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    		•

    FILMS

    Gangs of New York (2002)
  • Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson

  • Directed by Martin Scorsese

    • Warning: From the get-go I'll be spoiling this movie. If you haven't seen it already, stop reading.

    When I was in college I took some film classes. They were easy, and I was interested. (The girls in these classes were neither, much to my disappointment.) Among the myriad student films and indy flicks I watched during my four-year romp, there are six minutes that stand out. When Martin Scorsese was a film student he made a short film called "The Big Shave." It is a simple film about a man shaving himself. Over and over. And in the process he cuts himself. And he bleeds. A lot. And he cuts himself again. And he bleeds more. His alabaster-white bathroom slowly becomes awash in blood. There's red everywhere. The pacing becomes, if I recall correctly, frenetic—until the film's conclusion where the man shaving slices his own throat. The credits thank "Viet '67," an obvious reference to the Vietnam War. This was Scorsese's protest film about the war. He used the metaphor of shaving, a process that could be construed as self-destructive (if only even a little bit) and stretched it encompass an entire war which, 30 years later, is still a sensitive subject.

    One of the motifs Scorsese likes to explore is the notion of self destruction. He crawls inside self destruction to more closely exams its guts.

    And Gangs of New York is about nothing if not about self destruction.

    The entire movie could be considered the many ways shapes and forms that we are self-destructive. Leonardo DiCaprio's character could've gone anywhere after his stay in state-run institutions, but he returns to Five Points for vengeance which has a very good chance of leading to his own demise.

    The Irish were killing themselves in Ireland so they came over here. Some of those who landed, joined the Civil War—a war against ourself—who ended up getting called to the streets of NY to quell a mob riot, whose participants appeared to be largely Irish. New Yorkers killing New Yorkers. Irish killing Irish. Americans killing Americans. Brothers killing brothers. Human vs. human in a war in the streets. See? More self destruction.

    Scorsese even imports the straight-razor from "The Big Shave" in the opening moments of Gangs of New York. It becomes a sort of holy object for DiCaprio's character. "Always leave the blood on the blade," seems to be Scorsese's wanting us to remember our self-inflicted pain, in hopes that we won't do it again. I don't think he believes we'll learn, but I think he hopes we might.

    This is a film that could've very easily devolved into Bad Guys vs. Good Guys. Having one side beat the other would make this film simply either a tragedy or film with a happy ending. But it doesn't. Two gangs fight and neither of them win. The army comes in and starts killing both sides.

    The end of this film is the ultimate in irony. We're killing ourselves in so many ways and on so many levels ... and for what? Because we have been and because we can? Because our history is bloody and violent and every moment we go forward we become a part of that history? And we, too, must shed our red drops into the buck of time? I'm not sure that Gangs of New York has an answer to warfare or self-destruction, but it does a damn good job of showing us how horrible we can be to ourselves.

    Liam Neeson is only in Gangs for a little bit, but he's incredibly memorable. Leonardo does well as the young Turk with a chip on his shoulder. I keep wanting to pigeon-hole his career into the pretty-boy-teen-crush category, but he keeps surprising me with his acting ability. Henry Thomas, our little Elliot from E.T., does a fantastic job has the betraying friend.

    But it's Daniel Day Lewis who steals the show. He chews on every scene, spits it at you, and dares you to try his patience. The best moment in all 166 minutes of Gangs is when he takes a butcher's knife, and tap-tap-taps it on his glass eye. Holy crap, was that awesome!

    >

    Gangs of New York is probably not what you'd expect. It's raw and savage and edgy and wonderful. But then, that's why it's called "Gangs" of New York and not "Ballerinas" of New York. This is a prime example of a film that has a long running-time, but isn't a long movie.

    There are a million reasons to watch this film. Some of them thematic, some of them thespian, some of them cinematic, but the only reason you need is to see Daniel Day Lewis tapping that knife on his eyeball. Great googly moogly, it's bone-chilling!