Gangs of New York (2002)
Trivia
To simulate Bill the Butcher's fake eye, Daniel Day-Lewis had his own eyeball covered in prosthetic glass. Day-Lewis learned to tap his fake eye with the tip of a knife without blinking.
Daniel Day-Lewis became so uncomfortable with the greasy hairstyle he wore as Bill the Butcher that he shaved his head immediately after filming completed.
Most of the gangs mentioned by name were real 19th-century New York gangs. Bill "The Butcher" Cutting is based largely on real-life New York gang leader William Poole, who also was known as "The Butcher" and had much the same prestige as Daniel Day-Lewis' character.
Leonardo DiCaprio accidentally broke Daniel Day-Lewis' nose while filming a fight scene. Day-Lewis continued to film the scene despite the injury.
During filming Daniel Day-Lewis talked with his film accent during the entire time of production, even when he was not on the set.
Martin Scorsese hired "The Magician", an Italian man famous for a 30-year career as a pickpocket, to teach Cameron Diaz about the art of picking pockets.
The name "Dead Rabbits" has a second meaning rooted in the Irish-American vernacular of 1857. The word "Rabbit" is a phonetic corruption of the Gaelic word ráibéad, meaning "man to be feared". "Dead" is a slang intensifier meaning "very." "Dead Ráibéad" thus means a man to be greatly feared.
Once, after the day's filming was finished, Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese talked Daniel Day-Lewis into going out to eat with them. He refused to break character, and the waitress was afraid to go near him.
Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio both took salary reductions to preserve the budget.
The scenes where Bill the Butcher taps his glass eye and where he yells, "Whoopsie daisy!" during the knife-throwing act were both ad-libbed.
Before the battle at the beginning of the film, several gangs introduce themselves. The Dead Rabbits, the Bowery Boys, and the Forty Thieves were real life New York gangs in the Five Points in the 1860s and 1870's. Their appearance, weapons of choice, and behavior are accurate. Many members became politicians later on.
Bill's hard "New Yok" accent wasn't entirely fabricated. Martin Scorsese did some research by listening to a voice recording of Walt Whitman and by reading an old play in which the dialog was spelled out phonetically.
Bill the Butcher has a scene with every main and supporting character in the film, a symbol of his vast influence in the Five Points.
The draft riots depicted in the film are largely accurate, but the real-life Bill "The Butcher" Poole was killed several years before the riots took place.
Martin Scorsese recreated 19th-century New York on the lot of Cinecitta studios in Rome. When George Lucas visited the massive set, he reportedly turned to Scorsese and said, "Sets like that can be done with computers now."
Marks the first teaming between Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio, which began a long collaboration, spanning more than twenty years and many movies.
Martin Scorsese originally wanted Liam Neeson to play Monk McGinn. Neeson asked to play Priest Vallon instead.
When Boss Tweed considers sex with a prostitute, Bill The Butcher warns him that she's been "frenchified," a 19th-century term for venereal disease.
Daniel Day-Lewis employed two circus performers to travel to his home in Wicklow, Ireland, to teach him how to throw thin, sharp daggers. He also went to work in a butcher's shop for several weeks to learn how to meticulously incise and gut carcasses.
Martin Scorsese first became interested in working with Leonardo DiCaprio on Robert De Niro's recommendation. De Niro had worked with the young actor on This Boy's Life (1993) and had been thoroughly impressed with his talent.
Bill says his father was killed by the British on July 25, 1814. He most likely died in the Battle of Lundy's Lane, which was fought on that date in the Niagara Falls area. It was the bloodiest battle of the War of 1812.
Places mentioned in the film and its location on the contemporary map:
- Paradise Square - New York County Supreme Court House
- Murderer's Alley - Doyers Street
- Ragpickers Row / Bandit's Roost / Baxter Street Alley - Approximately the North East/ North West Entrance to Columbus Park
- Five Points - Baxter Street & Worth Street
To make sure his facts were accurate, Martin Scorsese contacted Tyler Anbinder, a professor of history at George Washington University and author of the book "Five Points".
