tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post5089259840371306705..comments2024-03-28T02:30:08.913-04:00Comments on Not Just Movies: Gangs of New YorkJakehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-28093473570902520852010-04-01T07:52:52.130-04:002010-04-01T07:52:52.130-04:00Great post! In general sense, wasn't too keen ...Great post! In general sense, wasn't too keen on Gangs of New York, which is a pity, because I love practically everything Scorsese does. It was a bit "oirish" for my taste I think!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-28731855254934154322010-03-30T20:11:27.760-04:002010-03-30T20:11:27.760-04:00Sam: I'm not sure which of DDL's performan...Sam: I'm not sure which of DDL's performances I prefer. I just meant to point out that so many people just accepted Daniel Plainview as a "better" version of Bill simply because they're both ruthless and have kind of similar voices when they yell (?). I think they make for great foils: Bill being, despite "owning" the city, a down-to-earth mover and shaker, while Daniel pulls the strings from afar and drives people down through business.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-12464529490793759352010-03-30T18:44:29.673-04:002010-03-30T18:44:29.673-04:00"Day-Lewis' performance here has been ecl..."Day-Lewis' performance here has been eclipsed by his remarkable (is he ever anything less?) turn in There Will Be Blood..."<br /><br />You know what Jake? I prefer his theatrical performance in GANGS OF NEW YORK even more, but I guess it all comes down to taste. Granted there were two titanic portrayals, though I am not the deciple for THERE WILL BE BLOOD that many others are. But GANGS has rightfully been favorably reassessed the last several years, as around the time of its release it was castigated by some movie buffs as inferior Scorsese, when in actuality it is anything but.<br /><br />Yes you are quite right in calling this story "Shakespearean," and I'd add it's operatic and viseral (I think you used that word too) and it chronicles destruction from inside and out. Interesting that you compare it with LIBERT VALANCE too.<br /><br />Great writing here! I love the description of Bill:<br /><br />"Like the film, Bill is visually outlandish, absurd even. He routinely sports a red coat as if in a Nicholas Ray period piece, complete with pants that manage to be even longer than Day-Lewis' lanky frame can allow. It's the sort of get-up that sticks out even in a period picture: here is a man who doesn't need to care what others think. It's funny, then, that Bill should reflect Scorsese's aesthetic, given the issues he suffered, even as a universally acknowledge master, at Miramax's hand."<br /><br />Down the road this may well be seen as one of Marty's greatest films. It's not inconceivable at all.Sam Julianonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-36789451770755966962010-03-29T11:12:42.939-04:002010-03-29T11:12:42.939-04:00I danced around that explanation myself, Doniphon,...I danced around that explanation myself, Doniphon, but when I read it back to myself before posting I'd phrased it with so many contradictions and halting commitments that I just deleted it.<br /><br />Your comment about Scorsese pointing out the hate and bile in the North is right on. It's refreshing to see someone depict a historical era centered on a power normally regarded as good with such frankness and honesty. Isn't it interesting that the sets are so masterfully recreated, and part of the reason that they're so striking is that he builds a society that's already decaying? The buildings are crumbling and rotting, just like everyone in the old New York.<br /><br />Thanks as ever for stopping by.Jakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09078001374402400232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-494160638739613756.post-69379962822553232392010-03-29T10:19:53.144-04:002010-03-29T10:19:53.144-04:00Hey Jake, I figured it'd be better to respond ...Hey Jake, I figured it'd be better to respond to your comment over here. Have you seen The Ballad Of Jack And Rose? It's the movie Day-Lewis made between Gangs Of New York and There Will Be Blood (and also stars Paul Dano, perhaps not coincidentally). It was directed by his wife Rebecca Miller (the daughter of Arthur), and it's flawed in pretty serious ways (too much psychologizing and too many revelations, which I guess is to be expected, being who her father is). But it's also very interesting and frequently moving, and Day-Lewis' performance is key to understanding what he does. He's still larger-than-life in it, but in a smaller, quieter way, and it's the film in which it becomes clear just how much work he puts into his performances (and I will say this; Plainview was a severely underwritten character, and I think Day-Lewis' acting did far more to save that movie than anything Anderson did).<br /><br />I think you're right to point out NYC resembles a confederate city at the end; and the civil war does factor into it because of the account of it that is being presented to its inhabitants. That is, you must fight for your country, we must preserve the union. But for a lot of its inhabitants they have no conception of country; they're New Yorkers, and they're going to fight for that. And something else is going on here too. Then and especially now, history has been presented so the Northerners were the democratic liberators and the Southerners were racist degenerates, which is complete bullshit. The idea that total war is any less morally horrifying than a system of slavery is insane, and reconstruction revealed how little the Union actually cared about the South (a professor I knew once described sharecropping as "slavery without health benefits," and while I don't completely agree, he has a point). The New Yorkers are being presented with this narrative that they care about black people and are saving them because they want to, when in reality they're just as prejudiced as the Confederates. So the Draft Riots become a horrifying, violent rejection of the role they've been assigned by the U.S. government.Doniphonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02407443845368110678noreply@blogger.com