A footnote in history points to the future

Rating: Null/10 (5 October 2003)

The opening street battle reminds one of the ambush that opened The Wild Bunch - the crash through the shop window a clear allusion - and the aftermath of this same battle reminiscent of that of the Atlanta fire in Gone With the Wind.
Scorsese juxtaposes the violence of mid-1800s New York and the American Civil War. The street riots are a civil war too, the political motivations are interesting particularly as the film seems to describe the gang wars as a baptism of fire for a young nation coming to terms with its multicultural originas.
No Italian gangs here though, but the descendants of the hoodlums of Mean Streets, GoodFellas and Casino would easily fit into the gang milieu already well established before their arrival.
My big question is when is Scorsese going to make his western. The clue was in Cameron Diaz's stated dream to run away with DiCaprio for a new life to San Francisco, albeit via Cape Horn. For anyone who has seen Howard Hawks's Barbary Coast, life may not have been much different for them, but anything could happen when you went west in those days.
Scorsese seems to love westerns - Hawks' Rio Bravo, Ford's The Searchers for example - it would seem logical that he should explore his themes further in this genre. Gangs of New York points the way.