Gangs of New York

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Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Screenplay by
Story byJay Cocks
Based on The Gangs of New York
by Herbert Asbury
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Michael Ballhaus
Edited by Thelma Schoonmaker
Music by Howard Shore
Production
companies
Distributed byMiramax Films (United States)
Initial Entertainment Group (International) [2]
Release date
  • December 20, 2002 (2002-12-20)
Running time
167 minutes [3]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$97-100 million [4] [5]
Box office$193.8 million [5]

Gangs of New York is a 2002 American historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book The Gangs of New York . [6] The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Cameron Diaz, along with Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas, Stephen Graham, Eddie Marsan, and Brendan Gleeson in supporting roles.

Contents

The film is set in 1863, when a long-running Catholic–Protestant feud erupts into violence, just as an Irish immigrant group is protesting against the threat of conscription during the Civil War. Scorsese spent twenty years developing the project until Miramax Films acquired it in 1999. Principal photography took place in Cinecittà, Rome and Long Island City, New York City.

Gangs of New York was completed by 2001 but its release was delayed due to the September 11 attacks. The film was theatrically released in the United States on December 20, 2002, and grossed over $193 million worldwide. It was met with generally positive reviews and Day-Lewis's performance was highly acclaimed. It received ten nominations at the 75th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Scorsese and Best Actor for Day-Lewis.

Plot

In the 1846 slum of the Five Points, two rival gangs, the Anglo-Protestant Confederation of American Natives, led by William Cutting, and the Irish Catholic immigrant Dead Rabbits, led by "Priest" Vallon, engage in their final battle to determine which faction will hold sway over the territory. At the end of the battle, Bill kills Vallon and declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed. Having witnessed this, Vallon's young son hides the knife that killed his father and is taken to an orphanage on Blackwell's Island.

Sixteen years later in the year 1862, Vallon's son, "Amsterdam" returns to the Five Points seeking revenge and retrieves the knife. An old acquaintance, Johnny Sirocco, familiarizes him with the local clans of gangs, all of whom pay tribute to Bill, who remains in control of the territory. Amsterdam is introduced to Bill but keeps his past a secret as he seeks recruitment into the gang. He learns many of his father's former lieutenants are now in Bill's employ, despite his deep anti-Irish views. Each year, Bill celebrates the anniversary of his victory over the Dead Rabbits and Amsterdam secretly plans to kill him publicly during this celebration. Amsterdam soon becomes attracted to pickpocket and grifter Jenny Everdeane, with whom Johnny is also infatuated. Amsterdam gains Bill's confidence and becomes his protégé, involving him in the dealings of corrupt Tammany Hall politician William M. Tweed. Amsterdam saves Bill from an assassination attempt and is tormented by the thought that he may have done so out of honest devotion.

On the evening of the anniversary, Johnny, in a fit of jealousy over Jenny's affection for Amsterdam, reveals Amsterdam's true identity and intentions to Bill. Bill baits Amsterdam with a knife throwing act involving Jenny. As Bill toasts Priest Vallon, Amsterdam throws his knife, but Bill deflects it and wounds Amsterdam with a counter throw. Bill then beats him and burns his cheek with a hot blade before banishing him. Going into hiding, Jenny implores him to escape with her to San Francisco. Amsterdam, however, returns to the Five Points seeking vengeance and announces his return by hanging a dead rabbit in Paradise Square in front of several Irish gangs that were allied with the Dead Rabbits. Bill sends corrupt Irish policeman and former Dead Rabbit Mulraney to investigate, but Amsterdam garrotes him to death and hangs his body in the square. In retaliation, Bill has Johnny beaten and run through with a pike, leaving it to Amsterdam to end his suffering. When Amsterdam's gang beats McGloin, a former Dead Rabbit and one of Bill's lieutenants, Bill and the Natives march on the church and are met by Amsterdam and the Dead Rabbits. No violence ensues, but Bill promises to return soon. The incident garners newspaper coverage, and Amsterdam presents Tweed with a plan to defeat Bill's influence: Tweed will back the candidacy of Monk McGinn for sheriff and Amsterdam will secure the Irish vote for Tammany. Monk wins in a landslide, and a humiliated Bill murders him with his own club. McGinn's death prompts an angry Amsterdam to challenge Bill to a gang battle in Paradise Square, which Bill accepts.