When the film was first conceived in 1978, Martin Scorsese planned to cast Dan Aykroyd as Amsterdam Vallon and John Belushi as Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting. The project fell apart after Belushi died. A cast reshuffle had Mel Gibson as Amsterdam Vallon and Willem Dafoe as The Butcher.
At the Chinese theater, Bill the Butcher calls for his boys to play some "American music" and extols it as "patriotic." They play "Garry Owen," a Gaelic drinking tune which became the official song of the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, chock-full of Irishmen. They were defeated, along with their commander, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, at Little Big Horn.
Bill says to Boss Tweed, "I know your works. You are neither cold nor hot. So because you are lukewarm, I will spew you out of my mouth." The line is from the Bible (Revelation 3:15-16).
Leonardo DiCaprio got a dressing down in front of the entire assembled crew one morning when he turned up late after a night of heavy partying.
Martin Scorsese claims that he returned his salary for this film in order to help bring it within budget.
Martin Scorsese said in an interview that he offered first the part of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting to Tom Hanks. He loved the script, but had to turn down the part due to his work in Road to Perdition (2002).
Daniel Day-Lewis was persuaded to come out of semi-retirement by the fact that he had enjoyed working with Martin Scorsese so much on The Age of Innocence (1993).
Cameron Diaz was unhappy that her six week contract kept getting extended. She ultimately spent six months working on the film.
Production designer Dante Ferretti recreated over a mile of mid-nineteenth century buildings, consisting of a five block area of Lower Manhattan, including the Five Points slum, part of the East River waterfront with two full-sized sailing ships, a thirty-building stretch of lower Broadway and replicas of a mansion, Tammany Hall, a church, a saloon, a Chinese theater, and a casino.
The initial battle between Cutting's gang and Priest Vallon's gang appears to have been based on an event that took place June 21, 1835, on Pearl Street between Chatham and Centre Streets, in the heart of Five Points. The New York Sun wrote of "a most disgraceful riot" whose origin "was a dispute between two native citizens and several foreigners." According to the paper's account, "the riotous assemblage amounted to several thousand (people), many of those concerned armed with stones, brickbats and bludgeons."
Daniel Day-Lewis said in an interview that he listened to the music of Eminem to prepare for his role.
A woman is seen fighting on the side of the Irish. This character was based on a woman named Hellcat Maggie. She filed her front teeth down to points in order to seriously injure her opponents and wore long artificial nails made of brass that she used as claws. Not much else is known about her other than that she died in 1845 at the age of 25.
Bill Cutting, the film's xenophobic antagonist, has a particular dislike for Irish immigrants. Daniel Day-Lewis is a naturalized citizen of Ireland.
The boxing scene includes a cutaway to a man drawing a caricature of "Boss" Tweed. It's a reference to political cartoonist Thomas Nast, who was primarily responsible for Tweed's downfall.
John C. Reilly was unsure about participating in the film when offered, but at the persuasion of friend and director Paul Thomas Anderson, a fan of Martin Scorsese himself, insisted to Reilly that he take the role. Reilly would later work again with Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio again in The Aviator (2004).
The film is based partly on Herbert Asbury's book of the same name. The book's depiction of the draft riot, which remains the biggest in US history, is more in line with historical fact, and portrays the gangs as pro-slavery, racists, and lynchers.
In one scene, Boss Tweed describes to a few men the city's need for a grand new courthouse before being interrupted. It's a reference to the infamous New York County Courthouse, now known as the Tweed Courthouse. Tweed and Tammany Hall stole millions from the city that was earmarked for the construction of the building, making it the most expensive civic building of the 19th century.
Sarah Michelle Gellar was originally cast as Jenny. She backed out because of scheduling complications with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997). Martin Scorsese chose Sarah Polley for the part, but later cast Cameron Diaz after studios insisted he pick a more "bankable star".
Daniel Day-Lewis stayed in character as Bill the Butcher throughout filming. He had several scuffles in Roman parking lots.
