Recently, when I was bored, I watched the old film "Gangster of New York" a year ago, and I felt quite shocked, and I was also aroused by it to understand this history, especially the part where the army was finally dispatched to bloodily suppress the people. Therefore, I consulted some historical backgrounds and foreign language materials on related websites, and found that the historical background of this film is intricate and amazing, worthy of an epic blockbuster, but unfortunately due to the casting and editing and the problem of positioning, the final level of the film is as a famous Hollywood critic said, "undoubtedly a good film, but not yet a great film". Now I have compiled the relevant extremely complicated history and written it.
Because there are many historical facts involved and complicated and trivial, the materials I read are also scattered, this whim is consciously written very chaotic, if there are friends in the United States who are familiar with history can help supplement and correct it would be the best, especially the "Enemy Country Aliens Law" and the original novel Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld that I have never been able to get. My unfinished parts are mainly a few of the real big characters who appear in the movie as small supporting characters, the real gangster politicians, one is the "newly elected sheriff" Monk Eastman who was killed by the butcher Bill with an axe, who was actually the governor of a state and a famous gang leader. And Boss Tweed, the guy who was always threatened by Bill's evil words, is actually the real boss behind the local gangsters, the leader of the Tmmany Hall Society whose name has flashed many times in the movie, relying on the support of local gangsters to control and rule New York, which has a very dark and disgraceful page in American history. I need a little time to translate their biographies.
The story in Gangs of New York takes place from 1846 to 1863, which is an unforgettable history for the United States. During this period, many major events occurred in the United States and Europe that changed the course of American history. In 1845-1850, the Great Irish Famine saw a sudden influx of millions of Irish refugees into the United States. In 1846, the Mexican War between the United States and Mexico broke out, and in 1847, the United States and Mexico signed the Peace of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which provided that Mexico ceded Texas, New Mexico and parts of California, Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Colorado to the United States, plus a strip of land purchased in 1852 in what is now New Mexico and Arizona, and the southwestern border of the United States was initially completed and the territory was greatly expanded. In 1848, gold was discovered in California, triggering a wave of European immigration to the United States that lasted for more than half a century. Of course, the most important is undoubtedly the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Speech, the great Emancipation Proclamation was issued, and 4 million black slaves in the United States were emancipated. In this context, "Gangs of New York" is about Informal History, which is "the story of underground gangs rejected by the mainstream and the small societies of the poor at the bottom, and these groups simply cannot enter the power structure of society" (director Martin Scorsese said in an interview)
The history of immigration in the United States is actually the history of the development of the United States, starting from the establishment of the first permanent settlement in Jamestown, Virginia by the London Company in 1607, and the immigration from Europe to the United States has not stopped. In the era of 1846-1863, when "Gangs of New York" was set in, more than 200,000 European immigrants came to the United States every year and became new residents of the land. This period coincided with a pivotal period for the United States' transition to an urbanized society and an unprecedented peak in its history.
In this chaotic period of the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the proportion of the urban population in the United States jumped from 19.8% to 51.2%, and the number of immigrants entering the country reached 28.95 million, accounting for 48.6% of the total number of registered immigrants in history. The vast majority of these immigrants went to cities, which by 1920 accounted for 62 percent of the U.S. urban population. About 40 percent of New York's residents were foreign-born.
At the same time, it is the rejection of immigrants by so-called "native" Americans. Most "native" Americans believe that immigrants are the root cause of poverty, crime, and political corruption in the United States, and threaten the existence and development of the American social system. What they said is also reasonable, the sudden influx of a large number of cheap laborers in Europe has led to great chaos in the market and social order, rapid deterioration of public security, and more acute social problems. And most importantly, immigrants do affect the livelihoods of "natives", and the wages they depend on for their livelihood are constantly falling, which is also recorded in history. As the movie says, "A black man is willing to do a dime, now the Irish are willing to do it for 5 cents, and we white people should have taken 2 dimes and 5 cents if we did it." Anti-immigrant civil society organizations sprang up, a wave of xenophobia quickly sprang up across the country, and the inextricable links between politics and gangsters led the U.S. government to enact a series of discriminatory immigration laws from 1882, including, of course, the Chinese Exclusion Act.
