Commentary On The Film Gang Of New York

After seeing his father brutally murdered by the leader of the native gang, Amsterdam Vallon makes it his mission to avenge his father’s death. He comes back to the Five Points district in New York and joins an old friend, Johnny Sirocco, to learn the ropes of the area. While doing so, Vallon gains the trust of his father’s assassin, William “The Butcher” Cutting, and is taken under his wing. Young Amsterdam falls in love with the local beauty and pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, but in doing so angers Johnny and is exposed to The Butcher and everyone else. It takes time for Vallon to recover and gain a following but eventually challenges Cutting. At the last battle, both sides are surprised by the Navy bombarding them with cannons and the Army firing at them. Bill is impaled by a piece of shrapnel and Amsterdam ultimately finishes him by stabbing him with his knife.
The film focuses on mobs that had control of New York at the time with accurate historical representation. The period is the mid-19th century, 1863, just two years after the Civil War began. Abraham Lincoln was in office and had just passed the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing black slaves. Many people were against immigrants entering the country and against blacks having the same rights as them. The whole Civil War is a larger representation of smaller incidents happening all around the country. The plot deals with local gangs having control of an area, but also racism, xenophobia, and discrimination. Director Martin Scorsese is known for doing films about the American Identity, religion, and violence, so Gangs of New York was right up his alley. As a fellow New Yorker, Scorsese grew up in Queens of immigrant parents in a Catholic household, so the film touched close to