Gangs of New York
Gangs of New York is a feature film produced for the cinema by director Martin Scorsese from 2002 . Set against the backdrop of the struggles of rival gangs in the slums of New York City between the 1840s and 1860s, it is the story of a fictional Irish immigrant who, as an adult, seeks retaliation for the death of his father who was violently killed in a gang war. The screenplay of the film is based on the crime-historical novel of the same name from 1928 by Herbert Asbury .
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In 1846, a bitter gang war raged in the Five Points , a slum in southern Manhattan . William Cutting - also called "The Butcher", the leader of the Natives - kills "Priest" Vallon, the leader of the Irish population, who joined a gang, the Dead Rabbits (from Irish : Dead Ráibéad , very feared men). Cutting gains power in the neighborhood. The little son Vallons, Amsterdam, witnesses the death of his father and buries the knife that killed him. He grew up in a reformatory in "Hellgate" ( Roosevelt Island ). Sixteen years later, in September 1862, Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points in the middle of the Civil War to seek revenge on his father's killer.
There, the locals and Irish immigrants are still hostile to each other. William Cutting rules the district like a king, former companions of Amsterdam's father have bowed to the power of Cuttings. Vallon decides to infiltrate the ranks of his enemy undetected and, with the help of his old friend Johnny Sirocco, joins "Bill The Butcher" who takes him to his heart. Amsterdam works its way into the inner circle in the hierarchy of the Gang Butchers - only Sirocco knows its true identity.
Amsterdam meets the pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, with whom he falls in love. When the two become a couple, Sirocco is hard hit because he has been in love with Jenny for a long time. He reveals Amsterdam's true identity to Bill the Butcher. When Amsterdam tries to publicly kill Bill during a celebration of the anniversary of the Natives' victory over the Dead Rabbits, Bill repels the attack and instead seriously injures Amsterdam. He also burns a brand on his face, but leaves him alive.
Amsterdam is nursed back to health by Everdeane and plans a new war between the "Irish" and the natives. To do this, he founded the Dead Rabbits and rallied fighters around him. He seeks the proximity of the corrupt politician William M. Tweed , the head of Tammany Hall , and promises this “Irish” votes. To have an Irish sheriff elected, Amsterdam is organizing an election campaign. Candidate Monk McGinn has a good chance of being elected, but is murdered by Bill the Butcher in broad daylight on the street. On the occasion of the funeral procession, Amsterdam Bill challenges a "battle" between the gangs - he accepts. In a meeting the rules for the fight are determined: All weapons except firearms are allowed.
Parallel to this action, civil war-like unrest, the so-called draft riots, break out in New York . They are sparked by the fact that wealthy Americans can buy their way out of conscription to the Northern Army with $ 300 and not have to fight the Southern States. The angry poor mob starts a revolt and lynches the rich, colored and representatives of the state. The rulers deploy the army, which successfully shoots down the revolt. The Navy fires volleys into the Five Points at the exact moment when Amsterdam and Bill's men face each other. In the resulting confusion, Bill tries to insidiously murder Amsterdam, but fails. A shrapnel hits Bill in the chest and Amsterdam ultimately stabs him with a knife. Amsterdam and Jenny find themselves in the chaos and decide to start over together.
Bill is buried in Brooklyn within sight of the Manhattan skyline - in the immediate vicinity of the grave “Priest” Vallons. Amsterdam says that New York will be rebuilt later and that no one will remember it. It will be as if “we never existed”. Then the camera holds the shot and you can see in a kind of time lapse how Manhattan has developed up to the present day, while the graves of Vallons and Bill are neglected.
background
The cost of the film amounted to 100 million US dollars . The film was financed u. a. by the Cologne-based production company Splendid Medien, which had already completely recovered part of the production costs by pre-selling the rights before the cinema release
Martin Scorsese's epic was accompanied by a wide variety of reports during the eight-month filming period. There was talk of enormous budget overruns, there were heated discussions about the depiction of violence in the film, and the start date was also postponed several times. The shooting took place in New York and in a studio in Cinecittà, Italy.
Although Gangs of New York grossed almost $ 200 million at the box office and became a huge hit, mixed reviews challenged the director's artistic freedom and accused producer Harvey Weinstein of negative influence (both contradicting allegations). Daniel Day-Lewis received praise from film reviews for his performance.
The director Martin Scorsese has a cameo appearance in the film : When the pickpocket Jenny gains access to a house, he plays the wealthy homeowner.
