If you haven’t seen “Gangs of New York” you should. OK, so it stars “Titanic” DiCaprio. He actually gives a credible if not spectacular performance. Daniel Day-Lewis more than makes up for it - if he doesn’t get an Oscar for it, there’s no justice. More to the point, the music is extra fine, including numerous immigrant songs of the period and some whistle work, although the individual players weren’t identified. It’s also historically accurate and gives those of us whose Irish ancestors came through there a small measure of what they went through.
Geez, Tony. Other than Star Wars Ep. 2, I don’t recall any of them since Lord of the Rings LAST year. I know I go to a movie every month or so - but right off hand I can’t remember what they were. Some Sandra Bullock thing, I think, and the Ocean’s 11 remake (or was that last year?). A couple of chick flicks my wife dragged me to. Obviously nothing memorable.
I rented two very funny videos recently (there was a snowstorm on the way). One is called “The Big Tease” and it’s about a Scottish hairdresser’s adventures in L.A. and the other one, and by far the funniest film I’ve seen in a long time, is called “An Everlasting Piece”. It’s about two wig salesmen in Belfast, one Catholic and one Protestant and the capers they get up to. It’s a Barry Levinson film. Try these. You won’t be sorry.
Agreed on Gangs of New York; we liked it as much as LOTR, in different ways. It’s a brutally violent film, but nothing gratuitous - very real and very part of what was going on. Made you not want to have lived in that place at that time.
Daniel Day Lewis was terrific and Cameron Diaz was surprisingly good as well. My daughter walked into the theater talking about how miscast she was and walked out blown away by her performance.
Rented a couple of real strange ones recently. True Romance is a crazy wild black comedy violent movie with Christian Slater, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Pitt, Val Kilmer, James Gandolfini, and a knock out crazy drug dealer Gary Oldman. Salton Sea with Val Kilmer features a monster performance by Vincent Dinofrio, also as a drug dealer (remember his bravura performance on Homicide: Life on the Streets, where he spent the entire hour crushed between a train and the station platform talking to cops knowing that if they freed him he’d die.)
Cameron Diaz is actually a terrific
actress. Vincent D. played The Bug
in Men in Black I. So many talented
people.
A movie I’ve now seen three times
and heartily recommend is ‘All the
Pretty Horses,’ with Matt Damon
and Penelope Cruz, directed by
Billy Bob Thornton (!) and based
on a prize winning novel. One
of the best blends of cinema
and literature I’ve ever seen, even
better than the novel.
-For a more fantasmagorical but probably just as gory tale of earlier NYC, read Mark Helprin’s “Winter’s Tale”, an inventive tale of an Irish burglar in two successive eras,
transported one to the other by the “cloud wall”- a sea fog which transforms one’s destiny radically if entered. -Its a good read for historic texture as well as for plot.- Lots of New York gangs in it.
It’s also historically accurate and gives those of us whose Irish ancestors came through there a small measure of what they went through.
I have not seen the movie yet but plan too.
However, I did see a documentary on this movie and it actually mentioned how inaccurate it was. It mentioned how the Irish were opposed to the Civil War not just because of being payed off to replace some rich kids that were in the draft but because they were not opposed to slavery. And many of these riots in the Irish neighborhoods resulted in the lynching of local free blacks.
I was pretty sad to learn that but at least my Irish ancestors came from Maine and Canada.
I do plan on seeing the movie but I don’t think it’s as historically accurate as they want to portray.
For me it’s another example how Hollywood treats historically repressed groups of people. Handled with kid gloves and one eye shut to any faults they may have possessed.
It’s odd that you would start this thread, because I almost did myself after seeing the movie, I thought it was that good! The violence can be appalling, but the acting was superb all around ~ VERY VERY good movie!
Mary
Star Trek Nemesis was OK… it made me laugh to see a backwards R like ‘Toys R Us’
The storyline where Data sacrifices himself much the way Spock did in ‘Genesis’ (only to be cloned/reincarnated) wasn’t very original, but memorable.
My only real complaint was the sheer volume of the sound system. I was forced to make do using a tissue (yes it was unused) as ear plugs. The theater was nearly empty and those speakers were blasting.
However, I did see a documentary on this movie and it actually mentioned how inaccurate it was. It mentioned how the Irish were opposed to the Civil War not just because of being payed off to replace some rich kids that were in the draft but because they were not opposed to slavery. And many of these riots in the Irish neighborhoods resulted in the lynching of local free blacks.
As a Cvil War buff, I did see some minor inaccuracies, especially regarding the whole political scene (Tammany Hall and such). However the two points you mention above are not among the errors. Quite a bit of time in the movie is given over to new (and poor)Irish immigrants being recruited ‘fresh off the boat’ (the background music for one scene was Linda Thompson singing “Paddy’s Lamentation”) and to general unrest over the fact of the draft and the ability of the wealthy to buy a substitute for $300. Also, the riot scenes DO show free blacks being attacked and murdered by the mobs, not all of which, BTW, were Irish. It wasn’t that the newer immigrant Irish favored Negro slavery - they just didn’t think it mattered to them one way or another and they blamed Abolitionists and blacks for making it an issue.
It’s also not really accurate to say that all of the Irish opposed the war. Some who’d been here longer and were more established were among the first to volunteer in 1861 and Irish regiiments including the famous Irish Brigade played a prominent and valiant role on both sides of the conflict. Numerous officers of Irish descent distinguished themselves in both armies.
The movie also shows the mob breaking into the mansions of the rich and looting merchants’ establishments, both of which also occurred.
Actually, some authors discount the idea that the draft was the ‘real’ reason for the riots, instead of just a triggering factor. Class inequity and the grinding poverty of not only the immigrants but also the pre-existing underclass as well as strong Democratic (i.e. Tammany Hall) opposition to the War actually set the fire and drove the flames - the draft may have been just the spark that set it off.
As I said, there were minor innacuracies for the really picky, however the ‘quibble quotient’ was less, for example, than for LOTR The Felllowshp of the Ring.
On 2002-12-30 23:31, PhilO wrote:
Salton Sea with Val Kilmer features a monster performance by Vincent Dinofrio, also as a drug dealer (remember his bravura performance on Homicide: Life on the Streets, where he spent the entire hour crushed between a train and the station platform talking to cops knowing that if they freed him he’d die.)
Happy New Year.
Philo
…Vicent D’Onofrio is a great actor, in my opinion. Besides the aforementioned Homicide and Men in Black, he also stars in Law and Order- Criminial Intent, on Sunday evenings. His portrayal is fabulous.
Of course, for those who have seen Full Metal Jacket, his peformance as Private Pyle was just great, really mesmerizing.
Rent AN EVERLSTING PIECE for a hilarious look at life in Northern Ireland. Two barbers, one Catholic - one Protestant, at a psych. institution start up their own toupee business after discovering the man who held exclusive rights to sales in Northern Ireland has been locked away for murder. After tactfully extracting the client list from the killer (played by Billy Connelly) they partner up to sell hair pieces in Belfast, emphasizing a non-sectarian ethos. The stereotypes are a gag and the slang on the mark. The language is, perhaps, a bit raw for children, but I laughed through the entire movie.
[ This Message was edited by: U2 on 2003-01-02 12:44 ]