"What is America? Can immigrants be considered Americans? How do we, as Americans, embrace waves of immigration? That's the heavy theme of the Gangs of New York film.
In the movie, the new Irish immigrants on the dock are warmly welcomed by the natives with tomatoes and eggs and stones, telling them to get out; The practice of government officials is that they must be forced to sign a military registration form at the same time as they are issued residence permits. Later, during anti-Civil War and anti-Union demonstrations, Butcher Bill commanded his men in the streets to beat blacks and throw a portrait of Lincoln with a throwing knife; As soon as a shipload of Irish immigrants set foot on the land in port, they were ordered to sign both immigration documents and enlistment registration forms, and then lead military uniforms and weapons, and were sent directly to ships on the Tennessee front as cannon fodder; In the film, an Irish immigrant asks his companion, "Where are we going?" "I heard it's Tennessee, right?" "Did you say they were going to give us food right away?"
The Great Irish Famine of 1845-1850
In the 40s of the 19th century, Ireland was one of the poorest countries in Europe, with barren land and backward production technology. Ireland was part of the United Kingdom, but due to dissatisfaction with British rule, coupled with repeated skirmishes and rebellions for independence in the 18th and 19th centuries, the spirit of the Irish nation was high, coupled with the conflict between the Anglican Church and the traditional Catholicism, Anglo-Irish relations have been on the same page, and the representatives of the Anglican religion, Protestants, have monopolized political rights and land ownership, and enacted criminal laws that discriminate against the old religion (Catholicism).
Although Ireland's economy grew rapidly in the 18th century, this development focused on the scale of animal husbandry. While England and Scotland are fully enjoying the fruits of the industrial revolution, urbanization, and the crazy growth of industrialization, Ireland has become more and more distant from it, and has lagged behind a lot. They rely on potatoes as their main food crop, as rough and extensive potatoes grow best on barren land and fill their stomachs easily.
During the rainy summer of 1845, Irish potatoes contracted blight. This disease can make potatoes rot and inedible. When blight-infected seeds are reused the following year, the blight becomes more severe. In 1848 and 1849, blight recurred. One by one, the Irish were starving to death, corpses and diseases, desperate and helpless. The situation was exacerbated by the indifferent and helpless eyes of the dominant Anglo-Irish landowning class and the British government, who were unable to pay the rent, who were ruthlessly evicted from their homes and often set fire to their dilapidated shacks made of mud and wood so that they could not return. In the decade 1846-1856, about 1 million Irish died of famine and the resulting diseases, while another 1 million fled to England, North America or Australasia, New Zealand and the nearby South Pacific islands. And that 2 million people account for about a quarter of the nearly 8 million at the height of Ireland's population in 1845. According to later statistics in the United States, between 1845 and 1925, about 5 million Irish immigrated to the United States.
(I once stumbled across an English-language report from the United Nations in an Australian library about the great migration of the past 200 years, of which the Great Irish Famine was one of the most far-reaching, and to this day, many American, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand families are descendants of 19th-century Irish immigrants.)
Other notable is the great migration of European populations to North America and the Caribbean and South American colonies around the 20th century; Lebanese refugees from the 1982 Lebanon war; Before and after the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1921, the people of the union republics ran away; In the shadow of the Cold War in the 50s of the 20th century, out of deep fear of nuclear war, European people migrated to North America and Australia (Australia is a lonely large island is relatively safe, and many gold and gem mines were found in New South Wales at that time). There are still a few times I won't mention it, it's all small cases I don't remember very well)
Gangsters in the film
Located at the mouth of the Hudson River and bordering the Atlantic Ocean, New York is the favorite of European immigrants who land on Ellis Island, the first stop in the United States after a long sea journey. They sailed across the ocean with their dream of panning for gold, looking for their paradise and a bright future. But the reality is harsh, leaving the land on which they depend, without food, jobs, government and family and friends handouts, most of these migrants live on the streets. And as there are more and more migrants, disasters and crises are getting worse. There are not many options they have in order to survive, and being a robber and a prostitute is their most direct and effective life-saving choice. From disorganized bandits to organized gangsters, it's just an evolution of time.
