Not the birth of the new world, but the death of the old – on Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” (2002)

Brutal.

What is New York?

While I’ve never been to New York, the city holds myriad associations for me due to my exposure to it as a notion, as an idea.

1. As a cultural entity in the media: 
“Friends,” “Wall Street,” “Big,” sophisticated, cosmopolitan, sexy, arty 


2. As an urban entity in the world: New Amsterdam, Dutch, pragmatic, mercantilist, meritocratic, corporatist, materialist, a melting pot of global cultures

I fully recognise that “Gangs of New York” is not one of Scorsese’s masterpieces.

That said, there’s something enormously exhilarating in just how hard against those very stereotypes Scorsese pitches the New York of this film, as a sort of a frontier town in its final throes as a “dark ages” European town, riven with tribal violence.

The film depicts the end of the old world, more than the birth of the new, perhaps. And it’s a refreshing take on the era.

4/5 stars.