Gangs of New York
First of all, today, New York is seen as a very diverse state with many cultures creating a “melting pot”. It’s almost as if when you’re in New York, you’re so busy that you don’t notice if someone’s different because it simply doesn’t matter. Everyone goes about their own business and doesn’t question “mild” oddities (I say mild because there are some very strange people in New York that stick out like yellow against black). However, New York wasn’t always a diverse state and Martin Scorsese’s movie, Gangs of New York, illustrates that. ... history that not many know about— the violent rivalries between Irish immigrant gangs and anti-immigrant “Nativists” in the slums of Lower Manhattan in the mid-19th century. Gangs of New York is almost like a modern version of an old western where people stand in the middle of the streets and fight. Gangs of New York was based on the 1928 book by Herbert Asbury, however, the interpretation of Scorsese mixed with modernization leave Gangs of New York slightly different than the book. Gangs of New York is mainly about the struggle of Amsterdam Vallon, who, as a child, watches his Irish gang leader father, Priest.