The Civil War draft riots break out just as the gangs are preparing to fight, and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the rioters. As the rival gangs fight, cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square, interrupting their battle shortly before it begins. Many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire, soldiers, or rioters. Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until Bill is wounded by shrapnel. Amsterdam then uses his father's knife to kill Bill.

Amsterdam buries the knife next to his father in a cemetery in Brooklyn, erecting a makeshift headstone with the name William Cutting over it now alongside the actual tombstone of Priest Vallon. As Amsterdam and Jenny leave, the skyline changes as modern New York City is built over the next century, from the Brooklyn Bridge to the Empire State Building to the World Trade Center, and the cemetery becomes overgrown and forgotten.

Cast

Production

The country was up for grabs, and New York was a powder keg. This was the America not [of] the West with its wide open spaces, but of claustrophobia, where everyone was crushed together. On one hand, you had the first great wave of immigration, the Irish, who were Catholic, spoke Gaelic, and owed allegiance to the Vatican. On the other hand, there were the Nativists, who felt that they were the ones who had fought and bled, and died for the nation. They looked at the Irish coming off the boats and said, "What are you doing here?" It was chaos, tribal chaos. Gradually, there was a street by street, block by block, working out of democracy as people learned somehow to live together. If democracy didn't happen in New York, it wasn't going to happen anywhere.
— Martin Scorsese on how he saw the history of New York City as the battleground of the modern American democracy [7]

Martin Scorsese had grown up in Little Italy in the borough of Manhattan in New York City during the 1950s. At the time, he had noticed there were parts of his neighborhood that were much older than the rest, including tombstones from the 1810s in Old St. Patrick's Cathedral, cobblestone streets and small basements located under more recent large buildings; this sparked Scorsese's curiosity about the history of the area: "I gradually realized that the Italian-Americans weren't the first ones there, that other people had been there before us. As I began to understand this, it fascinated me. I kept wondering, how did New York look? What were the people like? How did they walk, eat, work, dress?" [7]

Development

In 1970, Scorsese came across Herbert Asbury's book The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld (1927) about the city's nineteenth-century criminal underworld and found it to be a revelation. In the portraits of the city's criminals, Scorsese saw the potential for an American epic about the battle for the modern American democracy. [7] Scorsese immediately contacted his friend Jay Cocks, a film critic for Time magazine. "Think of it like a western in outer space," Scorsese had told him. Cocks recalled they had considered Malcolm McDowell in the lead role and framing the narrative with quotations from Bruce Springsteen, but otherwise they intended to keep the period vernacular authentic. [8] At the time, Scorsese was a young director without prestige; by the end of the decade, with the success of crime films such as Mean Streets (1973), about his old neighborhood, and Taxi Driver (1976), he was a rising star. In June 1977, producer Alberto Grimaldi ran a two-page ad in Daily Variety , announcing the film's production with Scorsese set to direct. [9] [10] That same year, Scorsese and Cocks wrote the first draft, but Scorsese decided to direct Raging Bull (1980) instead. [8]

In 1979, Scorsese acquired the screen rights to Asbury's book; however, it took twenty years to get the production moving forward. Difficulties arose with reproducing the monumental cityscape of nineteenth-century New York with the style and detail Scorsese wanted; almost nothing in New York City looked as it did in that time, and filming elsewhere was not an option. [7] In 1991, Grimaldi and Scorsese resumed development on the project with Universal Pictures on a budget of $30 million. At one point, Robert De Niro was set to portray Bill the Butcher. [10] However, the studio transferred the rights to the project to Disney in 1997, whose then-chairman Joe Roth turned down the film due to its excessive violence, which was "not appropriate for a Disney-themed movie". [11] [1]

