Hey folks, Harry here... After watching that High Quality Quicktime Trailer for GANGS OF NEW YORK and reading NoZeanderthal's report on the footage shown at Cannes, I'm ready. String this movie up now! I mean right now, let's go, let's put this up on screen yesterday. Here ya go...
K. Lady Luck sure has been kind these past few weeks. There was a special screening of the 20 minutes of Scorcese's Gangs of New York. Well, let me be truthful..17 minutes. I walked in late (forgiveness...please), but I still have so much to tell you. Here is a rundown, scene by scene of what I saw.
Daniel Day Lewis plays Mr. Cutter. From what I could tell, he is the man around town. Very powerful. he is also a butcher. The first scene has Cutter showing Vallon (Leo) how to kill what looked like a cow. (it was already dead)
We see Vallon standing on the street. He sees Jenny coming towards him and he tells her not to touch him. SHe does anyway and he finds that she stole something from him. He chases after her.
Vallon confronts Jenny in an alleyway and demands his medal back. There is some sexual tension as he tells her he could take everything from her.
Jenny and Vallon are on the dock getting ready for some loving. He notices a necklace and asks where she got it from. She says it was a gift from Cutter. LEarning this, Vallon refuses to sleep with her. He doesnt want Cutter's leftovers.
Cutter is on the docks watching immigrants come off the boats. Boss Tweed (Broadbent) is asking Cutter to help him use immigrants for labor and make New York stronger. Cutter refuses due to his hate of immigrants. Tweed tells him that his love for fighting will be his downfall.
Cutter and Vallon are sitting drunk and beaten in a bar.
Vallon attacks Jenny for being a slut. They fight and she bites him which leads to them kissing and then the sweet lovin.
Vallon wakes up to find Cutter sitting at the foot of the bed draped in an American Flag. Cutter tells about the last decent man he killed then tells Vallon he considers him a son.
One of Cutter's henchmen tells him who Vallon really is (the son of one of Cutter's enemies...im guessing). Cutter refuses to believe it at first, getting violent, then starts to understand.
Cutter performing for a large crowd of wealthy new yorkers. He performs a knife throwing routine with Jenny purposfully almost hitting her on every throw. His last throw goes for her neck and slices it slightly. Vallon is ver disturbed by this but considers it all part of the show.
Boss Tweed asks Vallon to join him and fight against Cutter.
Vallon realizes there are enough Irish in New York to fight Cutter and begins bringing them together.
Its raining and night. The Irish are gathered outside what looks to be a church being built. They are holding torches candles and pitchforks. Cutter is leading another gang towards them. They stop, mere feat away from each other. Cutter spits on the ground and turns his gang around and walks away.
Here starts a collage of scenes with some music (temp i think). There are scenes of a celebration when slavery is abolished. fighting. parties. union army marching into new york. army facing down street gangs. more fighting. lots of fighting. then the best scene is back in the place where cutter performed his knife show. we see him throw a clever in the air. as we watch it fly up we see vallon lying bloody and still on a table next to cutter. the screen goes black. we hear Vallon say
"Father. Give me the strength to do what I must."
And the title comes up. Gangs of New York.
Overall very nice, but slightly underwhelming until the collage. The film looks amazing. Absolutly beautiful. Diaz's accent. Not good. But I have enough faith in her as an actress to pull this off. Leo. Really good. Get over Titanic guys. This kid can act. He's not jsut being a pretty boy here. Daniel Day Lewis. The surprise. This guy was great. he made the 20 minutes of footage. I just want to watch him do his thing. Very sinister, but at the same time tragic. Great acting.
From what I gathered, Cutter killed Vallon's father (who it looks like is played by Liam Neeson) and now Vallon wants revenge. So overall. I was excited. It made me want to see this film more. Look foward. I think Marty is bringing us something that could be pretty special, but 17 minutes is hard to judge. Hopefully we'll be seeing more on this film to give us a better idea.
I am NoZeanderthal. And I'm out.