Bill the Butcher is a rabid opponent of Abraham Lincoln. In one scene he throws a knife at a picture of the president. Daniel Day-Lewis would play Lincoln in Lincoln (2012) ten years later. Coincidentally Gangs of New York co-star Liam Neeson was originally cast to play Lincoln before Day-Lewis replaced him.
Particular attention was also paid to the speech of characters, as loyalties were often revealed by their accents. The film's voice coach, Tim Monich, resisted using a generic Irish brogue and instead focused on distinctive dialects of Ireland and Great Britain. As Leonardo DiCaprio's character was born in Ireland but raised in the United States, his accent was designed to be a blend of accents typical of the half-Americanized. To develop the unique, lost accents of the Yankee "Nativists" such as Daniel Day-Lewis' character, Monich studied old poems, ballads, newspaper articles (which sometimes imitated spoken dialect as a form of humor) and the Rogue's Lexicon, a book of underworld idioms compiled by New York's police commissioner, so that his men would be able to tell what criminals were talking about. An important piece was an 1892 wax cylinder recording of Walt Whitman reciting four lines of a poem in which he pronounced the word "world" as "woild", and the "a" of "an" nasal and flat, like "ayan". Monich concluded that native nineteenth century New Yorkers probably sounded something like the typical Brooklyn cabbie of the mid-twentieth.
Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus was handed a lavish book of Rembrandt prints when he signed on to the film, and was told by Martin Scorsese that that was how he wanted the film to look like.
Daniel Day-Lewis took up an apprenticeship at a butcher shop in preparation for the role of Bill "The Butcher" Cutting, so called because of his superb butchering skills.
Daniel Day-Lewis and John C. Reilly's families arranged to have play dates for their kids during production.
Martin Scorsese was a big fan of the film O Lucky Man! (1973), and considered casting Malcolm McDowell as Amsterdam. Had Scorsese been able to make this film in 1978, he planned to cast Robert De Niro as Bill the Butcher.
Because the release was moved to December 2002, Leonardo DiCaprio had two competing films opening within a week of each other. Steven Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can (2002) was his second movie that Christmas season.
Martin Scorsese got interested in the project in the early 1970s after he read the book while house-sitting on Long Island one New Year's Eve.
The closing credits of the movie feature the "Twin Towers." By the time it hit theaters in December of 2002, sadly, the towers were already gone.
At the time, this was Martin Scorsese's most expensive film, with a budget of $100 million. The Irishman has since surpassed it.
The film was conceived in 1978 and intended to be produced in 1980 or 1981. It was shelved after the box-office failure of Heaven's Gate (1980) made studios wary of expensive, ambitious historical dramas.
The movie was originally planned for release around Christmas 2001. In June 2001, trailers and posters in theaters said "Christmas 2001" and "December." The film was pulled off the release schedule at the last moment, and released unchanged for Christmas 2002.
When Paul Schrader met Martin Scorsese for the first time in 1972, the latter told him that he wanted 2 books made into films, "Gangs of New York" and "The Last Temptation of Christ".
Pete Postlethwaite was sought after for a role but turned it down when he was offered a reduced salary. He said "It was the biggest dream of my life to work with him (Scorsese), but I thought it was a bit of a scam. Oh well." He also stated that his friends and previous co-stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio were not offered reduced salaries to star in the film.
Christina Applegate, Kate Beckinsale, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jennifer Connelly, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Claire Forlani, Anna Friel, Heather Graham, Bryce Dallas Howard, Kate Hudson, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Natalie Portman, Monica Potter, Christina Ricci, Winona Ryder, Alicia Silverstone, Vinessa Shaw and Mena Suvari were considered or auditioned for the role of Jenny Everdeane.
Amsterdam Vallon's description of nearly every grift (lay) or confidence game in the Five Points:
For every lay we had a different name.
For every lay we had a different name.
- An Angler put a hook on the end of a stick......to drop behind store windows and doors.
- An Autumn diver picked your pocket in church.
- A Badger, gets a fellow in bed with a girl... and robs his pockets when they're on the go.
