Gang Fantasy

The cinema is supposed to dramatise the story and make it more appealing, but in the case of Martin Scorsese's blockbuster Gangs of New York it was the real thing the film was based on that got the better of me. Revolving around the gang rivalry in NYC in the mid-19th century and starring a stunning cast, Gangs couldn't avoid all the trappings of the Hollywood production that made it unbearibly oversimplified, sentimental and geared towards fantasy, rather than a historical film. There's no denying a great deal of care has been applied to recreating settings, costumes, accents and political circumstances of the time, but it may still strike the audience as slightly overdone, sanitized, out of touch with its harsh historic realities. Not even a string of A-list actors from both sides of the Atlantic could save the semblance of watching a well-documented piece of history, rather than another mediocre action film.

Unsatisfied by the feature, I turned to DVD extras and found what I wanted - commentary by historians, interviews and a Discovery Channel documentary on the Five Points, the street intersection in Manhattan where most of the film takes place and the notorious place over which the gangs fight. All these add-ons nicely interplay with the content of the drama, shedding more light on historical figures that dominate the screen, especially one of the most corrupted politicians in the history of American politics William Tweed, who led Tammany Hall, as well as on wider social events that seem to get washed out in the strongly personalised story of the film. You can't possibly hold it against a Hollywood production that it resorted to this kind of techniques for cinematic effect, but the commentary on Draft Riots and the imapact of the American Civil War rightly put the whole gang rivalry in perspective.

Gangs of New York, inspired by Herbet Ashbury's novel, deserve respect for venturing to portray a forgotten piece of American urban history, enriching our picture of how the American identity was forged in its early stages. On top of that, it deserves respect for inspiring the audience to discover more about the issue which seems to focus much of what America is about.

Language to retain:
1. a keepsake = a memento,
3. Frenchify means to become more and more French-like, but it referred to suffering from venerial diseases, too,
5. a fire hydrant = a fire plug,
7. rickety buildings,
9. Irish confetti = stones thrown at windows or in a fight,
11. sneak peaks from the film
13. the ordered life of the 20th century,
15. to set the pattern for,
17. Tweed: The first rule of democracy: The ballots don't make the results, accountans do. Keep counting.
19. Tweed: The appearance of the law must be upheld, especially while it's being broken.