Scorsese took the film to Warner Bros., being contractually obligated to make a film for the studio; the film was however declined by Warner Bros. as well, and afterward declined similarly by 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). [9] Eventually, in 1999, Scorsese was able to find a partnership with Harvey Weinstein, noted producer and co-chairman of Miramax Films. [7] As the film had a large budget of nearly $100 million, Weinstein then sold international distribution rights to the project to Graham King's Initial Entertainment Group for about $65 million to secure the required funds. Shortly after, Touchstone Pictures joined Miramax in funding the film, in exchange for a portion of the proceeds from domestic distribution. [9] That same year, Cocks was retained by Scorsese for the screenplay adaptation, which underwent nine revised drafts. [12] However, Weinstein was not pleased with the shooting script and wanted other screenwriters brought in for more rewrites. To placate Weinstein, Scorsese called Cocks into a room and fired him. Telling The Globe and Mail , Cocks recalled the situation: "You ever been fired? It's terrible. Terrible. Even if it's a job you don't like, it pisses you off, right? Well you can extrapolate from that, exponentially." [13] Due to this, the final shooting script was not fully completed when filming began. Hossein Amini was hired and wrote the last two drafts, but he was uncredited for his work. [14] [10]

Set design

In order to create the sets that Scorsese envisioned, the production was filmed at the large Cinecittà Studio in Rome, Italy. Production designer Dante Ferretti recreated over a mile of mid-nineteenth century New York buildings, consisting of a five-block area of Lower Manhattan, including the Five Points slum, a section of the East River waterfront including two full-sized sailing ships, a thirty-building stretch of lower Broadway, a patrician mansion, and replicas of Tammany Hall, a church, a saloon, a Chinese theater, and a gambling casino. [7] For the Five Points, Ferretti recreated George Catlin's 1827 painting of the area. [7]

Rehearsals and character development

Particular attention was also paid to the speech of characters, as loyalties were often revealed by their accents. The film's voice coach, Tim Monich, resisted using a generic Irish brogue and instead focused on distinctive dialects of Ireland and Great Britain. As DiCaprio's character was born in Ireland but raised in the United States, his accent was designed to be a blend of accents typical of the half-Americanized. To develop the unique, lost accents of the Yankee "Nativists" such as Daniel Day-Lewis's character, Monich studied old poems, ballads, newspaper articles (which sometimes imitated spoken dialect as a form of humor) and the Rogue's Lexicon, a book of underworld idioms compiled by New York's police commissioner, so that his men would be able to tell what criminals were talking about. An important piece was an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word "Earth" as "Uth", and the "a" of "an" nasal and flat, like "ayan". Monich concluded that native nineteenth-century New Yorkers probably sounded something like the proverbial Brooklyn cabbie of the mid-20th century. [7]

Filming

Set of the movie at the Cinecitta Studios in Rome, Italy Decor pour Paris au XIXe siecle (Cinnecitta) (5855733721).jpg
Set of the movie at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, Italy

Principal photography began in New York and Rome on December 18, 2000, and ended on March 30, 2001. [15] Due to the strong personalities and clashing visions of director and producer, the three-year production became a story in and of itself. [7] [11] [16] [17] Scorsese strongly defended his artistic vision on issues of taste and length while Weinstein fought for a streamlined, more commercial version. During the delays, noted actors such as Robert De Niro and Willem Dafoe had to leave the production due to conflicts with their other productions. Costs overshot the original budget by 25 percent, bringing the total cost over $100 million. [11] The increased budget made the film vital to Miramax Films' short-term success. [16] [18]

