01/08/2003 Entry:
"Gangs Of New York - Martin Scorsese (2002)"

I will try not to spend too much time here on the stuff that has been stated everywhere else, most of which I agree with. Daniel Day-Lewis is absolutely amazing as Bill The Butcher. I realized later I had never seen him in anything before and suddnely I need to. Leo looks like Leo, but he does a good job. Cameron Diaz is terribly miscast. Her part is already reduced to a traveling plot-point, and she is pretty plain at it. She has gotten to that star power place where you see her in movies and she takes you out of them with her mere presence. I would have much rather seen an unknown (or at least less known) here. Note massive spoilers follow.

The film is really divided into two parts - Amsterdam's association with Bill and its eventual destruction, and his buildup of Irish power to the film's climax. The main thing I noticed about the second half though is that it is really les about them than about the forces uptown (the rich and the politicians) who are using them and pushing them into the conflict that defines their very existence. In his review Rosenbaum complains that the film's climax is nothing but childish maiming and destruction, noting that we hear the song "The Hands That Built America" but all we see is people trying to tear it apart. I think he misses the point of the whole second act though. For me, that whole section of the film is really about the rich and powerful. "We can always pit 50% of the poor after the other 50%." When I was watching this I was really upset that Amsterdam knifed Bill. I had been hoping that they would realize they were being used as pawns, and that the whole thing was a lot bigger than them and their strife. However in thinking about it, I feel like Amsterdam's knifing was as much about frustration as about killing Bill (who was obviously dying already anyways.) He's almost in tears by the end, covered in blood, and the expression on his face reads like unfocused desperation as much as anything else. The final scenes, with New York being built on their graves and the quote about how they are the forgotten part of history, was incredibly moving and I felt the tears coming. The hands that built America are the guys who took these people in the slums, used them for votes, and put them in the ground. How little has changed. This is one of the few pictures from 2002 that I desperately want to see again.

Scorcese's direction is typically great. The art direction especially is a sight to behold. The sets from old New York were filmed on a huge lot in Rome, and they are completely believable. There are also a couple of noteworthy virtuoso Scorsese scenes. A long crane shot following Irish immigrants being herded off boats and straight into the army recalls the similar shots in Goodfellas (entering the nightclub and the crane shot into the freezer truck.) There is some amazing editing by his usual editor Thelma Schoonmaker during the climax of the first section, wherein Bill is throwing knives around. Hey, how does he throw those knives so accurately when he has no depth perception due to his glass eye (it took a 16 year old child to point this out to several adults I know.) One could argue that the swelling U2 music at the end was a bit much, but for me I didn't mind at all. It fit perfectly. Just great stuff all around, 2:45 and I never looked at my watch once.