- Jenny was a Bludger... a girl pickpocket., And a Turtle dove. A Turtle dove goes uptown...dressed like a housemaid. Picks out a fine house...and goes right through the back door. Robs you blind. It takes a lot of sand to be a Turtle dove.
Jay Cocks and Martin Scorsese wrote their first screenplay draft in 1977.
The film cast includes four Oscar winners: Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Broadbent and Martin Scorsese - who has a cameo role; and three Oscar nominees: Brendan Gleeson, Liam Neeson and John C. Reilly.
Some of the remaining scaffolding on the back lot at Cinecittà Studios was reused by Mel Gibson for The Passion of the Christ (2004). The Roman praetorium is one of them.
Martin Scorsese) first encountered Herbert Asbury's 1928 book about the history of Five Points in 1970. His first call was to his friend Jay Cocks who would eventually collaborate on the screenplay over 30 years later. Scorsese told Cocks to "think of it like a western in outer space".
Martin Scorsese was influenced by American Mutoscope and Biograph Co.'s groundbreaking gangster film short The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912), directed by D.W. Griffith. Biograph, the oldest movie company in America, is still in business.
Elmer Bernstein was originally assigned to provide a musical score. Scorsese ultimately rejected Bernstein's score and decided to take a more anachronistic approach to the music.
Tobey Maguire was considered for the role of Johnny Sirocco.
Elmer Bernstein's original unused score was released as a limited edition CD in 2008, along with Bernstein's unused scores for The Journey of Natty Gann (1985) and The Scarlet Letter (1995).
In the last scene of the film, a time-lapse is shown as modern Manhattan is built over a hundred years, with a cemetery in the foreground. Priest Vallon's tombstone is shown surviving the overgrowth of the cemetery, but it appears tilted, in the last shot of the film which also shows the World Trade Center in the background.
The opening street fight features music from Peter Gabriel's song "Signal to Noise." Gabriel wrote the soundtrack for Scorsese's earlier film The Last Temptation of Christ (1988).
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Book of Revelation, 3.14-16: "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God's creation. I know your deeds; you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were one or the other. So because you are lukewarm-neither hot nor cold-I am about to spit you out of My mouth!"
Robert De Niro was considered for the role of Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting.
Jonathan Rhys Meyers was offered a part before production. He turned it down because he said he was too busy with other projects.
Touchstone Pictures was credited in the opening logos along with Miramax, even though Touchstone had no involvement with the film. Both studios were owned by The Walt Disney Company at the time.
During the last scene, it shows the 'new' New York of 2002. The movie came out in 2002, but was filmed in mid 2001, just before 9/11. So you can see the twin towers/the world trade centre, however by the time the movie came out, they had already been destroyed.
Seven cast members have also appeared in films for Steven Spielberg, more than have ever appeared together in another Scorsese picture. Leonardo DiCaprio appeared in Catch Me If You Can (2002), Cameron Diaz appeared briefly in Minority Report (2002), Daniel Day-Lewis appeared in Lincoln (2012), Brendan Gleeson appeared in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Jim Broadbent appeared in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Henry Thomas appeared in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Liam Neeson appeared in Schindler's List (1993).
Bill "The Butcher" Cutting states that his father died in 1814. William "Bill the Butcher" Poole, whom Cutting is based on, was born in 1821, around seven years after the fictional version's father had died.
There is a scene where Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting throws a knife into a poster of Lincoln (2012)'s face. Ironically, Daniel Day-Lewis would win an Oscar portraying Lincoln 10 years later in Lincoln (2012).
Because of the Gettyburg Campaign happening the same time, almost all Federal troops had withdrawn from New York City. When the riots broke out, many of the Federal troops sent back were survivors of Gettysburg, including the 11th US Regulars and 14th Indiana Infantry Regiment. Veterans of formerly disbanded regiments, such as the 5th and 9th New York, volunteered to reform their old units to combat the riots.