Post-production and distribution

After post-production was nearly completed in 2001, the film was delayed for over a year. The official justification was after the September 11, 2001, attacks, certain elements of the picture may have made audiences uncomfortable; the film's closing shot is a view of modern-day New York City, complete with the World Trade Center's towers, despite them having been destroyed by the attacks over a year before the film's release. [19] However, this explanation was refuted in Scorsese's own contemporary statements, where he noted that the production was still filming pick-ups even into October 2002. [16] [20] The filmmakers had also considered having the towers dissolved out from the shot to acknowledge their disappearance, or remove the entire sequence altogether. It was ultimately decided to keep the towers unaltered. [21]

Weinstein kept demanding cuts to the film's length, and some of those cuts were eventually made. In December 2001, film critic Jeffrey Wells reviewed a purported workprint of the film as it existed in the fall of 2001. Wells reported the work print lacked narration, was about 20 minutes longer, and although it was "different than the [theatrical] version ... scene after scene after scene play[s] exactly the same in both." Despite the similarities, Wells found the work print to be richer and more satisfying than the theatrical version. While Scorsese has stated the theatrical version is his final cut, he reportedly "passed along [the] three-hour-plus [work print] version of Gangs on tape [to friends] and confided, 'Putting aside my contractual obligation to deliver a shorter, two-hour-and-forty-minute version to Miramax, this is the version I'm happiest with,' or words to that effect." [19]

In an interview with Roger Ebert, Scorsese clarified the real issues in the cutting of the film. Ebert notes,

His discussions with Weinstein, he said, were always about finding the length where the picture worked. When that got to the press, it was translated into fights. The movie is currently 168 minutes long, he said, and that is the right length, and that's why there won't be any director's cut — because this is the director's cut. [22]

Soundtrack

Robbie Robertson supervised the soundtrack's collection of eclectic pop, folk, and neo-classical tracks.

Historical accuracy

Scorsese received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film. In a PBS interview for the History News Network, George Washington University Professor Tyler Anbinder said that the visuals and discrimination of immigrants in the film were historically accurate, but both the amount of violence depicted and the number of Chinese, particularly female, immigrants were greater in the film than in reality. [23] [24]

Asbury's book described the Bowery Boys, Plug Uglies, True Blue Americans, Shirt Tails, and Dead Rabbits, who were named after their battle standard, a dead rabbit on a pike. [7] The book also described William Poole, the inspiration for William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting, a member of the Bowery Boys, a bare-knuckle boxer, and a leader of the Know Nothing political movement. Poole did not come from the Five Points and was assassinated nearly a decade before the Draft Riots. Both the fictional Bill and the real one had butcher shops, but Poole is not known to have killed anyone. [25] [26] The book also described other famous gangsters from the era such as Red Rocks Farrell, Slobbery Jim and Hell-Cat Maggie, who filed her front teeth to points and wore artificial brass fingernails. [7]

Anbinder said that Scorsese's recreation of the visual environment of mid-19th-century New York City and the Five Points "couldn't have been much better". [23] All sets were built completely on the exterior stages of Cinecittà Studios in Rome. [27] By 1860, New York City had 200,000 mostly Catholic Irish immigrants [28] in a population of 800,000. [29]

According to Paul S. Boyer, "The period from the 1830s to the 1850s was a time of almost continuous disorder and turbulence among the urban poor. The decade from 1834–1844 saw more than 200 major gang wars in New York City alone, and in other cities the pattern was similar." [30]

As early as 1839, Mayor Philip Hone said: "This city is infested by gangs of hardened wretches" who "patrol the streets making night hideous and insulting all who are not strong enough to defend themselves." [31] The large gang fight depicted in the film as occurring in 1846 is fictional, though there was one between the Bowery Boys and Dead Rabbits in the Five Points on July 4, 1857, which is not mentioned in the film. [32] Reviewer Vincent DiGirolamo concludes that "Gangs of New York becomes a historical epic with no change over time. The effect is to freeze ethno-cultural rivalries over the course of three decades and portray them as irrational ancestral hatreds unaltered by demographic shifts, economic cycles and political realignments." [24]

