Gangs of New York Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gangs of New York - Essay Example Scorsese makes an interesting story here as he inserts Daniel Day-Lewis who plays the character of a man who has deadly knife skills, William Cutting, a.k.a Bill the Butcher. William is a Native American who leads a gang of fellow natives who begrudge the Irish immigrants in the city. In turn, these immigrants form a gang and clashes with the natives. Scorsese’s portrayal of the gangs during the Civil War is a little too limited since he only focuses of the two gangs – Bill the Butcher and The Dead Rabbits. (Gallman, 2003) Although he makes it seem that there are not only two gangs around during that time, he only makes the two visible to the viewers. Nonetheless, Scorsese does a good job at giving a good background in this portion. The clash of the two gangs leaves Priest Vallon, the one who acts as the leader of The Dead Rabbits, dead. As the movies goes on showing the whereabouts and the happenings of Vallon’s son, Amsterdam, Full Name 3 played by Leonardo DiC aprio, Scorsese creates an atmosphere of vengeance while Amsterdam attends a reform school until the time he goes back to the city. Scorsese’s portrayal of the Five Points is almost excellent until some American-Chinese characters appeared on the screen, showing that Chinatown already existed during that time. It is true that the Five Points - Mulberry; Anthony, Cross, Orange and Little Water are the streets now being occupied by Chinatown, though some streets are named differently today, the Chinese community was not present during the Civil War. (Gallman, 2003) This may not be the director’s intention, since it is possible that they were in New York, shooting groups of people, accidentally passing a group of Chinese and forgetting editing the scene. Whatever the reason is, Scorsese is still not able to perfectly show an accurate picture of New York in the Civil War. The movie moves around the story of Amsterdam’s long-awaited thirst to kill Bill, having the Ci vil War as an aid to give a good story plot. Although it revolves around Amsterdam’s vengeance, Scorsese reconstructs the details of life in that era and the historical change and the reason behind the Americans and New Yorkers disdain the shed of blood and overt display of corruption and how the past laws gave way to the modern ones. (Lightner, 2006) As the story goes on, Amsterdam sets a scheme to avenge his father’s death, which eventually leads to penetrating Bill’s Gang deep, making himself as the gang leader’s trusted assistant. As he continues his act with the gang, he meets Jenny Everdeane, Cameron Diaz, who has a history with Bill and then starts a linchpin of male jealousy. Cameron’s character here is more of a structural necessity than a widely explored one. (Gallman, 2003) Considering the setting of the Full Name 4 movie, women of that era didn’t have much to do with the society due to the social injustices not just to slaves but also to women. Having a lady thief in that era, possessing a beautiful face and an extraordinary skill, it is tantamount to power and such vibrant character should be well- explored. (Sight and Sound, 2003) Scorsese could’ve used Jenny’s character to show the women of that era, unfortunately, she only is a hub for jealousy between Bill and Amsterdam, who happens to be a woman born ahead of her time. The movie shows too little of the characters in the story aside from the big three; Diaz, DiCaprio and