William Magear Tweed, known as Boss Tweed, was most notable for being the political boss of Tammany Hall, the Democratic Party's political machine that played a major role in the politics of 19th-century New York City and New York state. His corrupt reign was brought down by famous cartoons published by Thomas Nast. The real life Tweed was partial to flowers and canaries and his offices included suspended cages housing singing canaries. Most of the birds in the period style cages in the scenes in Tweed's office in the film are different breeds and colors of canaries.
During the making of The Age of Innocence (1993), Martin Scorsese handed his art director Dante Ferretti five books of notes on production design.
During the Riot there are interjections of art portraying the riot's violence. These are real period art pieces drawn by reporters during and just after the riots, and were published in the papers, including Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper.
When Amsterdam returns to the 5 Points as an adult, he is progressively introduced to multiple individuals and groups of people: The church basement, Shang's gang, Bill Cutting's group in Satan's Circus, the theater (then include Jenny Eberdeane, Monk McGinn, and escalations in the second half of the movie). The entire story is a progressive, rhythmic narrative of Amsterdam's fights.
During the Riots, a man is singled out as a "Three Hundred Dollar Man!" This relates to the Enrollment Act, or the Union's conscription. An exemption is granted for a man if, he could find a substitute to take his place, or pay $300.
Bill the Butcher mentions the date his father was killed during the War of 1812. This was the battle of Lundy's Lane, one of the highest casualty events of the war and a U.S. defeat
The era when this movie was set: 1846-1863, saw the population of the City of New York, the largest city in America, more than double from about 570,000 to over 1,250,000
Coincidentally, Daniel Day-Lewis's stovepipe hat (as Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting) would also be a style of headgear he'd wear as Lincoln (2012).
Pete Postlethwaite was considered for a part.
Alec McCowen and Leonardo DiCaprio have both starred in films about the RMS Titanic, A Night to Remember (1958) and Titanic (1997) respectively.
Jim Broadbent and John C. Reilly share the same birthday, 24th May.
Although they have been friends for many years, often advising each other on their separate projects, this was actually the first time that Martin Scorsese and Harvey Weinstein actually worked together.
Jim Broadbent and Brendan Gleeson both ended up playing starring roles in the Harry Potter series.
After Amsterdam shoots Bill's assassin in the side. Bill then questions him until his death. Bill then says to the crowd "Fine waistcoat. Shame about it, I don't think it can be mended. Will I keep it as a souvenir?!" Bill does keep it and luckily it was able to be mended.
In the opening fight scene, the various gang leaders following priest vallon (Liam neeson) come forward to state their gang's names. The leader of the plug uglies is an actor called Rab Affleck. He was a former boxer and made his film debut as a bare knuckle boxer opposite Liam Neeson in "the big man".
Director Cameo
Martin Scorsese: the wealthy man Jenny "turtledoves" at the head of the table. He also voices one of the telegraphists. He is the one that says "Find the military and send them..." and "18: The mob is very wild".
Spoilers
Bill's last words, "I die a true American", were the last words of his true-life counterpart, Bill Poole.
At one point, Monk speaks a line of Gaeilge (Irish) to Amsterdam, then translates it. Before working as an actor, Brendan Gleeson taught Gaeilge (Irish) and other subjects as a secondary school teacher.
Priest's murder was originally much more violent. During the opening battle, just before Bill stabs Priest Vallon, an axe severs his left arm at the elbow, then Bill hacks him limb from limb. The shot of the arm being severed is still in the film moments before Bill yells for Priest to turn around.
During the final fight scene, Amsterdam wears a cestus, a Roman combat glove used in gladiator battles, on each hand. Cesti are essentially leather straps wrapped around the hands, but the Romans improved on the Greek design and added metal spikes, making them a more deadly weapon. Vallon's cesti are clearly visible when he prays before the fight.
The POV shot where Amsterdam re-emerges into the Five Points after recuperating from his wound (specifically, the four or five men loafing on either side of the alley) is a visual reference to a Jacob Riis photo, "Bandit's Roost," used as cover art on some editions of Herbert Asbury's "Gangs of New York."
