Most New Yorkers doubtless think of their city as the very embodiment of advanced civilization--as a small village that grew continuously and gloriously over nearly four centuries since the Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam was founded in 1626. Gangs of New York, directed by Martin Scorcese, who began preproduction of the film some twenty-five years ago, based on the 1928 fiction book of the same title by Herbert Ashbury, presents a very different picture--a dingy, lawless New York in the mid-nineteenth century, when some 15,000 Irish and other immigrants arrived daily on an island with no centralized fire department or police department. Although the film begins with a fight between rival gangs in 1846, most of the film takes place in 1864, the year after the famous draft riot that shook the city for four days and nights, accounting for more than 1,000 deaths. The gangs of 1846 were still rivals in 1864, consisting of native-born versus immigrants, primarily Irish, at Five Points in lower Manhattan. In the 1846 gang fight, William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) leads the Yankees to victory over the Irish, led by Priest Vallon (played by Liam Neeson). By 1864, Vallon's eighteen-year-old son Amsterdam (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) leaves Hell Gate Reformatory where he was sent after his only parent's death to return to Five Points, where he realizes that he must cozy up to Cutting to survive, a Dickensian plot that is an Americanized version of Oliver Twist. Amsterdam encounters another of Cutting's adoptees, Jenny Everdeane (played by Cameron Diaz); Cutting gave her shelter at the age of eighteen, she became a pickpocket and prostitute and she sleeps with Cutting, though she gradually falls in love with Amsterdam. In time, Amsterdam tries clumsily to assassinate Cutting, who leaves him alive with a scar, presumably too humiliated to try again. In the midst of the plot of love and revenge, "Boss" William Tweed (played by Jim Broadbent) is busy exchanging favors for votes from all the immigrants as they get off the boats in New York harbor. In competition, the U.S. government is trying to enlist Irish into the Union Army with a promise of speedy U.S. citizenship. (The story of their later betrayal and escape to México was told in 1999 in One Man's Hero.) At first, Tweed's ally in Five Points is Cutting, but he switches sides when eighteen-year-old Amsterdam emerges as the leader of the more numerous Irish. When Amsterdam says that he can deliver the votes to Tammany Hall, he exacts a price--a Tammany-backed Irish candidate for Sheriff. Tweed agrees, Monk McGinn (played by Brendan Gleeson) runs and wins, with more ballots counted for him than the number of registered voters, but Cutting kills McGinn on the day after the election. McGinn's assassination then becomes the pretext for Amsterdam to challenge Cutting and his allies in a final showdown. However, the day of the fictional showdown between rival gangs coincides anachronistically in the film with the day when federal troops and gunboats are brought in to stop the draft riot. Interestingly, the film shows racial harmony with African Americans before the draft riot, but President Lincoln's proclamation for conscription to end the Civil War provokes draft opponents, who note that the rich buy off exemptions; the rioters not only lynch Blacks but also break into the homes of the rich. In the midst of the rubble from the federal quelling of the riot, Amsterdam finally knifes Cutting. When the film ends, the skyline of New York is featured, beginning in 1864 and continuing until September 11, 2001. Gangs of New York, in short, is a memorial to the city of New York and to the immigrants who built that city. MH

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Gangs of New York
by Herbert Ashbury