The Dead Rabbits in the movie are gangs of new immigrants from various countries, mostly Irish. In the history of the United States, there is indeed such a gang, which was founded in 1830 and is the most powerful gangster organization in the Five Points, Lower Manhattan, New York, similar to the film. However, the "Dead Rabbit Gang" did not disband during the period, and in July 1857, The Dead Rabbits also had a gun fight with The Bowery Boys, another ultra-nationalist gang mentioned many times in the film, and its leader died on the street in the fire fight in 1846 at the beginning of the film, I wonder if he was the prototype of Priest Vallon.
"Native Americans" The Native Americans was actually a local political party in Manhattan, New York at the time, as an ultra-nationalist party, it was inextricably linked to gangs, and many party members were themselves gang members. It claims to work for the welfare of real Americans, is extremely opposed to immigration, advocates the use of bloody means to deal with immigrant gangs, and prevents foreigners from violating the interests of Americans. In fact, what is a local? What counts as an American? The majority of Native Americans are actually descendants of immigrants from Italy and England in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the earliest visitors to this New World immigrants. But when they take root, in order to protect their own interests, they strive to prevent and combat the continued influx of new immigrants, which can be regarded as the political representative of the old forces in the United States.
In addition to the major powers mentioned above, other influential gangs include Roach Guards, Plug Uglies, the Chichesters, the Shirt Tales, and the Forty Thieves
Local powers: the True Blue Americans, the Atlantic Guards, the O'Connell Guards, the American Guards. Some of these names are also mentioned in the movie.
(According to a file published by USCIS in 1999, in the hundreds of years since the founding of the United States, as minorities, Italians and Germans have the highest assimilation rates, 89% and 81%, respectively, the highest degree of political participation, and the greatest contribution to society.)
The influence of Italian-Americans on American politics, economy, and society is extremely important, and the votes and support of Italians have always been a critical part of the success of politicians. Due to the large number of Sicilian immigrants who fled to the United States, American gangsters also had the term "mafia North American company" until they integrated into local gangs.
In late 1941, after the outbreak of the Pacific War, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced the Foreign Enemy Act. Under the law, Japanese, Italian, and German living in the United States who have not yet become U.S. citizens will be investigated or detained. About 600,000 Italians who had not yet acquired U.S. citizenship were arrested or placed under surveillance, and in fact most of the immigrants from these countries fought alongside the Americans throughout World War II, fighting in Europe and the Pacific, many of whom fought in the war against Germany. Perhaps this was also an important factor in their joining the army, I read an article that said that the choice before many Italians at that time was to join the army or be arrested, and the Italian nature of advocating freedom made them choose to join the army without hesitation, believing that it was an opportunity to get rid of spiritual shame and discrimination, to show themselves and to win respect. Of course, there were already many parliamentarians of Italian descent who had long been assimilated in the political arena at that time, and there were many influential Italian committees and political parties, and it was impossible for them to watch their own people suffer, less than 1 year, on October 12, 1942, that year's Columbus Day, President Roosevelt, supported by many Italian-Americans, canceled the status of Italians as so-called enemy aliens, the first of the three belligerents. In contrast, the various national Chinese exclusion laws that plagued the Chinese for half a century were repealed by Roosevelt in 1943.
Here is another episode, in "The Godfather 2", the godfather Al Pacino, accused of serial murder of the five major gang leaders, used this and the support of Italian descent in court to counter the accusations of the court, which greatly embarrassed the court and government officials. In his own court statement, he said with a hidden needle: "... Like many brothers of Italian descent, I have served my country without fear, fought in the Pacific War, was wounded, and received the Medal of Valor and the Order of the Purple Heart, but to this day, not only have we not earned respect, but we have been subjected to brutal treatment and gratuitous accusations..."
