Gangs of New York History vs. Hollywood

Snow covered cobbled streets, lined with lanterns and lamps of unique design. Inside brewery, in an intersection called Five Points housed people of all different diversities. Black, German, Irish even pure American, were huddled together in this dark and dingy brewery where light barely reaches it except through the very windows it holds. This was what the beginning scene would look like in a movie. A specific movie called Gangs of New York directed by Martin Scorsese. The movie in comparison to the “Gangs of New York, Excerpt” by Herbert Asbury, “Five Points” by Tyler Anbinder, and “A Pickpockets Tale” by Timothy Gilfoyle, were similar in some ways but each had their differences. Yet, to compare and contrast which

Sixteen years before the main action begins, Bill “the Butcher” Cutting and his gang, the Nativists, face off with the Catholic Irish Immigrants led by Priest Vallon. The battle ending with the death of Vallon by the Butcher’s hands. A generation later, Amsterdam, the priest’s son, emerges seeking vengeance. This film is exemplary of director Martin Scorsese’s style when it comes

Everybody is talkin' these days about Tammany men growin' rich on graft, but nobody thinks of drawin' the distinction between honest graft and dishonest graft." With this sentence in the first chapter Plunkitt sets the tone for his short treatise on New York City politics while Tammany Hall ran the show. George Washington Plunkitt was a senator in New York during the turn of the 19th Century to the 20th Century. He was very successful in politics, and at one time he held four offices at once and collected salaries from three of them. G. W. Plunkitt held any one (or more offices) in Tammany Hall for over forty years. He was a shady politician who took care of his constituents and his

At the start of the movie, there are two of the many gangs in the five points prepping for a brawl to see who would control the five points. Amsterdam Vallon walks with his father, the leader of the Dead Rabbits Gang, to Paradise square where the brawl would take place. Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, the leader of the Bowery Boys, leads his gang to the square. The fight ensues Bill has eventually killed Priest Vallon which ensured that the Bowery boys would control five points. Amsterdam is sent away, he returns years later from prison. He wants revenge for his father’s death years earlier, he knows he has to defeat Bill from the inside so he joins Bill as his assistant. Amsterdam falls for smart thief Jenny. Amsterdam tries to kill Bill, but fails and is wounded by Bill. Jenny nurses him back to health. Amsterdam publicly announces his return to five points by hanging a dead rabbit in the square, Bill sends a gang member to investigate and is killed by Amsterdam and hung in the square. In vengeance, Bill beats Johnny and puts him on a pike in the square forcing Amsterdam to put down suffering Johnny. Amsterdam challenges Bill to a duel in the square just as a riot breaks out, and the military is sent in to control the rioters, Bill is wounded from cannon shrapnel. Amsterdam kills Bill, Amsterdam then leaves with Jenny and they move together to San Francisco.

Trouble begun to stir when the new comers needed jobs, and the taxes along with the amount of space changed drastically. The amount of disgrace bestowed upon the points came across clearly from Amsterdam’s perspective. He saw the filth and hatred, yet he stayed and battles because it was his land and he had the right. Similarly, “Mag’s trademark was her ability to bite of rowdy customers, and she displayed these anatomical trophies in a pickle jar up on the back bar.”(Slayton 19), the influent loons who had lived in the era and were historical characters were present through Amsterdam’s life as well. Though after ruckus upturned by the gangs, street names were changed and Little Water Street was deleted, in order to clear the slum and undergo the demolition of a “shameful” part of history. "That the place known as "Five points" has long been notorious... as being the nursery where every species of vice is conceived and matured; that it is infested by a class of the most abandoned and desperate character.... In conclusion your Committee remark, that this hot–bed of infamy, this modern Sodom, is situated in the very heart of your City, and near the centre of business and of respectable population.... Remove this nucleus—scatter its present population over a larger surface—throw open this part of your city to the enterprise of active and respectable men, and you will have effected much for which good men will be grateful." (Board of Assistant Aldermen

As for New York City, in the novel it is defined as the perfect place to live life to the fullest and not have a care of the world. As a reader, it is expected to envision this city full of lights as a bright, restless, and colorful place. Nick Carraway depicts New York City as a “...city rising up across the river in white heaps and sugar lumps all built with a wish out of non-olfactory money. The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of

Film makers use many historical events to spark up and idea for a movie. One historical event that is commonly used is war. One advantage a film maker has when using war as a movie plot is that there is already a lot of drama in war. This may seem like a good advantage for the film maker, however focusing on all of the drama of war leaves much of the actual info. When watching a war movie, you may feel like you have an understanding about the war, but when you really compare a war movie to an actual war you find that there is a lot of factual information left out. One may ask why would directors and film makers leave out the facts of war and focus on the drama? After reading The Faces of Battle by John Keegan and reviewing war movies

Glory is a movie about the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, one of the first official all black units in the United States during the Civil War. It’s an inspirational story of how a young Union soldier, Robert Gould Shaw, is offered the chance to lead an army unit that will change not only his life, but the lives of many other Americans.

