Gangs of New York
Dec. 28th, 2002 09:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiWe went to see this last night after I made dinner and we went all over the place looking for an Ipod for me (the 5 meg ones were all sold out). We'll be heading to the Mac store this morning (that is, if either of them have one). I'm really excited about having music at the gym.
The movie (not giving out any spoilers):
-I liked this A LOT. The rawness of it reminded me a bit of Fight Club (only, with more of a political, "honor" and religions theme to it).
-I knew the thing was going to be bloody but didn't expect it to be *that* bloody. Martin Scorsese seemed to be the man for the job.
-I don't care what you people say, I still think Leo is damn sexy (and B didn't even make fun of me for commenting on it that much).
One of the more striking moments to me was when 3 different parties were praying in their different ways before a very important event. The Irish had their poor, Catholic prayers in a dirty church basement to an old medal of Saint Michael. The protestant kneeled down on a simple kneeler in his room and prayed in much the same way as the Irish (it just didn't seem as emotional, though, that could be my own Catholic upbringing bias talking too, I never thought the Protestants got the "passion" thing into their religions ritual as much as the Catholics did). And the upper class Christians (I'm not really sure what specific denomination they were supposed to be) said grace over the crystal covered dinner table with a whole host of pretty words.
B and I talked about this on the way home (its probably more alien for him to *feel*, not being raised with any kind of faith ever, and all). They were all praying to the same God. They were all praying for their God to protect them from or, help them smite ' the bad guy'. Its no new thing that over time, religion has caused such passion in people that they ignore the basic teachings of their faith of peace - just to get control over another group. When you strip down the dogma, the frouffy-crap and the stuffy traditions (mind you, I'm not saying all traditions are stuffy) I think you get the same basic spirituality. I think this is why I've had such issue committing to one tradition. There are parts of many that make sense to me (and many that I feel a part of).
Yeah, I'm one of those freakin' 'whycantwejustgetalong' hippies. I think learning about the oppression of the past can help us try and atone for it and prevent it in the future - sticking our heads in the sand just won't cut it. Which was why I didn't think this movie was a complete senseless, hollywood-made display of gore.
I'm bummed I didn't pay attention to the author on NPR who wrote about the 5-corners area in NY (and, said that "Gangs of New York" was a bit more violent than reality but in general, the movie hit the issues and feelings of the time right on the head). I've always been fascinated with the early immigrant experiences of people coming to America during the huge "send me your tired, your hungry, your poor" time period, since that's when my ancestor's emigrated here from Europe. I'd be interested in learning more about the time period, place and people of this movie; I had never thought much about the role of the Civil War *here* and the role of that the persecuted immigrant peoples that weren't black played it it (I guess in my naivete, I thought that by that point things had "gotten better").
The movie (not giving out any spoilers):
-I liked this A LOT. The rawness of it reminded me a bit of Fight Club (only, with more of a political, "honor" and religions theme to it).
-I knew the thing was going to be bloody but didn't expect it to be *that* bloody. Martin Scorsese seemed to be the man for the job.
-I don't care what you people say, I still think Leo is damn sexy (and B didn't even make fun of me for commenting on it that much).
One of the more striking moments to me was when 3 different parties were praying in their different ways before a very important event. The Irish had their poor, Catholic prayers in a dirty church basement to an old medal of Saint Michael. The protestant kneeled down on a simple kneeler in his room and prayed in much the same way as the Irish (it just didn't seem as emotional, though, that could be my own Catholic upbringing bias talking too, I never thought the Protestants got the "passion" thing into their religions ritual as much as the Catholics did). And the upper class Christians (I'm not really sure what specific denomination they were supposed to be) said grace over the crystal covered dinner table with a whole host of pretty words.
B and I talked about this on the way home (its probably more alien for him to *feel*, not being raised with any kind of faith ever, and all). They were all praying to the same God. They were all praying for their God to protect them from or, help them smite ' the bad guy'. Its no new thing that over time, religion has caused such passion in people that they ignore the basic teachings of their faith of peace - just to get control over another group. When you strip down the dogma, the frouffy-crap and the stuffy traditions (mind you, I'm not saying all traditions are stuffy) I think you get the same basic spirituality. I think this is why I've had such issue committing to one tradition. There are parts of many that make sense to me (and many that I feel a part of).
Yeah, I'm one of those freakin' 'whycantwejustgetalong' hippies. I think learning about the oppression of the past can help us try and atone for it and prevent it in the future - sticking our heads in the sand just won't cut it. Which was why I didn't think this movie was a complete senseless, hollywood-made display of gore.
I'm bummed I didn't pay attention to the author on NPR who wrote about the 5-corners area in NY (and, said that "Gangs of New York" was a bit more violent than reality but in general, the movie hit the issues and feelings of the time right on the head). I've always been fascinated with the early immigrant experiences of people coming to America during the huge "send me your tired, your hungry, your poor" time period, since that's when my ancestor's emigrated here from Europe. I'd be interested in learning more about the time period, place and people of this movie; I had never thought much about the role of the Civil War *here* and the role of that the persecuted immigrant peoples that weren't black played it it (I guess in my naivete, I thought that by that point things had "gotten better").