In the film, the Draft Riots of July 1863 are depicted as both destructive and violent. Records indicate the riots resulted in more than one hundred deaths, including the lynching of 11 free African-Americans. They were especially targeted by the Irish, in part because of fears of job competition that more freed slaves would cause in the city. [33] The bombardment of the city by Navy ships offshore to quell the riots is wholly fictitious. The film references the infamous Tweed Courthouse, as "Boss" Tweed refers to plans for the structure as being "modest" and "economical".[ citation needed ]

In the film, Chinese Americans were common enough in the city to have their own community and public venues. Although Chinese people migrated to America as early as the 1840s, significant Chinese migration to New York City did not begin until 1869, the time when the transcontinental railroad was completed. The Chinese theater on Pell St. was not finished until the 1890s. [34] The Old Brewery, the overcrowded tenement shown in the movie in both 1846 and 1862–63, was actually demolished in 1852. [35]

Release

The original target release date was December 21, 2001, in time for the 2001 Academy Awards but the production overshot that goal as Scorsese was still filming. [16] [20] A twenty-minute clip, billed as an "extended preview", debuted at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was shown at a star-studded event at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès with Scorsese, DiCaprio, Diaz and Weinstein in attendance. [20]

Harvey Weinstein then wanted the film to open on December 25, 2002, but a potential conflict with another film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Catch Me If You Can produced by DreamWorks, caused him to move the opening day to an earlier position. After negotiations between several parties, including the interests of DiCaprio, Weinstein and DreamWorks' Jeffrey Katzenberg, the decision was made on economic grounds: DiCaprio did not want to face a conflict of promoting two movies opening against each other; Katzenberg was able to convince Weinstein that the violence and adult material in Gangs of New York would not necessarily attract families on Christmas. Of main concern to all involved was attempting to maximize the film's opening day, an important part of film industry economics. [16]

After three years in production, the film was released on December 20, 2002, a year after its original planned release date. [20] While the film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray, there are no plans to revisit the theatrical cut or prepare a "director's cut" for home video release. "Marty doesn't believe in that", editor Thelma Schoonmaker stated. "He believes in showing only the finished film." [19]

Gangs of New York was released on VHS and a 2-disc DVD July 1, 2003, the film was split on both discs. A Blu-ray version of the film was released July 1, 2008.[ citation needed ]

Reception

Box office

The film made $77,812,000 in Canada and the United States. It also took $23,763,699 in Japan and $16,358,580 in the United Kingdom. Worldwide the film grossed a total of $193,772,504. [5]

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 72% based on 214 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance." [36] Metacritic gave the film a score of 72 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. [38]

Roger Ebert praised the film but believed it fell short of Scorsese's best work, while his At the Movies co-host Richard Roeper called it a "masterpiece" and declared it a leading contender for Best Picture. [39] Paul Clinton of CNN called the film "a grand American epic". [40] In Variety , Todd McCarthy wrote that the film "falls somewhat short of great film status, but is still a richly impressive and densely realized work that bracingly opens the eye and mind to untaught aspects of American history." McCarthy singled out the meticulous attention to historical detail and production design for particular praise. [41]

Some critics were disappointed with the film, with one review on CinemaBlend feeling it was overly violent with few characters worth caring about. [42] Norman Berdichevsky of the New English Review wrote in a negative critique that some locals in Spain who had watched Gangs of New York had several anti-American beliefs "confirmed" afterwards, which he felt was due to the film's gratuitous violence, historical inaccuracies, and general depiction of American society "in the worst possible light". [43] Others felt[ vague ] it tried to tackle too many themes without saying anything unique about them, and that the overall story was weak. [44]

Cameron Diaz's divisive performance as Irish immigrant pickpocket Jenny Everdeane has been cited as an example of poor casting and one of the worst Irish accents in film. [45]

Top ten lists

Gangs of New York was listed on many critics' top ten lists of 2002. [46]

