From the acclaimed director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), comes a tale from the 1860's in the Five Points of New York City. It is a run down part of town with very much crime and murders and robbery. The flood of illegal immigrants from over seas is affecting a man named Bill "The Butcher" Cutting (Day-Lewis) who runs the entire town and all the "Natives" who were born on American soil. They have had quarrels before and this leads to the battle between the Natives and the Foreign hords. Bill is the leader of the Natives and Priest Vallon (Neeson) leads the foreigners. When Priest is layed onto Bill's knife, the battle between them seems to be over. But, it isn't. It stops for a while until Priest's son Amsterdam (DiCaprio) is released from a home and vows vengence for The Butcher. What Amsterdam must do is earn The Butcher's trust and get him while he is on his side. But all goes wrong when Bill finds out who Amsterdam really is. This egnites the battle between the foreigners and the natives again as Amsterdam gets together some Irishmen to fight off the natives. Their is one more battle at the end which is very enjoyable to watch.
An overral good film which is taken to a different level with Day-Lewis's performance. His New York'ish accent is portrayed perfectly and his parading around with greasy hair and a knife welding spirit is amazingly looked at as easy for him. He really shines when he comes to Amsterdam covered by an American flag and talks to him about his father. Pure genius in this performance and was robbed of the Oscar in 2002.
No comments:
Post a Comment