Gangs of New York (2002)

I love Martin Scorsese films.  Most of his films, that is. Ever since I saw RAGING BULL (1980) Scorsese's biopic about boxer Jake LaMotta, I've been captivated by Scorsese's filmmaking style.  The way he moves the camera in his films.  The editing and pace of his films. The staccato bursts of violence in his films. So you would think a big Martin Scorsese fan like me would have rushed out to see GANGS OF NEW YORK (2002), right?  Wrong. For some reason, I was turned off by the period of the film.  The gangs that I enjoyed Scorsese showing me in GOOD FELLAS (1990) were from the 1950's and 60's. Why did I want to see gangs from the mid-19th century with mutton chop sideburns and handle bar moustaches?  I think I may have had bad dreams of Scorsese's previous period film THE AGE OF INNOCENCE (1993) that was too slow and Victorian for my liking. But I have my son Chris to thank for giving me a second chance on GANGS OF NEW YORK.  He had seen it on TV and liked it and recommended I watch it.  It's funny because I keep trying to get him to watch GOOD FELLAS. He still hasn't.

GANGS OF NEW YORK, although a work of fiction, is also an interesting history lesson about a real place and period of time in New York that may not be well known to most people. It's about the birth of New York City during the turbulent period around the Civil War when various ethnic groups were wrestling for control of the city in a time of lawlessness. GANGS is Scorsese's attempt at a Spielberg type epic with maybe a touch of Sergio Leone. GANGS was a pet project of Scorsese's and who better to make a historical film about New York City than one of its greatest New York born directors.

GANGS OF NEW YORK begins with a bang in 1846 on a cold day in the Five Points section of lower Manhattan. A battle is about to be waged between a gang of Irish immigrants known as the Dead Rabbits led by the noble "Priest" Vallon (Liam Neeson) against another gang known as the Natives led by the charismatic but vicious Bill "the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis). Known as the Battle of the Five Points, the fight is savage and brutal and Priest is killed by Bill.  Priest's young son witnesses his father's death and the boy is whisked away to a reform school with the hope he'll forget the events of that day.

The film jumps ahead sixteen years to 1862 as Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio), the young boy who witnessed his father's death, is released from Hellgate School of Reform. Amsterdam returns to Five Points just as thousands of Irish and Germans are streaming into New York City ports every day. On a grander scale, the Civil War and its effect on the young United States begins to permeate the city. New York City is run by the corrupt but affable William "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent) and his Tammany political party but the Five Points is controlled by Bill the Butcher and his gang of Natives. Amsterdam Vallon has returned to Five Points with vengeance on his mind, revenge against Bill Cutting, the man who killed his father Priest. Amsterdam hooks up with childhood friend Johnny Sirocco (Henry Thomas) and the two of them begin working for Bill's gang, stealing from burning houses and even selling dead bodies to medical schools with Bill getting a cut of their share. A beautiful Irish pickpocket Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz) also captures the hearts of both young men but she has ties to Bill too.

As young Vallon begins to plot his revenge against Bill, Bill takes Amsterdam under his wing.  Bill doesn't know Amsterdam's true identity. Vallon begins to fall under the spell of his father's killer as Bill becomes a father figure to Amsterdam, showing him how to rule and protect their tribes (people) while still having their hands in every type of vice. Amsterdam even saves Bill's life from a would-be assassin. But when Bill confides to Amsterdam his respect for the dead Priest, young Vallon is refocused to kill the Butcher. Jenny has taken a liking to Vallon over Johnny and in a moment of jealousy, Johnny reveals Amsterdam's true identity to Bill.  When Vallon tries to kill Bill on the anniversary of the Battle of Five Points, Bill and his gang are ready. Bill scars Amsterdam but allows him to live, casting him out of his gang.

Jenny helps Vallon recuperate and one of Priest's former fighting comrades Hank "Monk" McGinn (Brendan Gleeson) gives him a memento from his father - his razor.  Vallon resurrects the Dead Rabbits gang and aligns himself with Boss Tweed who has grown weary of Bill's bloody and unpopular antics.  Meanwhile, the city becomes a dynamite keg ready to explode as the poor and destitute protest the rich living the high life while the poor are drafted to fight in the Civil War.  When Bill commits an outrageous murder, Vallon and the Dead Rabbits challenge Bill and the Natives to another fight.  But this time, the civil unrest in Manhattan boils over into this battle as the Navy fires upon the Five Points and a mob riots for four days in New York.