Accolades

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s)ResultRef.
Academy Awards March 23, 2003 Best Picture Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey Weinstein Nominated [49]
Best Director Martin Scorsese Nominated
Best Actor Daniel Day-Lewis Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan Nominated
Best Art Direction Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo Nominated
Best Cinematography Michael Ballhaus Nominated
Best Costume Design Sandy Powell Nominated
Best Film Editing Thelma Schoonmaker Nominated
Best Original Song Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
For the song "The Hands That Built America"		Nominated
Best Sound Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty and Ivan Sharrock Nominated
British Academy Film Awards February 23, 2003 Best Film Alberto Grimaldi and Harvey WeinsteinNominated [50]
Best Direction Martin ScorseseNominated
Best Actor in a Leading Role Daniel Day-LewisWon
Best Original Screenplay Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth LonerganNominated
Best Cinematography Michael BallhausNominated
Best Film Music Howard Shore Nominated
Best Editing Thelma SchoonmakerNominated
Best Sound Tom Fleischman, Ivan Sharrock, Eugene Gearty, and Philip Stockton Nominated
Best Production Design Dante FerrettiNominated
Best Costume Design Sandy PowellNominated
Best Makeup Manlio Rocchetti and Aldo Signoretti Nominated
Best Special Visual Effects R. Bruce Steinheimer, Michael Owens, Ed Hirsh, and Jon AlexanderNominated
Chicago Film Critics Association January 8, 2003 Best Director Martin ScorseseNominated [51]
Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon
Best Cinematography Michael BallhausNominated
Critics' Choice Movie Awards January 17, 2003 Best Picture Nominated [52]
Best Director Martin ScorseseNominated
Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon
Directors Guild of America March 1, 2003 Best Director – Feature Film Martin ScorseseNominated [53]
Empire Awards February 4, 2004 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisNominated [54] [55]
Scene of the Year The flag speechNominated
Florida Film Critics Circle Awards January 3, 2003 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon [56]
Best Director Martin ScorseseWon
Golden Globe Awards January 19, 2003 Best Motion Picture – Drama Nominated [57]
Best Director Martin ScorseseWon
Best Actor– Motion Picture Drama Daniel Day-LewisNominated
Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture Cameron Diaz Nominated
Best Original Song Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen
For the song "The Hands That Built America"		Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association December 15, 2002 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon [58]
Best Production Design Dante FerrettiWon
New York Film Critics Circle January 12, 2003 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon [59]
Online Film Critics Society Awards January 6, 2003 Top 10 films5th place [60]
Best Director Martin ScorseseNominated
Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon
Best Cinematography Michael BallhausNominated
Best Ensemble Nominated
Best Art Direction Dante FerrettiNominated
Best Costume Design Sandy PowellNominated
Best Sound Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan SharrockNominated
San Diego Film Critics Society Awards December 20, 2002 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon
Satellite Awards January 12, 2003 Best Actor - Drama Won [61]
Best Art Direction Dante FerrettiWon
Best Costume Design Sandy PowellNominated
Best Cinematography Michael BallhausNominated
Best Editing Thelma SchoonmakerWon
Best Sound Tom Fleischman, Eugene Gearty, Ivan SharrockNominated
Best Visual Effects Nominated
Screen Actors Guild Award March 9, 2003 Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon [62]
Vancouver Film Critics Circle January 30, 2002 Best Film January 30, 2003 Nominated [63]
Best Director Martin ScorseseNominated
Best Actor Daniel Day-LewisWon
Visual Effects Society Awards February 19, 2003 Best Supporting Visual Effects Michael Owens, Camille Geier, Edward Hirsh and Jon AlexanderNominated [64]
Best Matte Painting Brett Northcutt, Ronn Brown, Mathieu Raynault, Evan PontorieroNominated
Writers Guild of America March 8, 2003 Best Original Screenplay Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth LonerganNominated [65]

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bowery Boys (gang)</span> Nineteenth century New York gang

The Bowery Boys were a nativist, anti-Catholic, and anti-Irish criminal gang based in the Bowery neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City in the early-mid-19th century. In contrast with the Irish immigrant tenement of the Five Points, the Bowery was a more prosperous working-class community. Despite its reputation as one of the most notorious street gangs of New York City at the time, the majority of the Bowery Boys led law-abiding lives for the most part. The gang was made up exclusively of volunteer firemen—though some also worked as tradesmen, mechanics, and butchers —and would fight rival fire companies over who would extinguish a fire. The Bowery Boys often battled multiple outfits of the infamous Five Points, most notably the Dead Rabbits, with whom they feuded for decades. The uniform of a Bowery Boy generally consisted of a stovepipe hat in variable condition, a red shirt, and dark trousers tucked into boots—this style paying homage to their fireman roots.

