Gangs of New York

Day 259 - 9/16/09 - Movie #259

BEFORE: Watching this could be a mistake - it's a long movie (2 hr. 45 min.), and I'm starting it just after midnight - oh well, tonight's movie viewing is sponsored by Mountain Dew and Harry & David's chocolate-covered espresso beans! I can catch up on sleep when the weekend rolls around, I suppose.

What started as an exploration of New York neighborhoods has turned into a review of the history of New York city crime...

THE PLOT: In 1863, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points area of New York City seeking revenge against Bill the Butcher, his father's killer.

AFTER: I first want to point out that this is a very grand, gorgeous, epic tale set in the New York of 1862. There's a lot of exciting history here, from the reaction to the first Civil War draft, to the battle over the neighborhood of Five Points, and the conflict between the "Natives" (people born in the U.S.) and the Irish immigrants flooding the streets of New York. Substitute "Mexicans" for "Irish" and Texas for New York, and the cultural relevance of such a conflict to today's U.S. is immediately recognizable.

And the movie kept me interested in this conflict for the entire running time - I stayed awake, missed my sleep window, and was late for work, so that's a testament right there to the movie-making on display here.

However, I feel the need to recognize two problems. First, it seems like almost exactly the same plot as "The Departed", which also was directed by Scorcese and also starred Leonardo DiCaprio. I know the movies are set in different cities, 150 years apart, but the basic plotline is the same. Here DiCaprio's Amsterdam works himself into crimelord Bill the Butcher's inner circle, pretending to work for him, in order to take him down (and avenge his father). In "The Departed", DiCaprio played a cop who works himself into a crimelord's inner circle, in order to take him down. I know, "Gangs of New York" was made first, but the central plot is almost identical. ("The Departed" made things a little more complicated with the addition of Matt Damon playing a foil for DiCaprio, as a character who was mobbed up, pretending to be a clean cop...)

Problem #2: Cameron Diaz in a period piece, playing the damaged pickpocket girl. She really should have stuck to light romantic comedy and "Charlie's Angels" films, because she's no Cate Blanchett, or Kate Winslet. Leave the heavy acting to the pros, OK, sweetie?

It was long, bloody, violent, and exciting, and (except for Diaz) mostly entertaining - Daniel Day Lewis was the real standout, and he NAILED the early-Colonial New York accent...or at least what I would imagine it to have sounded like.

My favorite scene - two rival fire brigades pull up to a burning house, and the firemen get into a fistfight over which brigade gets to put out the fire - while the inferno rages in the background. Yep, it's good to see New York hasn't changed all that much over the years...

RATING: 7 out of 10 cleavers.