Boss Tweed is the best example of machine politics. He was in charge of the “Tweed Ring” in New York City. Machine politics worked wonderful in New York City where the Irish stuck together and used machine politics to their advantage(Mandlebaum 28). Tweed gained control over the police officers allowing him to exercise control over contracts of jobs. The Tweed Ring stole more than two hundred million dollars from the city and state (Mandelbaum 97). In 1872, the New York Times exposed and the lawyer Samuel Tilden exposed Tweed and destroyed his career (Mandelbaum 199).

New York City during the Gilded Age experienced a transformation on society that would leave a lasting effect on all aspects of the city. During this era in New York City, the idea of politics and its characters developed into some of the modern definitions that citizens still see in government today. The political corruption that consumed politics during this time period became a staple in New York City society. The word corruption gives the tactics of politicians in the Gilded Age a reputation that is filled with destructive and harmful methods that were unbeneficial to society. In reality, not all of the strategies of these politicians resulted in poor outcomes. Through questionable political tactics, officials used their power to negatively and positively push New York City into the 1900s, which would lead to political activism by the city’s people looking for change. Tammany Hall was one of the most influential political machines that directly impacted the people and society of New York City at this time, and exemplified what it meant to be a corrupt institution that helped positive change happen.

“You can hire half the poor to kill the other half.” Boss Tweed spoke these words in reference to the Draft Riots. It shows that you can easily turn the poor against each other, if you bring money into the situation. Gangs of New York is about the separation of the Irish and the Natives, which eventually led into larger conflicts. In this film there are two important characters, Amsterdam Vallon and Boyle McGloin, who were both Irishmen in the Five Points. Amsterdam was the son of Priest Vallon and he became a positive Irish Leader who was looked up to by many. Boyle McGloin was an Irishmen who was a Dead Rabbit, but later joined Bill “The Butcher” Cutting and became a “Native”. The character

The city of New York has not always had as positive of a city government as the city's history may suggest, however. It has had a mixed political system since its beginning, with its democratic principles in question as corruption has taken hold of the city from time to time. Boss Tweed, a notorious mayor from the 1860s, was so corrupt he was openly the mastermind of the city for thirty years. His huge profit margins as a result of his control over the streetcar transportation system in that time prevented the New York subway from being built until 1910. The Italian immigrants who came from Sicily maintained traditional family ties, which soon became the American Mafia, which controlled crime in the city from the 1920s until the

“Gangs have morphed from social organizations into full-fledged criminal enterprises” (Thomas, 2009, para 5). Gangs are highly sophisticated and more dangerous then ever. The number one reason to join a gang is money; and 95 percent of gangs profit comes from drug dealing

Gangs have been occupied New York City for hundreds of years. In the 1950s, the city saw a rise of Latino immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, and notably Puerto Rico as well as a rise in gang violence. Leonard Bernstein’s musical West Side Story uses the real-world subject of gang warfare in New York City to depict a modern-day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet by playing into the ethnic divide between the two gangs, but in doing so it simultaneously acts as a medium through which the uninformed public can learn about the culture of the gangs from this time.

“Need a haircut, greaser?’” “’How’d you like that haircut to begin just below the chin?”(Hinton, pg.5) A Soc says, as Ponyboy gets jumped by a few Socs. There is a colossal rivalry between the Socs and the greasers, and it has always been that way. The two gangs cannot see each other and put aside their differences, thus the greasers, the poorer gang, on occasion, experience “jumps”, or in other words gets injured by a couple of Socs. This goes the same for West Side Story, a movie created in 1961. In West Side Story, two gangs, the Sharks (Puerto Ricans), and the Jets (White), are rivals, and one gang is thought of a lesser group of people. Slowly but surely, both gangs in both The Outsiders and West Side Story and eventually put aside their differences. In both West Side Story, and The Outsiders, the gangs learn a very important theme: “I should do what is right, even if it means crashing the stereotypes.”