Gangs of New York - Page 2

The young man's plot for exacting retribution on one of the most powerful men in New York intertwines with the events of history:

• Boss Tweed and his political cronies using their offices to pit one half of the poor against the other and to rob them both.
• Different police forces fighting with each other over jurisdiction and bribe money.
• Volunteer fire departments clashing in the streets over the right to loot a burning building.
• More and more Irish and, now, Chinese and other immigrants pouring off the ships to meet with the hatred of native-born Americans.
• The Civil War bringing the threat of the first-ever mandatory conscription, with draft riots looming, as the coffins of the war dead come flooding home. Immigrants are given their citizenship papers at one table and signed up for the Army at the next.

It is a very violent movie but very accurate, I think, in its portrayal of the fashions, sports, music, and lifestyle of the mid-nineteenth century streets of New York. Anyone who doesn't realize just how far we've come in forging a united nation out of the culture clashes and tainted democracy of the past should take a look at this.

Article Author: Solonor Rasreth

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