New york , hatchet's, blood and all that not jazz

Rating: Null/10 (24 August 2007)

How do you perceive New York? Idle musing at Times square, busy Walls Street, large snail like movement of traffic? Ever-young city, always living at present. But this not the New York of Martin Scorsese. His New York is different where blood flows like cheap wine from drum, bodies fall like nine pins, no it's not a film on 9/11. Scorsese shows the dark period of the history of the city. This is the time when the city is changing its character, from a provincial town it'll turn to a Cosmo polis. It's a film on immigration problem of mid 19th c, Irish were deserting homeland for a better pasture. Natives were enraged by this inflow of cheap labor. The city was ruled by hooligans, rowdy gangs. Scorsese brilliantly portrayed this struggle through a typical Hollywood narrative of revenge story. Being an Italian immigrant by birth, he knew exactly what is like to be in an alien country. Scorsese drew his material from an account of the city's mid 19th c underworld published in 1927 by a journalist. He created a three-hour long script of action drama, breathtaking to watch. Ferreti, the set designer of Fellini, recreated the city in a studio of Rome. One will never fill bored due to a great handling of camera & editing. Action sequences are edited in a great speed, which set the tempo of the film. Especially the knife-throwing scene is elevated to a pure cinematic beauty, portraying the tension between the characters. This is done by fast cutting. Long preparation of the gang war at the beginning is another example of creation of suspense. Daniel Day Lewis brilliantly portrayed the role of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting, a gang leader & native sympathizer, who literally ruled New York. Cameron Diaz & Di Caprio also acted well. This film is a treat to watch, it combines a good action narrative with a bold statement on immigration problem & current xenophobia of American people. Here lies Scorsese' brilliance as filmmaker.