The television documentary Uncovering the Real Gangs of New York , which dealt with the historical background, was created to accompany the feature film .
synchronization
The German synchronization was created by Splendid Synchron in Cologne for a dialogue book by Hartmut Neugebauer under the dialogue director of Frank Schaff .
| role | Voice actor |
|---|---|
| Amsterdam Vallon | Gerrit Schmidt-Foss |
| William Cutting | Frank Glaubrecht |
| Jenny Everdeane | Katrin Fröhlich |
| Johnny Scirocco | Norman Matt |
| William Tweed | Hartmut Neugebauer |
| Priest Vallon | Bernd Rumpf |
| Jack Mulraney | Detlef Bierstedt |
| McGloin | Peer Augustinski |
| Mr. Schermerhorn | Thomas Fritsch |
| Walter 'Monk' McGinn | Roland Hemmo |
| Young Amsterdam Vallon | Adrian Wilms |
Awards
Oscar
Gangs of New York went to the Oscar race as a big favorite with ten nominations , but was not awarded (it was last similar to Steven Spielberg's film The Color Purple in 1986 ). The film was a contender for the following awards:
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- Best movie
- Best director
- Best script
- Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Best production design
- Best camera
- Best costumes
- Best cut
- Best Song ("The Hands That Built America" by U2 )
- Best tone
Golden Globe
Gangs of New York was nominated for five Golden Globes in 2003 , of which he won two:
- Best director
- Best Song ("The Hands That Built America" by U2)
Nominated for the Golden Globe but not won:
- Best film in the Drama category
- Best Actor in the Drama Category (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Best Supporting Actress (Cameron Diaz)
Film Review Awards
awarded by the critics' associations in:
- Chicago: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Florida: Best Director, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Kansas: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Las Vegas: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Supporting Actor (John C. Reilly), Best Song ("The Hands That Built America" by U2)
- Los Angeles: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Production Design
- New York: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- San Diego: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Seattle: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Production Design
- Southern States: Best Director, Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Vancouver: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
also
- British Academy Film Award : Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Film Editors' Guild: Best Editing in the Drama Category
- Makeup Artists Guild: Best Hairstyles in a Period Film
- Actors Guild: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- Guild of Sound Editors: Best sound editing in the dialogues category
- Journalists Association of the USA: Best Actor in the Drama Category (Daniel Day-Lewis), Best Production Design, Best Editing
- Critics' Association of Italy: Best Production Design
- Critics Association of Russia: Best Foreign Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- United States Critics' Association: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- United States Online Critics' Association: Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis)
- DVD Champion in the International Film category
- German film and media evaluation FBW in Wiesbaden: Predicate valuable
Reviews
"Magnificently illustrated and straightforwardly told modern epic, which perfectly combines the art of acting and directing."
“Scorsese seeks the roots of the American Dream in misery, corruption and violence. There were ten Oscar nominations for it, but no trophy. - Brutal, visually stunning historical epic. "
“The suspenseful drama entertains excellently from the first second, never neglecting the secondary characters until the explosive finale. Certainly one of the big blockbusters of the year. "
“The film contains excellently staged sequences of archaic power, but always gets bogged down in attention to detail and thematic repetitions. In addition, the central conflict between the leader of a gang and the vengeance-seeking son of one of his Irish immigrant victims is too schematic and predictable for the sprawling, sometimes overloaded film to find a sufficiently captivating center in it in the long run. "
literature
- Herbert Asbury : Gangs of New York. A story of the underworld (Original title: The Gangs of New York ). German by Anja Schünemann . Paperback edition. Heyne, Munich 2003, 447 pages, ISBN 3-453-18582-X
Web links
- Gangs of New York in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Gangs of New York atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Review by Jan Distelmeyer in the Filmzentrale
- Official German film site
- Short film review, pictures
- Extensive film review by David Walsh
- Comparison of the cut versions FSK 12 Pro 7 - FSK 16 from Gangs of New York at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ^ Certificate of Approval for Gangs of New York . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2003 (PDF; test number: 92 738 K).
- ^ Age rating for Gangs of New York . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ Gangs of New York in the German synchronous index , accessed on March 24, 2019
- ↑ http://www.tvspielfilm.de/tv-programm/sendung/gangs-of-new-york,1030889491.html
- ^ Gangs of New York. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed January 15, 2013 .