Thursday, June 30, 2005

Gangs of New York

Tonight was a 2-DVD movie from Netflix:  Gangs of New York (2002), directed by Martin Scorsese, staring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly.



With that cast you'd think it would be a wonderful movie.  I didn't like it.  It was too bloody (thank you Mr. Scorsese).  The acting was terrific, but it was too bloody.  At one point Leonardo is literally sprayed with another man's blood.  Eeeewww.



I wonder if the history shown in the movie is real?  The movie says that during the Civil War thousands of Irishmen were sent to fight in the Union Army straight off the boat.  And there were riots in the streets of New York protesting the first federal draft in the USA.  Black men were strung up from lamp posts in New York City as a protest against being drafted into an army to save black people from slavery.



The movie paints a very dark picture of that time in NYC.  Even though I didn't like it, and wouldn't recommend it, I'd give it an A-.



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