Scorsese is at his best when he and long time editor and collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker use narration and editing to express lots of expository information quickly to the audience. Whether it be explaining how the mob operations worked in GOOD FELLAS or how Las Vegas casinos do things in CASINO (1995), Scorsese and Schoomaker are the masters of exposition. In GANGS, there is a nice one to two minute sequence where young Vallon describes the various gangs in New York (the Bowery Boys, the Swamp Angels, the Plug Uglies, the Forty Thieves) and the different ways the gangs steal and plunder. In a short amount of time, we know more about the people living and working in Five Points then we did before.

Historical detail is vital to GANGS OF NEW YORK and the hair, costume, and production design are woven seamlessly into the film taking the audience completely to another time. Production Designer Dante Ferretti recreated the Five Points district on the Cinecitta Studios lot in Rome and the buildings and cobblestone streets and even ships are amazingly accurate. The three screenwriters  - Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian, and Kenneth Longeran weave many historical facts into this rich story. New York City had no city fire department but instead competing fire brigades usually led by rival gangs or political groups who would more often fight each other before trying to save a burning building together. Boss Tweed and Bill Cutting are based on real life people.

GANGS uses the Dead Rabbits/Natives quarrel as a continuation of the Catholic versus Protestant conflict that many Irish thought they were escaping when they came to America.  As Monk McGinn says, "We never expected it to follow us here. It didn't. It was waiting for us when we landed." Bill's Native Americans are the people who fought to establish America and democracy and now they don't like sharing their food or jobs with the onslaught of new immigrants. But it's also a foreshadowing of what still exists today with Bill the Butcher and his gang representing those who want to keep immigrants out and Amsterdam Vallon and his gang symbolizing other voices who seem more compassionate toward different cultures. Even the Civil War subplot with the poor and newly arrived immigrants being conscripted into the Union army to be shipped off and fight while the sons of the wealthy stay home will be revisited during the Vietnam War.

Scorsese builds up so much momentum in the first half of GANGS that the film loses a bit of steam when Amsterdam tries to kill the Butcher (who's trade in the film is that of a meat butcher).  Bill is such an interesting character that we almost don't want Amsterdam to try to kill him and it's anti-climactic when he does.  Like many Scorsese films such as TAXI DRIVER (1976) or THE DEPARTED (2006) , GANGS OF NEW YORK builds to a bloody and violent finale. Surprisingly, the film's opening battle which I expected to be very gory with everyone carrying axes and knives is shot and edited with very little gratuitous blood. But the final confrontation between young Vallon and Bill is less than spectacular as their battle gets caught up in the bigger riot inflaming New York. Vallon and Bill's personal war gets lost in the dust and smoke. Perhaps Scorsese didn't want to repeat the same battle like in the opening but he loses some of the drama in Amsterdam and Bill's final conflict.

Leonardo DiCaprio has become Scorsese's new favorite lion (having made four films now with Scorsese) replacing Robert DeNiro who had made eight films with Scorsese. GANGS was their first collaboration and DiCaprio is strong enough to handle the different emotional levels needed to play the vengeful son Amsterdam. Daniel Day Lewis as Bill gives another powerhouse performance.  Bill the Butcher is almost the devil incarnate and in one scene as Bill headbutts Amsterdam repeatedly in the head, Bill's face covered in blood with his black beard and eyebrows, he looks like the devil effigy hanging outside of his Satan's Garden establishment.

Cameron Diaz gives a nice, low-key performance as Jenny Everdeane. It's nice to see Diaz in a strong dramatic role. Like Sharon Stone in CASINO, Scorsese's casting choice of Diaz who had previously done romantic comedies is inspired and she rewards him with a nice performance.  GANGS supporting cast is exemplary as well. Brendan Gleeson as Walter "Monk" McGinn, John C. Reilly as Happy Jack Mulraney, and Gary Lewis as McGloin are all fantastic as former Dead Rabbit members who have chosen different paths and alliances in those 16 years since the first Five Points Battle. And Jim Broadbent as Boss Tweed wields more power with his tongue and political savvy then any axe or club. "The appearance of law must be upheld, especially when it's being broken," Boss Tweed says. Broadbent's Boss gets many of the best lines in the film.

