A strong look at the politics of the era with only one major oversight

Rating: Null/10 (5 April 2003)

I haven't seen Polanski's The Pianist yet, but Adrien Brody had better have given a truly stellar performance to beat out Daniel Day-Lewis at the Oscars. I would go as far to say, Day-Lewis' portrayal of the proud warrior Bill the Butcher was the strongest aspect of the film. He spits out lines like, "I'll paint Paradise Square with his blood...two coats" with a penetrating ferocity matched in recent years perhaps only by Christopher Walken. Even when he recites bad quips like, "that's the minority vote" while pointing to an Irish victim of his, he gives the lines a hellish intensity. As for the other performances, they are good all around, but nowhere near as impressive as Day-Lewis. DiCaprio wisely tones down the Irish accent that could have easily become gimmicky and manages to glower at the camera with enough animosity to at least hold his own beside Day-Lewis if not actually compare. The sets were lavish and startlingly realistic and the movie covers more political ground than I thought possible in its running time of 166 minutes while still keeping a strong grasp on its principle characters.
Scorsese shows even the ugliest aspects of the times with a brutal honesty that is likely to endear the film to more serious viewers. It is because of this, that I found the movie's lack of a major black character particularly problematic. It is not that Scorsese overlooks the racial tensions of the era. In fact, he shows with horrific detail what becomes of the unfortunate blacks in New York City when the immigrants, who have been drafted to fight for emancipation, turn into violent lynch mobs. Because Scorsese is willing to put these events on screen it would seem fair for him to include the trials and tribulations of a major black character. Alas, all we recieve is Jimmy Spoils, a token black character who essentially stands around and says approximately six lines. Scorsese tries to cover up this oversight with a late scene in which Amsterdam (DiCaprio) sees Jimmy a final time and begins to understand the tragedy of the riots. But, we can only sympathize with Jimmy on the shallow level of melodrama, because we know virtually nothing about him. Another smaller concern of mine was Scorsese's choice of modern rock music for the opening fight scene between the Native Americans and Dead Rabbits gangs. Had he continued with modern music for the rest of the film, he would have had something. Something odd and unsettling perhaps, but at least something. But Scorcese opts to cut back to archaic flutes, drums, and orchestratic music after the disconcerting start. Better yet, he could have left the fight music out entirely and selected a heavy percussion set instead. The last thing I would like to mention is Scorsese's over-zealous use of extraneous flashbacks to link the characters to their earlier incarnations of Dead Rabbits. I felt that these were unnecessary since all but the least-conscious of film-goers can recognize the likes of John C. Reilly (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) and Brenden Gleeson(The General). Overall, Scorsese deals out a hard dose of a side of history that has been overlooked for far too long. It's just sad that he did not take the time for one more script revision that would supply Jimmy Spoils with meaningful screen time.