Conscription riot of 1863 (translated from the "History of the United States Military Police" website)
This is the last shocking part of the film, the army went out to suppress the gangsters and anti-conscription rioters who took to the streets together, blood flowed everywhere, and gunfire was everywhere. I believe that everyone doubts whether this period of history really exists, in fact, this history not only really exists, but also very famous in American history.
On July 13, 1863, the Conscription Act of the Northern Federal Government was officially implemented, and because the conscription measures were too simple, crude and grossly unfair, the people of the Northern camp, who had basically supported and supported President Lincoln's battle, were greatly dissatisfied, so that the various contradictions under the cover were fiercely intensified and finally broke out, because the new conscription order stipulated that if you could afford $300, you could be exempted from service. And $300 then is probably equivalent to more than $30,000 now; This policy thus granted military service immunity to the wealthy and privileged, while the poor, who could not afford $300, had to face the fate of being used as cannon fodder on the front lines of the Civil War.
Anti-conscription riots broke out in New York, Boston, New Jersey, Toledo, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts and other places in the northern camp, especially in New York City, and the rioters stormed all public institutions, controlled New York City, and burned and plundered atrocities. At the same time, extreme racism began to rise in the city, and blacks became the first targets of personal attacks. Colonel James, then chief mounted police officer, led 10,000 regular army troops, including mounted police units, into New York City to quell the chaos, and with the cooperation of shelling by naval warships, used heavy weapons including howitzers to attack and forcibly pacify the situation with bloody means, and from July 13 to July 16, 1863, a total of 1,500-2,000 "thugs" were killed in New York City, known as the Draft Riots of 1863. (It was the second deadliest in New York history, the first being 9/11.) Because it was handled very cleanly, it became one of the glorious experiences of the Mounted Police, and it was not until the end of the American Civil War in 1865 that the United States Mounted Police was once again disbanded with the army. ）
After the conscription riot, because the cost of casualties was extremely serious, politicians and people from all walks of life began to reflect and seek ways to reconcile, so after the Civil War, the United States began to truly sense social integration and national reconciliation, and a unified modern United States with modern democratic characteristics began to form. The last sad atmosphere in the film expresses this process of reflection, and the army arranges the bodies regardless of race and puts candles for family and friends to claim, which is a kind of respect for life.
The theme of national integration
According to director Lao Ma, the word "United States" not only refers to a country in the sense of sovereignty, but also refers to a nation-state (nation-state) with a relatively perfect democratic system that integrates multiple ethnic groups and thinks peacefully. In his view, the United States before the Revolutionary War, despite its well-formed political system, was not a united country because of severe inequality and lack of social tolerance, because it was not enforced. The period of genuine democratization, characterized by social integration, that began in 1863 and throughout the Civil War was the birth of the United States in the true sense of the word. What the film hopes to express at the end is this ideal of different races being one furnace and slowly merging into a whole, complete equality of all ethnic groups, and corresponding recognition in society and life values.
In my opinion, the current society has developed to a fairly high level of civilization, and generally has a basically complete system and various norms. And with the concept of modern citizenship, the concept of the motherland should no longer be based solely on narrow ethnic origin, is an American or an Irish? What about Germans?? What about Italians?? What about African, Asian, Chinese? ——Others don't know, I think many people of Chinese descent will say that they are Chinese. It is good not to forget, but it does not conflict with the sense of social identity, assimilation or diversity, immigrants from different countries and different histories are certainly not the same idea. Ideally, the two should be able to coexist, as members of the minority, they should be able to respect and follow the traditional cultural customs of the original country, and at the same time be able to integrate into American society by participating in economic production, gain recognition and belonging to national citizenship and social status, and contribute to American society and the United States as a nation.
