Saw ‘Gangs of New York’ over the holiday; it was a ‘boy’s night’ as my mom and TG spent Christmas Eve cleaning up the mess (to be fair, I’d cooked, and the boys had set up); and we wanted to go see something TG wouldn’t kill me for seeing without her, so picked that.
First, I’ll refer you to the post below. In keeping with the theme of the film, I’m going to go buy a Bowie knife and start bringing it to theaters; when I ask people to be quiet the third or fourth time, I’ll ostentatiously start cleaning my nails with it. I cannot believe that a bunch of middle-aged, middle-class purportedly cultured people have such a weak grasp on elementary courtesy.
Second, why do people being their six and eight-year old kids to moves that are this gratuitously violent?? And I’m not talking Jackie Chan or even ‘Matrix’ – type ‘cartoon’ violence. Any movie that has a speech by a major character about how they cut out their own eye as penance might just be a movie that the kiddies could stay home from, don’tcha think? We’ve decided that Littlest Guy (at six) is too young to see LotR yet, and I don’t think that’s a bad idea. The talkative couple in front of us (as opposed to the talkative pair of ladies to our right and the talkative couple behind us) had brought their son who looked to be LG’s age and he watched the gore with rapt fascination.
Now, the movie.
It wasn’t very good.
It wasn’t very good for three reasons: First, because it was waay too slow and self-important. Every scene seemed padded, like it had 5% of extra footage in the beginning and 10% on the end. And the sense of pace or orchestration just didn’t come across to us. Second, because the plot and theme placed too much emphasis on the stereotypical elements (will he seek revenge or accept the fatherly love of his true father’s killer?) and not enough on the more complex human ones. And finally, because the violence, unlike the violence in Goodfellas or Casino didn’t serve the story, it seemed rather like the story was there to set up the violence.
But as a window into history, it was great. I’ll note that the real 19th century gang wars were more like brawls than the medieval melees, complete with edged weapons, that this movie suggests. And from the accounts I’ve read, the Draft Riots were more narrowly focused on African Americans. But the ‘feel’ of the film for the look and presence of the streets and crowds was worth the price of admission (if you have the stomach for it).
The racism of the nativists against the immigrants…in this case the Irish…was palpable, and it was fun to watch the political horsetrading that Boss Tweed engaged in as he tried to corral the Irish vote. Someday, I’d love to see a great movie about a political boss, and about the low-level politics…of licenses, jobs, and favors, that went into it. All the King’s Men is the most recent that I can think of. I’d love to see another.
I’m ruminating on machine politics, and will try and put something together on it. Overall, I’m wondering if breaking the back of the political machines has been a totally good thing…and if in fact, we’ve really done it.
But the reason to see the movie is the imagery and language (and to a lesser degree, for Daniel Day-Lewis). There is a book…Evidence, by Luc Sante – that had the same kind of feeling of a window into the unsanitized past.
It’s also provoking further thoughts on race, which has been much discussed here and in the balance of the Blogoverse.
Now I just need to get some more time…