Gangs of New York (2002)

Directed by Martin Scorsese.  Starring  Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Liam Neeson, John C. Reilly. Drama/Historical. Synopsis: An epic drama of the real life gangs that inhabited the Five Points area of New York City in the middle of the 19th century, focusing on the corruption in thew local political machine, the emergence of the Irish as a powerful group in the city, and the ultimate chaos and tragedy of the draft riots in 1863, still one of the deadliest civil disturbances in  U.S. history. Oscar for Best Picture. 

Took me a few years to get around to watching this one on DVD. Sorry I waited. Gangs of New York is not only a great film, but a film about a very important and relatively forgotten part of United States history. The large influx of immigrants in the 19th century made the City a hodge podge of neighborhoods, with the recently arrived-and arriving-large number of Irish immigrants living along side newly freed slaves and disapproving  "natives" (American born Protestant Anglos) in the most destitute, over crowded and filthy part of the City, called the Five Points.

And who runs the Five Points in this era of rampant corruption and before things we take for granted today (local government providing police protection, fireman, etc.) were regulated? Well, that is the big question and it was usually settled-at least on a temporary basis-by violence between the gangs. We see from the film that the gangs were not necessarily what we think of when we hear the word today, but a vital social unit that, in its own way, provided services unavailable elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, Scorsese (The Departed) pulls no punches in showing the brutal, corrupt, and criminal nature of these groups. (You've got to love a gang named "The Plug Uglies" for example)

The main character of the film is Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio The Basketball Diaries, The Aviator) a young Irishman who sees his father (Liam Neeson Kinsey) slain on the battlefield by the leader of the natives, Bill Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). Raised in an orphanage, Amesterdam returns to the Five Points as a young man to find things much as they were before...only worse as the Civil war is raging and its unpopularity is rising with the institution of the draft, disproportionately affecting poor immigrants. His identity unknown to Cutting, Amesterdam looks to make his mark in the Five Points and become what his father was.

Opportunity is there, with the corrupt Tamany Hall machine looking at the huge block of potential Irish votes as a way of permanently securing its power and patronage, much to the chagrin of the natives.

Thus, we have the fictional plot based on real life events, though Day-Lewis' character is loosely based on a real life individual, as is Jenny (Cameron Diaz Something About Mary, Any Given Sunday) . Some of the scenes depicted are simply awesome, such as New York itself, and the lines of immigrants pouring into the City, some of whom were drafted into the Union Army right off the boat.

Likewise, the scenes involving the riots, which lasted for days until put down by the Army, were incredible, with good use of a voice over with the background sound of a contemporary telegraph. I don't know for certain how many Oscar nominations this film got, but it was a lot and well deserved. You can see from this film alone why many people felt that Scorsese's subsequent Oscar win for best director should not have been his first. And, I will be brief on this point: Daniel Day-Lewis is a phenomenal actor when the mood strikes him, as it evidently did in this flick.

The special features are extensive and informative, telling you everything about the making of the film itself along with deep background on the real story of the draft riots, gangs of this time, Tamany Hall, and characters depicted in the film. Its worth the full price itself apart from the film.

I guess you could say I kinda liked it.