What do Americans think about this today? According to a 1994 poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center, when immigration is a serious issue, most Americans prefer "assimilation" over "pluralism." Two-thirds of Americans agree or strongly agree with the idea that "political organizations based on race or ethnicity promote separatism and make it hard for all of." us to live together." ）。 When asked about their identity, the vast majority of respondents (89 percent) said they were "an American," not a member of a particular racial or ethnic group, or considered themselves "hyphenated Americans."
This is a problem that is encountered in all multi-ethnic immigration countries, such as France and Australia. In the future, if China can become strong and prosperous enough to attract immigrants from all over the world to the Celestial Empire, it is estimated that the same will be true, and it will also encounter this kind of problem.
In the same way, taking a step back, the Han people are the main ethnic group in China, but we should not narrowly assume that China is a Han country, China is also the common motherland of 56 ethnic groups, should not distinguish between each other and racial discrimination, let alone attack each other, everyone is yellow-skinned and black-haired, and there is less trouble for people with different skin colors. Just as when someone abroad asks where you are from (nationality or identity), just say Chinese, needless to say that you are Han Chinese or Chinese Manchu (don't think that I believe it, I heard it with my own ears, because this is an English word very similar to pinyin, and I was stunned at the time, how did you say this?). Of course I believe this is a very rare phenomenon).
Finally, it is the director and starring actor's evaluation of this history.
According to an interview with director Martin Scorsese, "... On another level, New York was chosen as the historical context because it somehow represents the United States. This is a seaport, the first stop for immigrants to the United States, what can new immigrants who have just disembarked do? They had to find a job, but they were not popular with early immigrants, in part because of the partisanship of American society, which is what this film is about. ”
“...... The film ends with a fire fight, the main body is the duel between Bill and Amsterdam, the main line of the film tells that Amsterdam must face and challenge his predecessors, in a sense the latter can be seen as his father's role. From an emotional point of view, the bad guys should be eradicated by the heroes, which is the routine of traditional American epic films, and the bad guys in my film are absolutely dirty, and the heroes are just good bad guys (laughs), and the latter kills the former, and this ending should imply the change of the whole society, and the new trend replaces the old tradition. After 1865, the United States took on a new look and became a country in the true sense of the word, which was also the end of change. ”
DiCaprio this kid: "....... It's about American history and how America grew to be what it is today. The United States was not born a high-class, normative society, it was created by countless "inferior citizens" in the streets and alleys, in the conflict with modern civilization, and this is what interests me the most..."
A brief introduction to two gangster politicians who appear as supporting characters in the movie (Part I)
The following content is adapted from the content translation of the American national history website, the translation is very bad, I hope you will forgive me
www.u-s-history.com
Boss Tweed, full name William Marcy Tweed (1823.4-1878. 4）
The film appears as a cunning and eloquent statesman, who has a cooperative relationship with Bill the Butcher and has a good relationship with the local gangsters, but at the same time he is cheating the trust of Irish immigrants, cultivating the power of Irish immigrants (which is also very similar to historical facts), looking at the dead bodies after the conscription riot in 1863, lamenting the loss of many votes.
Fact: He worked as a carpenter, bookkeeper, firefighter, was elected to the New York City Councilman in 1851, and began to rise rapidly in politics, in 1860 he was elected chairman of the Democratic New York County and became the leader of the Tammoni faction (honored as the "Great Chief" ("The Great Chief"?). The Grand Sachem was elected to the New York State Senate in 1867 and forced the Assembly to pass the New York City Charter in 1870. In the period 1860-1870, the appointment of all officials in the State of New York and New York City was manipulated, while illegally forcing the results of all large and small elections to their wishes, including the New York State Councillor, the Mayor of New York City, the Speaker of the General Assembly (?) speaker of the assembly) and other key positions. During his control of New York, he organized a group of his own people to control New York's finances, and they arranged the distribution of jobs and contracts in return for political support and bribery, and historians cannot even know exactly how much of the city's resources were consumed by their bad deeds, and it is estimated that they defrauded the government of $30 million to $200 million in public funds. He is very good at using the power of gangsters to consolidate his position and the position of his party, and through the power of gangsters to implement policies and crack down on opponents.