I was completely swept up in the story GANGS OF NEW YORK had to tell. It's not a typical Martin Scorsese film, more epic in scope than some of his more personal New York stories but it has many of the familiar themes and visual motifs Martin Scorsese fans will recognize.

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

A Greatest Films book I own (it's title and current location escape me at the moment) had listed director Howard Hawks film ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS (1939) starring Cary Grant and Jean Arthur as one of the 100 top films of all times.  I had tried to watch the film a few years ago and just couldn't get into it but when it came on a few months ago on Turner Movie Classics, this CrazyFilmGuy (shameless plug) had to give it another chance.

ANGELS is about a group of pilots flying dangerous postal routes in South America.  Personally, I am not fond of flying.  One could say I have a slight fear of flying. A friend of mine named Heinz took flying lessons several years ago. He kept asking my wife and I to go flying with him.  For awhile, I kept making up excuses, but I knew to conquer my fear of flying in small planes and to maintain my friendship, we would have to go flying with him.  We did.  And it was a beautiful flight, safe and relaxing.  Heinz did a great job flying.  He's now a commercial airline pilot.  And I have only flown in a small plane one other time since.  I guess I haven't quite gotten over my fear of flying.

ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS takes place in the port city of Barranca, South America.  A boat arrives unloading bananas and passengers including Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur), an American on her way back to the U.S. She disembarks to stretch her legs and meets up with two ex-patriate pilots Les Peters (Allyn Joslyn) and Joe Souther (Noah Beery, Jr). They take her back to a bar/hotel owned by Dutchy (Sig Rumann), the local postmaster and hotel proprietor, for a drink.  Bonnie is introduced to their boss Geoff Carter (Cary Grant) who runs the small airline Barranca Airways that delivers mail, food, and even nitroglycerin over dangerous mountain passes to desolate mining camps.  The danger these pilots endure becomes apparent very quickly when Carter sends Joe off to make his mail delivery in some bad fog.  Forced to turn around, Joe clips some trees trying to land and dies in a plane crash, bringing a pall over the previously giddy group.

Such is life as a postal pilot in Barranca. They drink, gamble, fight, and chase girls because they never know when their time may be up. Bonnie learns that a pilot's life is but a short memory.  She blames Carter for sending Joe out in dangerous conditions. Carter blames Bonnie for distracting Joe.  Carter and Bonnie are the same double-sided coin that Carter's best friend and pilot Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell) carries around. Both have been wounded by the opposite sex.  Naturally, they're going to fall in love. When Bonnie asks the Kid what Carter's like, the Kid says, "He's a good guy for gals to stay away from."  Spoken like a true friend.

But things get complicated when a new pilot named Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess) arrives on the next boat. Bat's a disgraced flyer who once bailed out of a plane that killed Kid's mechanic brother.  Bat's also married to Carter's ex-wife Judy (Rita Hayworth). None of the pilots want anything to do with Bat but when Les breaks his arm and the Kid gets grounded by Carter for poor vision, Bat is the only pilot available to fly some risky missions to help keep the airline from going broke.

Carter keeps pushing the envelope, trying to get the mail out twice a week for six months in order to win a new mail contract for Dutchy and a new subsidy to purchase better planes. Time is running out. Carter and the Kid prepare to make the final flight that will keep their business afloat but Bonnie accidentally shoots Carter in the shoulder during an argument. It's up to Bat to step up again, this time flying with the man who's brother died because of Bat, the man who despises him: the nearly blind Kid Dabb.

Director Howard Hawks may be one of the best directors that people don't know. Like Alfred Hitchcock, the name Howard Hawks just sounds like a movie director. Hawks moved effortlessly between film genres and almost every one he made became a classic.  Whether it be a screwball comedy like BRINGING UP BABY (1938) or a film noir mystery like THE BIG SLEEP (1946) or a western such as RED RIVER (1948) or even a musical like GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953), Hawks could do it all. Only Michael Curtiz comes to mind as another director who could make a good film in any genre. ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is one of Hawks few straight-forward adventure films but it contains many Hawks themes that he would repeat throughout his career.

