Capturing New York’s underbelly
Ervell E. Menezes

What was it like to be living in New York of the mid-19th century? The Big Apple wasn’t even an apple then, just a three-horse town with warring gangs, corrupt politicians and the law of the jungle, survival of the wiliest. It is this raw, unscrupulous world of crime and vengeance that Martin Scorsese captures so graphically in a monumental masterpiece called Gangs of New York.

Five Points is the teeming corner of the city known to New Yorkers of long ago as the centre of vice and chaos. And into this frontier of extreme lawlessness enters young Irish American Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo di Caprio). Amsterdam is the orphaned son of slain priest Vallon (Brendam Neesam) and is out to hunt down his father’s killer William Cutting a.k.a. "Bill the Butcher" (Daniel Day-Lewis), who has since become the ruthless new leader of the neighbourhood, a nativist who fiercely detests the newly-arrived immigrants, especially the Irish.

"The appearance of the law must be upheld, especially when it is being broken," says one of the politicians who is an expert in the balancing act between the warring groups. There are 37 private fire brigades and they all fight each other. Looting is a lucrative business and pickpockets just thrive. One of them, however, Jenny Everdeance (Cameron Diaz) has the hots for Amsterdam and later on a triangle of sorts develops with Bill the Butcher providing the third side.

"Fear keeps the alive," says the Butcher, who believes that attack is the best form of defence. "Each of the Five Points is a finger and when I close my hand it becomes a fist," he elucidates. The first street fight in which priest Ballon is killed is all blood and gore and there is more to follow but they are punctuated with psychological undertones.

The build-up in the Butcher-Amsterdam relationship is succinctly handled, each of them controlling their real feelings. There re other raw, earthy characters like Happy Jack (John C. Reilly) and Shang (Stephen Greeley) who all are given scope to display their physical skills. But it is an imaginative screenplay by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Longergan that endows the dry bones of history with flesh and blood.

Director Martin Scorsese, whose had this project in mind for over three decades and is the master of the New York milieu, has done extensive research but rightly refrains from overstating his case. The ambience is very natural and though the film is shot in Italy, it seems very much like Old New York.But it is Daniel Day-Lewis who steals the show as the complex, enigmatic but cold-blooded killer and leaves top billing Leonardo Di Caprio way behind despite an impressive performance. Cameron Diaz as the spunky female quotient has her moments. What comes across loud and clear is man’s instinct for survival. It also shows that violence only begets more violence and that in gang warfare there are no winners.

When one of the characters moans "Civilisation is crumbling", it is clearly an understatement. But despite the over two-hour duration, ‘Gangs of New York’ is at no time even remotely boring.

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