From the above content, it can be seen that this person is extremely powerful, only covering the sky with one hand, and what he has done has aroused great public indignation, and the New York Times first targeted him, taking the lead in reporting his corruption and bribery scandals at length, and calling on the New York press to act together and keep digging up his scandals and criminal evidence; Thomas Nast, the most brilliant and influential cartoonist of his time, chased Boss Tweed, attacked his cronyism and monopoly of the municipality with easy-to-understand caricatures, and made his hypocrisy and cunning even for the newcomers who had been deceived by him. Then there's Samuel J. Tilden, a well-known lawyer and later U.S. presidential candidate who worked tirelessly to bring down Boss Tweed for political reasons. In 1871, Boss Tweed was convicted of forging documents, stealing and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment, but a year later he was pardoned, but the opposition refused to let him go, charged him with dereliction of duty and embezzlement, and sent him back to prison again. However, he soon escaped from prison to Cuba and then to Spain, only to be recognized for the influence of Thomas Nast's famous and sensational caricature, and was extradited to the United States in 1876, where he died two years later.
The Tammany Hall Society
The Tammonians were founded in 1789 by a veteran of the War of Independence named William Mooney, named after a Delaware governor named Tammend, who was rumored to be a friend and highly respected governor of Delaware (Chief?). Not sure, the original text is chief). At the beginning, it was a social charity organization, claiming to be committed to patriotism and people's fraternity, but it soon took on a political color. In 1798, the then leader, Aaron Burr, reorganized the Sanhedrip of St. Tammonix into a political organization and effectively supported Thomas in the election year of 1800. Thomas Jefferson.
An important watershed occurred in 1817, when Irish immigrant forces wanted to join the Tammunians and became the backbone of the Tammunians through the trading of votes and interests. In 1830, the party headquarters was established in Tammany Hall in New York City, and the name has since been associated with the name of the party. It calls itself a fighter for the working class, claiming to seek the welfare of the working class, and later championing immigrants and cheating them out of their support and votes.
In 1855, the Tammuni were elected their first mayor of New York City, Fernando Wood, taking the first steps toward long-term control of New York City. In the 60s of the 19th century, William. After William Marcy Tweed became president of the Tamuni Society, the organizing power gradually reached its peak, and during the Civil War, the Tamuni faction was transformed into the organization of the American Democratic Party in New York, and then controlled the New York Democratic Party, and then won complete control of New York City, beginning an era of extreme corruption and degeneration. The association had various tricks and deception in obtaining votes: granting citizenship to immigrants illegally, electing representatives of immigrants to take up positions in municipal government and providing various services to new immigrants and the poor. In addition, the Tamuni faction engaged in election fraud, bribery and extortion, and was embroiled in a series of scandals. Between 1865 and 1871, an estimated $75 million to $200 million (figures differ slightly from above, reproduced) of government public funds were defrauded and embezzled from New York City. When Boss Tweed was arrested in 1871, the Tamuni faction suffered a blow for a while, but quickly regained its strength in the 80s of the 19th century, and continued to control New York City until the end of 1934, a total of more than 70 years. The long rule of the Tammonians in New York is considered the most important form of political structure in the United States, and the great influence of the Tammonians in the United States did not wane until the 60s of the twentieth century.
Film critics
The novel of the same name, Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, was published in 1928 (a long history, said to be a highly critical but unpopular book). The author is a guy who specializes in gangster history, and in addition to New York, he has also written gangster novels about Chicago and San Francisco
Big director: Martin Scorsese (Martin Scorsese), famous, considered one of the greatest directors in the United States, "The Casino Storm", "The Age of Innocence", "Taxi Driver", "Raging Bull" are all Oscar business cards, but his fate is not good, the film and starring are popular, and the best director is none of his business.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, also famous, but his performance in this film is really not very good (no one has expected of him, to be fair, he played better should be "Catch Me If U Can"), to be fair, his style in the movie is quite cool, and he is much more manly and pleasing to the eye than his previous cream boy image (maybe female fans don't think so. But the image of the male protagonist Amsterdam Vallon played by him is really pale, such a character with profound psychological portrayal, an important role with a broad space for acting skills, was played by him like this, it seems that he is so much, and he has no ability to complete the transformation and leap from idol to acting star like BRAD BIT and TOM CRUISE.
