January 23, 2003
Civil War St. Louis Reviews...
Gangs of New York
Reviewed by D. H. Rule
What, you might well ask, has the movie "Gangs of New York" to
do with the Civil War in St. Louis? On the surface, very little, but in the
undercurrents and background scenes, a fair bit.
"Gangs of New York" covers the history of the Irish immigrant
gangs in New York City starting in the 1840s and culminating with the New York
Draft Riots of the summer of 1863. It's in the Draft Riots that the connection
to Civil War St. Louis lies. Many historians place Confederate secret service
operatives behind the Draft Riots, and, in our own research, we've found the
hand of Missouri/St. Louis agents. It would take thousands of words and
hundreds of footnotes to document this connection (and this material will be
published by and by) as it's part a puzzle involving Confederate secret service
operations focused from Missouri and Kentucky that exists in scattered fragments
of information and documentation. For now, bear in mind that the reason we went
to see "Gangs of New York" is that a St. Louis Confederate courier enroute from
Richmond to Canada made a stop in New York shortly before the Draft Riots began.
This same agent's stop in Philadelphia immediately preceded the most violent
draft resistance in that city, too. Coupled with this is the participation of
Missouri agents (documented by a number of noted historians) in the attempted
burning of New York. These stories aren't told in the movie, but keep them in
mind as you watch--Missouri Confederate hands were at work behind the scenes in
the events at the climax of the movie. It was in the scenarios and settings
shown in the movie that these agents operated.
The movie, itself, is an odd but interesting look at the Irish
gangs and their battles with the native Americans. As the movie enters the Civil
War years, there are a number of intriguing scenes. A particularly notable one
shows the arriving Irish immigrants being enlisted into the U. S. Army right on
the docks as they step down from the ship, to be sworn in, handed a gun, and put
right back on a troop transport headed south without their ever having actually
set foot on American soil. The draft and the payment of substitutes is also
dealt with, with the growing anger of the poor who can't buy their way out of
the war.
In its structure, the movie is rather peculiar. In the scenes of
this gang-infested area of New York we see a number of African-Americans
intertwined with the predominantly white Irish residents. There seems to be a
peaceful co-existence between the races. And, too, there's a young black man
who's a respected member of one of the Irish gangs. Then--whammy--comes the
Draft Riots with its mass murders and lynchings of blacks in New York. These
horrific events did happen; are historically documented. Yet, in the context of
the movie, they come completely out of the blue with no established motivation
whatsoever.
The ending, structurally, is extremely odd. The entire movie is
building toward the confrontation between the two main adversaries, William
Cutting and Amsterdam Vallon--played by Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio.
They reach their moment where their fate, and the fate of the movie's plot, will
be decided and boom, in a weird moment of deus ex machina
everything is taken out of their hands and decided by the beginning of the Draft
Riots. While the Draft Riots--which were well done--were the part we were
actually interested in seeing from the start of the movie, it really had nothing
to do with the entire preceding two hours of movie plot.
"Gangs of New York" is certainly a high-quality movie. The
acting is very solid. The sets and effects are excellent, creating a strong
visual look to every scene. The story, for the most part, held my attention
though it was somewhat long and dragged at times despite the continual graphic
violence. As entertainment I'd have to give it mixed results--if it's a subject
in which you're interested, or if you share our historical interest in this
point of 1863 history, it's worth seeing.
|
From the webmasters of Civil War St. Louis...
Noted Guerrillas and, the extremely rare,
A Terrible Quintette
on a searchable CD-ROM:
Click here for more
information and to order
|