The first Hawks theme is a group of men who live by a code of honor.  The pilots revere Geoff and the Dutchman for their loyalty to them. Their honest with each other, a brotherhood, and not even a good woman can break them apart. None of the pilots want to be around the disgraced Bat but when Bat's wife Judy wants to know why no one will hire her husband, the pilots stick together and protect Bat's image with his wife. Bat had broken that code by jumping out of a plane he was piloting causing another man's death but through the course of the film, he's given another chance to redeem his honor. Although Cary Grant is the star of the film, the real focus is on Bat's fall and and subsequent redemption.

ONLY ANGELS has the tough, wise-cracking female lead, sometimes known as a "Hawksian woman." She can drink and shoot and talk back and play a mean piano just as good as the men can. In ANGLES, Jean Arthur plays that archetype, but you'll find the strong Hawksian female leads in other Hawks films like Katherine Hepburn in BRINGING UP BABY or Lauren Bacall in TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1945). They're almost like one of the boys, only better looking.

 The last Hawks theme that emerges in ANGELS is giving a down on his luck or disgraced character a second chance. In RIO BRAVO (1959), it's the drunken gunslinger Dean Martin overcoming his demons to fight the bad guys. In EL DORADO (1967), it's drunk sheriff Robert Mitchum who John Wayne forces to sober up to defeat some cattle rustlers.  Bat MacPherson is that character in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS.  Bat can't get a job in the states.  The other pilots treat him like a pariah. But Carter gives him a second chance when no one else would. When Bat and the Kid have to turn back on their flight and the plane's engines are on fire, the Kid tells Bat to jump out.  But this time, Bat stays in the plane and lands back at the airport, saving the Kid and his honor.

One of the strengths of ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is the supporting cast.  Thomas Mitchell who plays Kid Dabb was great at playing tragic, flawed characters.  Mitchell would have an incredible string of supporting roles in a short period of time including John Ford's STAGECOACH (1939), Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939), Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND (1939), and Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) to name a few.  And film fans will recognize the accent of German actor Sig Rumann who plays Dutchy in ANGELS. Rumann starred in Billy  Wilder's great war film STALAG 17 (1953) as the friendly German Prison camp guard Sergeant Schulz. In ANGELS, Dutchy is the mother hen to the pilots, worrying about them during each flight.

A film about dangerous flying should have some actual flying scenes and Hawks uses some great aerial footage of these single engine planes flying precariously through and around snowcapped mountains to mix in with some obvious model plane shots.  Bat's hair-raising trip to pick up an injured miner on a cliff or Carter's testing out of a new prototype plane that stalls out provide some excellent suspenseful moments in the film and give ANGELS some needed realism.  Aviation fans will enjoy the film's depiction of the hazards of single and twin engine flying in 1939 with a spotter up in the mountain pass acting as their radar or the Kid bringing oxygen tanks into the plane and sucking on an air tube when his plane gets over sixteen thousand feet.  

Jules Furthman, one of Hawks' favorite screenwriters, provided the screenplay for ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS which was based on a real life couple that Hawks had met while scouting for a film in Mexico.  Furthman's script reminds me a lot of CASABLANCA as little moments in the film come up later to be important plot points and every character no matter how small has some importance. Hawks and Furthman take a chance killing a likable character like Joe early in the film but it sets the somewhat gallows tone that the life of a pilot was dangerous.  The film jumps easily from comedy to romance to suspense which makes it so enjoyable. Hawks and Furthman also add some nice touches like another character named Tex (Don "Red" Berry) who lives in a cabin up in the pass with his burro Napoleon and acts as the pilots radar and weatherman because back in 1939, they didn't have radar and weather satellites.

ONLY ANGELS also has some movie quotes that have worked their way into other mediums and visa versa.  "Calling Barranca, calling Barranca" which the pilots say when calling the control tower would find it's way into several Looney Tune cartoons. The Kid tells Carter that "they have no bananas" which is a quip at the song, "Yes, We Have No Bananas."  

From start to finish, ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS is a wonderful film that is exciting, romantic, and thoughtful.  Whether it makes your Top 100 films of all time remains to be seen but pick a rainy Barranca like afternoon and sit down and see what you think of this underrated treasure.