Cameron Diaz: Playing the heroine JENNY, a vase, not worth mentioning, basically no acting skills to speak of.
Daniel Day-Lewis: Playing the big antagonist William Cutting, nicknamed Bill the Butcher, may not be as famous as the above two guys who often see the newspaper for many Chinese audiences, including me, but in fact, he is very famous in the film industry and is a de facto powerful superstar. He became an excellent writer with his excellent performance of playing a paralyzed person with only a small perception on his left foot in the movie "My Left Foot", and won the 62nd Oscar in 1990, in addition to his excellent performances in famous films such as "The Last Mohican" and "The Age of Innocence" also brought him a high reputation.
In the film, he plays the role of "Butcher Bill", an ultra-nationalist and leader of the local gangster The Native Americans, sinister, stubborn, stubborn, cunning but arrogant, Daniel Day-Lewis plays the character to the fullest. His tall, thin figure in a dress is impressive, coupled with deep and cold eyes, high upturned beard and mocking sneer, and the fierce posture when holding a butcher knife and a sharp axe, it is simply stylish, there is no doubt that he is the most outstanding person in the whole film, so that at the end of the film, when I saw him finally die in the hands of Xiao Di in the gunfire, I was still muttering how it was not the little dead rabbit cub who died...
Liam Neeson, playing the leader of the Irish immigrant gang Dead Rabbits Gang, Reverend Vallon, Little Di's father, my favorite acting actor, is Schindler's actor... It was originally a very important role, but as a result, this unlucky guy crashed into a deer while driving a motorcycle, resulting in a pelvic fracture, although he insisted on filming the main shot with a dedicated injury, but the scene was also forced to shrink greatly, did you pay attention to the shots that come and go in the play? hehe
The film itself, how to say? Martin Scorsese spent thirty years in the making, exhausted his efforts to make this epic masterpiece, but unfortunately the box office was dismal, 9 Oscar nominations were completely wiped out, and the critics were also mixed. I personally think that this film is still good, of course, the plot pursues the big background, and the hard damage to the simplistic treatment of the relationship between the characters is obvious. In addition, the editing of the film is also a big factor, how much of the original length of this film is different, the more correct way is the first cut version of the internal test film 3 hours and 40 minutes, Martin Scorsese also once said that he was not willing to cut for a second, but unfortunately, under the pressure of the boss of the film company, the final film was cut to 166 minutes, I watched this version (if there is a longer version than this on the market, please introduce it),
Throughout the film, such a long film rhythm is as smooth as flowing clouds and the atmosphere is very tense, attracting people to watch all the way without cold scenes, the beginning is full of passion, and the large use of long shots makes the audience look at this history as a calm bystander, which shows the skill and hard work of the big director, but a whole hour less, the fragmentation of the logic of the plot is definitely inevitable, and many of the director's intentions must not be shown to let the audience understand, Especially for a masterpiece that tells such a complex story and heavy historical background, think about how many hours "The Godfather 1,2" adds up (Episode 3 that has nothing to do with the original is out of the way, my idol Al Pacino actually died so much, and the third generation godfather who took over also looked at and hated it. As for casting, while Robert De Niro didn't come, Daniel Day-Lewis, who took over, was a dazzling highlight. And there is no doubt that the male and female protagonists are not good, although it is a little helpless to succumb to the boss of the film company to choose Xiaodi for the consideration of attracting the box office, but I always feel that if you use Brad Pitt, who can also attract female fans, it must be much better than now, look at the excellent performance of people in Interview With Vampires and "Fight Club"?