<i>The Gangs of New York</i> 1927 book by Herbert Asbury

The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld is an American non-fiction book by Herbert Asbury, first published in 1928 by Alfred A. Knopf. It was the basis for Martin Scorsese's 2002 film Gangs of New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rick Schwartz</span> American film producer

Rick Schwartz is an American film and television producer and financier based in New York, whose credits include The Departed, Black Swan, Gangs of New York, Machete, The Others, and Lip Sync Battle.

Hell-Cat Maggie was the pseudonym of an American outlaw and early member of the Dead Rabbits. She was a well-known personality in Manhattan's Five Points district and a noted fighter, her teeth reportedly filed into points and her fingers adorned with long, claw-like brass fingernails. She fought alongside the Dead Rabbits and other Five Pointers against rival nativist gangs from the Bowery, most especially the Bowery Boys, during the early 1840s. Although there is little information about her life, she is one of the earliest female outlaws of the "Gangs of New York" era and has been compared to other female outlaws such as Gallus Mag and Battle Annie, the latter leading the female auxiliary of the Gopher Gang during the 1870s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dead Rabbits riot</span> 1857 gang riot in New York City

The Dead Rabbits riot was a two-day civil disturbance in New York City evolving from what was originally a small-scale street fight between members of the Dead Rabbits and the Bowery Boys into a citywide gang war, which occurred July 4–5, 1857. Taking advantage of the disorganized state of the city's police force—brought about by the conflict between the Municipal and Metropolitan police—the fighting spiraled into widespread looting and damage of property by gangsters and other criminals from all parts of the city. It is estimated that between 800 and 1,000 gang members took part in the riots, along with several hundred others who used the disturbance to loot the Bowery area. It was the largest disturbance since the Astor Place Riot in 1849 and the biggest scene of gang violence until the New York Draft Riots of 1863. Order was restored by the New York State Militia, supported by detachments of city police, under Major-General Charles W. Sandford.

Gangs of New York is a 2002 historical film inspired by Asbury's book, directed by Martin Scorsese.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonardo DiCaprio filmography</span>

Leonardo DiCaprio is an American actor who began his career performing as a child on television. He appeared on the shows The New Lassie (1989) and Santa Barbara (1990) and also had long running roles in the comedy-drama Parenthood (1990) and the sitcom Growing Pains (1991). DiCaprio played Tobias "Toby" Wolff opposite Robert De Niro in the biographical coming-of-age drama This Boy's Life in 1993. In the same year, he had a supporting role as a developmentally disabled boy Arnie Grape in What's Eating Gilbert Grape, which earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 1995, DiCaprio played the leading roles of an American author Jim Carroll in The Basketball Diaries and the French poet Arthur Rimbaud in Total Eclipse. The following year he played Romeo Montague in the Baz Luhrmann-directed film Romeo + Juliet (1996). DiCaprio starred with Kate Winslet in the James Cameron-directed film Titanic (1997). The film became the highest grossing at the worldwide box-office, and made him famous globally. For his performance as Jack Dawson, he received the MTV Movie Award for Best Male Performance and his first nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio</span> Collaborations between the director and actor

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio are frequent collaborators in cinema, with DiCaprio appearing in six feature films and one short film made by Scorsese since 2002. The films explore a variety of genres, including historical epic, crime, thriller, biopic, comedy and western. Several have been listed on many critics' year-end top ten and best-of-decade lists.

References

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Bibliography

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