What a perfect time to pick the March Recommendation with the 20th Anniversary release of Martin Scorsese's period epic Gangs of New York, for which when I realized that the film came out in 2002 I was like well I have to recommend this movie in the month of March as well as St. Patrick's Day. This was the first of much collaboration with Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, though this was one of the two movies that defined DiCaprio as an actor. But deep down the real actor that took this movie and stole the movie like it was the perfect crime was the great Daniel Day-Lewis as Bill the Butcher, but will get to him later. I will say this now, and granted that this is kind of off topic in some ways, but I will put my foot down and state that this is a far superior story than West Side Story just saying because in all honesty I'm trying to throw more jabs at Steven Spielberg sorry not sorry.
Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish Immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge against his father’s killer, William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Amsterdam's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people in 1860's New York.
I would argue that this would most defiantly be in Scorsese's top ten best films I don't think top five but it’s a close in the range of top ten best when it comes to Scorsese's work. Sure this film follows the same story format in past Scorsese films but what I like about this film is that it focuses more on two men's goals of making 19th century New York in their own image when in doubt it's still much of a lost cause. To be honest, if there was ever a time when Mr. Scorsese was ever going to make a period piece, he sure picked the perfect story to make a movie out of it. What’s also great about the movie was that Martin wanted to make this film a long time, since the mid 1970's unfortunately there were a lot of bumps in the road to get to that point and oddly enough he finally made this movie happen. And the other thing about what makes this film still amazing to watch is that it’s one of those films that not even your school teachers would teach you, sure they teach you all there was to know about the Civil War and that North was against slavery and South was all for it, but they never teach you about some of the minor historic elements for example of how worse 19th century New York was and that it wasn't a great place to live in furthermore you had to really survive in that living environment and Scorsese does a fantastic job showing you the entire curl world of the Five Points. If there was any sense of getting you pumped up for a movie like this, the opening battle sequence was hands down the best opening to a battle sequence I've ever seen especially when you have two great actors out of Liam Neeson and Daniel Day-Lewis waging war against each other and both men screaming at the top of their longs and charging at each other. All right now I can't hold it in anymore, we're now going to go ahead and talk about the real hero that is responsible for making this film amazing and that's the king of actors, Daniel Day-Lewis, what's really sad now is that most people don't know a whole lot when it comes to Daniel Day-Lewis and in all honesty if I had the best way to describe him is that he's a modern day Marlon Brando but without the ego, for example he's very picky when it comes to finding a role and he doesn't have the famous actor life he's really all about finding the right role and then taking enough days to break away from the roles he chooses because when it comes to him, he's a very devoted actor when it comes to the character and that he won't just act he will transform himself into that character and speaking in truth if you want more example's Gangs of New York is a great one but also There will be Blood is another great example when it comes to his acting chops. Yes, Day-Lewis is in a supporting role but he's really the greatness behind this film, he is so mesmerizing to watch on film that you can't look away and there's a scene where he beats Leo to a bloody pulp he head butts him so many times that I'm confident that he literally did that. Sure Leonardo DiCaprio was around at a young age and was a heartthrob in the late 90's but I believe 2002 was a great year for him, moreover was his climb to fame in becoming a serious actor and sure his accent I'll admit was a bit off to me but I didn't care all that much because of the supporting cast he was surrounded by also Brendan Gleeson who plays Leo's mentor was in the movie so he could of at least spend numerous time with him so he can improve it more. Now when it comes to Cameron Diaz, all I can say is that this is the only movie I can point at in her filmography and say that this was her best movie. Brendan Gleeson was another actor I thought was amazing in the movie in that of all the members in Liam Neeson's gang he was the one who really showed DiCaprio's character in what it means to make a way for the Irish Immigrants that were coming to America at that time. Now I will argue with any Musical fanatic and say that this was a much better story than West Side Story for one good example is that it didn't borrow any story elements from William Shakespeare and that it was focusing more on the topics at hand then re-using story elements from Romeo and Juliet, so in case you're all looking for a movie to watch about rival Gangs pick a movie like this one that really has a much better story than a musical. Now if you're ever interested in looking into Daniel Day-Lewis's filmography I would highly recommend watching Gangs of New York and there will be Blood. Other than that I would highly recommend watching this great period epic on St. Patrick's Day, so to everyone I'd say Happy St. Patty's Day, drive safe and make good choices.
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