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GANGS
OF NEW YORK (Dec 2002)
Director: Martin
Scorcese.
Writers: Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan.
Starring:
Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly,
Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Eddie Marsan, Larry
Gilliard Jr., Cara Seymour, Stephen Graham.
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Daniel
Day-Poffy
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An
Army Of One - Daniel Day-Lewis.
by
Jon Dunmore © 2 Dec 2004.
There
are three reasons to watch Martin Scorcese's superlative GANGS OF NEW YORK:
Daniel.
Day.
Lewis.
Marlon
Brando as Don Vito Corleone, Al Pacino as Tony Montana, Gary Oldman as Sid Vicious,
Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday and (to wax more modern) Hugh Jackman as Wolverine:
iconic performances, one and all. Day-Lewis joins this pantheon of Actors who
made acting choices that so transformed them into these particular icons that
one is hard-pressed to see the "star" beneath the role, even in retrospect.
Over
the years, in his diversity of roles, Day-Lewis has insidiously placed himself
amongst an elite few who have the right to actually term themselves Actors in
this "excrementitious" business which has degenerated into a forum for
"movie stars" (people with correct hair and au courant fashions).
Movie's
plot is almost an afterthought, as Day-Lewis's scene-stealing is so complete that
we simply live for and unto each moment he graces us with his being. Set in the mid 1800's, against
the cyclorama of political machinations which defined New York City's cultural
eclecticism, an iron-fisted tyrant, Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (Day-Lewis) must deal with rival gangs and crooked politicians
(are there any other type?) all threatening to usurp his power over a swathe of borough
known as the Five Points.
Bill takes under his violent wing a young street thief,
Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio), not realizing that Amsterdam is the son of a former
civil leader (Liam
Neeson) whom Bill executed personally in a street battle, and who is biding his time for an opportunity to exact revenge for his
father.
Day-Lewis personifies
the age-old saw that any villain's character is infinitely more interesting than
any hero's. This movie's hero being Leo The Fluff did not help any. The only way
Fluff could ever be Hard is if he became Tim Roth. I applaud his skills – he's been doing it since he was 5 – and he's honed his
craft into that of a nascent Hollywood Legend (yet he has "miles to go before
he sleeps" on the laurels of a lip-smacking role or major award), but his
insipid chick-flickable role in TITANIC created that taste of sulfur in
my mouth (and I'm guessing in the mouths of many others who might have marveled
at his turns in BASKETBALL DIARIES and THIS BOY'S LIFE) to the point
where he must almost martyr himself to engender any real likeability. (Next summer: THE PASSION OF THE FLUFF.)
In
a film stocked with excellent actors (Brendan Gleeson, Neeson, Fluff, Jim
Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Henry Thomas – and no, Cameron Diaz, is NOT one of those excellent
actors, she's no better or worse than any of a thousand women who could've filled
the role of mob moll), Day-Lewis molds a larger-than-history persona that illustrates Acting
isn't as easy as we all think it is. We are shown – by an absolute Master
of the Craft – how it's really done: the force of will to forge this
unique embodiment of power; abrasive, ambitious, ruthless, loyal; the choices
of movement, accent, attire; each inflection, each flourish - Grand Gesture –
not a smirk out of place, not a twirl of the mustache unintentional.
It was refreshing
that the plot did not hinge on the ubiquitous device of Woman as the
focal point. Even in movies that purport explosive grandeur, original storyline is so frequently sacrificed to the age-old
struggle of acquiring a woman from a) another guy, b) another lifestyle, c) another
tax bracket. Jenny (Cameron Diaz) intimates that she is Bill's woman, yet after
she sleeps with Fluff and we see that Bill is not in the least perturbed (but
rather embraces an avuncular pleasure in knowing that his surrogate son has gotten
some), Jenny loses all her importance to the tale; we, as jaded viewers, grimace as we foresee yet another testosterone-induced stag-battle over
the meaningless mannequin of Woman – but it did not occur! – to the
movie's great credit. The revenge motif is carried to its dreaded and necessarily violent conclusion.
It lent yet another dimension to the enigma, the legend,
the inexplicable conundrum that was Bill the Butcher - that IS Daniel Day-Lewis.
Martin Scorcese directs with an iron hand, with his characteristic flair for ravenous camera angles and juxtaposing visuals with invasive music that is oft-times couter-intuitive. Even without Daniel Day-Lewis, GANGS OF NEW YORK would still be a great film, scourged from the engine-pit of misbegotten pseudo-history and sand-blasted
ocher-tinged onto the epic screen - but with Day-Lewis's incendiary performance, GANGS rightfully earns the mantle of Modern Classic.
Brings
the bile to my throat to think that while Day-Lewis has wrought such a world-shaking role as Bill the Butcher, there still exists on this stinking planet talentless drogues from MELROSE PLACE, movies such as POISON IVY II and FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART VII, and any of the twenty incarnations of POLICE ACADEMY dung heaps. In a world made better by Daniel Day-Lewis, should there
be any reason to keep Steve Guttenberg alive?
END |
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GANGS
OF NEW YORK (Dec 2002)
Director: Martin
Scorcese.
Writers: Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, Kenneth Lonergan.
Starring:
Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly,
Henry Thomas, Liam Neeson, Brendan Gleeson, Eddie Marsan, Larry
Gilliard Jr., Cara Seymour, Stephen Graham.
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