (nominee), Best Art Direction-Set Decoration (nominee), Best Costume Design (nominee), Best Film Editing (nominee), Best Sound (nominee), Best Original Song for "The Hands That Built America" (nominee)
Director, Martin Scorsese, prided himself in the historical accuracy he claimed to establish in the film Gangs of New York, and for the most part he did that. However, his disregard for the small, yet very important, details took away from his "historical accuracy." Five Points missionary Lewis Pease told National Geographic, "Every house was a brothel." Prostitution was touched upon in the film, but not nearly as much as it should have. The writers made the film more about the crowd pleaser, violence and big street fights, rather than have it be about what it should have been, America's dirty, little secret, prostitution. It just irked me that something that defined Five Points at that time was avoided. Historian Tyler Anbinder, who wrote the book Five Points and reviewed the Gangs of New York script for Scorsese, actually said "I looked at the statistics, and other than public drunkenness and prostitution, there was no more crime in Five Points than in any other part of the city."
However, Gangs did not completely fail to deliver historical accuracy. As mentioned above, it was Oscar-nominated for Scenic Design, an accolade most definitely deserved. The scenic designer, Dante Ferretti claimed that after construction was complete the new Five Points was just that, it was too "new". So he had a team assigned to specifically just age the entire set, and I believe they did a great job. When watching the film and then comparing the set to old images of the Five Points neighborhood, the two are almost identical.