Page 220

Gangs Of New York

Movie Gangs Of New York Director Martin Scorsese Cast Leonardo diCaprio Daniel Day-Lewis Cameron Diaz

By Subhash K Jha

At a running-time of over 160 minutes Gangs Of New York, which arrives in this country a bit late in the day, serves as a ravishing and rowdy reminder of how much Epic Cinema has done for the cause of entertainment. The grandiosity of Scorsese�s New York in the closing years of the 19th century makes the crowd scenes in an average Hindi film look like a primary-school skit. The breathtaking sweep of the violent streets as the Irish community in NY brawls with one another and with outsiders, is an architectural, emotional and technical marvel. Michael Ballhaus� cinematography goes beyond brilliance, in search of a universe that subsumes both poetry and history. The performances particularly by that karmic chameleon Daniel�Day Lewis as the villain defines and defies superlatives. Snarling at fate and sharpening knives, carving his enemies into slices of meat, Lewis sends a chill up this fascinating yet flawed film�s stunning spine. DiCaprio�s subtle discontent is riveting. He expresses the anguish of a man-child better than any of his superstar-contemporaries. He plays the violence-ridden protagonist of this restless epic with an anchored rancour. This flamboyant but flimsy and finally flawed film reminds us of Martin Scorcese�s very special place in Hollywood cinema. Scorcese�s frames exude the raw saturated energy of Michaelangelo�s paintings. Understatement is certainly not his strong point. Victims of gang wars are bludgeoned, clubbed, knifed and gunned down in...well, you can�t say it�s done in cold blood! Like his earlier celebrated masterpieces like Good Fellas, Taxi Driver, Cape Fear and Mean Streets, Gangs Of New York is a hotblooded celebration of machismo. One of Hollywood�s most underrated pinup boys Leonardo diCaprio returns after Titanic to the epic format, with results that range from �fear� to fine. Scorcese�s favourite city New York, where he was born and where he now lives was celebrated earlier in the handsome mounted New York New York which harked back to the musicals of the 1940s. In Gangs Of New York, Scorcese moves much further back in time to New York�s Irish immigrant community. Flush with fear and violence, the immigrant locality is mounted far more meticulously in this film than in Scorcese�s Mean Streets, the autobiographical film about the Italian neighbourhood of NY which brought Scorcese to the forefront of Hollywood�s cinematic revolution. With Gangs Of New York Scorcese seems to have come a full circle. It�s much meaner than Mean Streets, and far too plush and passionate to tell its gripping story without stumbling over its awesome grandiosity. Fatally, there isn�t much beyond the routine vendetta saga in the way of the plot. From the opening moments when little Amsterdam (diCaprio)�s father (Liam Neeson) is slayed in full public view by the Butcher, the film follows all the conventional road-map rules of a revenge story. In true Hindi film fashion, Amsterdam returns to the neighbourhood a grown man, determined to take on the powerful foe on his own turf. Turf guys do dance, specially when the comely Cameron Diaz is around to play Jenny, a perky pickpocket who falls in love with Amsterdam...diCaprio�s sizzling mating games find Diaz in a erotically charged mood. Boy, this dame sure knows how to enjoy a love scene! The rest of the lengthy, at times tediously detailed and violent plot is dotted with characters who spew venomous vibrancy across Scorcese�s incredibly striking film. It�s not the triangular Amsterdam-Jenny-Butcher conflict, but the outer edges of the plot that confer an epic quality on Scorcese�s narration. The whole theme of minority groups in New York erupting into a sea of civil-war violence at the end is made the centifrugal force of the narrative. Really, we can�t take our eyes off the ferociously passionate frames. At any given time, the director pitches a pocket of ongoing violence both at the forefront and background of the narrative. The sequence at a live show where the Butcher exposes Amsterdam�s identity and then violates him with a carver�s precision is designed to give us sleepless nights. In trying to denigrate the cult of street mayhem Gangs Of New York often seems to celebrate violence in languorous slow-motion. We might flinch from the aggression on screen. But Scorcese doesn�t. If only his scriptwriters had paid more attention to the characters� inner lives. Scorcese�s epic vision of violence can go no further. To that extent, Gangs Of New York is a must for all Scorcese fans. So what if this deCaprio epic didn�t win awards? This Titanic refuses to sink.