the m0vie blog

Hosted by Andrew Quinn, Jay Coyle and Darren Mooney, The 250 is a (mostly) weekly trip through some of the best (and worst) movies ever made, as voted for by Internet Movie Database Users. New episodes are released every Saturday at 6pm GMT.

This time, continuing our Summer of Scorsese season, Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York.

Martin Scorsese is one of the defining directors in American cinema, with a host of massively successful (and cult) hits that have shaped and defined cinema across generations: Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, Goodfellas, Kundun, The Aviator, The Departed. The Summer of Scorsese season offers a trip through his filmography via the IMDb‘s 250.

New York is a furnace. As Irish immigrants arrive off the boats, they find an old conflict waiting for them. As the Civil War wages and passions stir, young Amsterdam Vallon seems to avenge the death of his father by slaying the local crime lord Bill the Butcher. However, things are never as simple as they appear; worlds collide and loyalties shift as the city begins to settle around them.

At time of recording, it was not ranked on the Internet Movie Database‘s list of the best movies of all-time.

Show Notes:

• Recorded 8th September 2020.
• Note: Due to the COVID-19 situation, this episode was recorded remotely. We suspect, going forward that a lot of our episodes will be until the crisis resolves.
• Gangs of New York at The Internet Movie Database.
• Jarno Mahlberg at The Cinescapader visits the Gangs of New York sets at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, November 2014.
• Jarno Mahlberg at YouTube visits the sets of Gangs of New York at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome, January 2016.
• A writer at New York Press recalls visiting the set of Gang of New York during production, February 2015.
• Stephanie Zacharek reviews Gangs of New York for Salon, December 2002.
• Martin Scorsese talks to The Guardian about the long road to actually making Gangs of New York, January 2003.
• Polly Shulman at The New York Times offers a brief history of the development of Gangs of New York, September 2002.
• Joshua Brown writes to The New York Times about the complicated relationship that exists between Gangs of New York and history, September 2002.
• Bradford Evans at Vulture discusses the lost roles of Dan Aykroyd, July 2011.
• Laura M. Holson profiles Joe Roth for The New York Times, October 2002.
• Laura M. Holson at The New York Times on the tense production of Gangs of New York, including conflicts between Scorsese and Weinstein, April 2002.
• Harvey Weinstein talks to IndieWire about Scorsese’s original cut of Gangs of New York, September 2013.
• Harvey Weinstein discusses the on-set tension between Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis on Gangs of New York, September 2013.
• Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus talks to American Cinematographer about the shooting of Gangs of New York, January 2003.
• Lisa Liebman at Vanity Fair discusses the best and worst New York accents on film, July 2014.
• A.O. Scott reviews Gangs of New York for The New York Times, December 2002.
• Fergus Bordewich at Smithsonian Magazine on the production of Gangs of New York, December 2002.
• Russ Fischer at /film on how George Lucas helped and informed Gangs of New York, September 2013.
• Julie Naughton at WWD reports on George Lucas’ visit to the set of Gangs of New York, April 2012.
• Alex Williams at New York Magazine looks at the very troubled road that Gangs of New York took to screen, including release postponement, December 2002.
• David Liu at The Daily Californian on Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee’s portraits of New York City in the wake of 9/11, September 2011.
• Stephen Holden at The New York Times compares and contrasts the post-9/11 sketches of New York City in Gangs of New York and The 25th Hour, January 2003.
• Jay A. Fernandez at The Hollywood Reporter on the birth of the Tribeca Film Festival from the aftermath of 9/11, April 2011.
• Adam Nayman at The Ringer on post-9/11 cinema, September 2020.
• Daniel Suarez at Medium on revisiting Gangs of New York, February 2017.
• Eric Hynes at Reverse Shot discusses the violence and horror of Gangs of New York, October 2014.
• Jennifer Arellano at Entertainment Weekly reflects on the twist ending to Remember Me, August 2013.
• Jake Simpson at The Atlantic on the extreme reactions to the twist ending of Remember Me, March 2010.
• Josh Sorokach at Decider looks back on Kangaroo Jack, January 2018.
• Patrick Goldstein at The Los Angeles Times on the ratings controversy over Kangaroo Jack, January 2003.
• Jerry O’Connell talks to Vice about what exactly happened with Kangaroo Jack, April 2017.
• Laura M. Holson at The New York Times on the game of brinksmanship over the release of Catch Me If You Can and Gangs of New York, October 2002.
• Lorenza Munoz at The Los Angeles Times reports on the box office success of The Two Towers, December 2002.
• Lorraine Boissoneault at The Smithsonian Magazine on the real historical William Poole, January 2017.
• TimeOut describes Gangs of New York as “nothing less than Scorsese’s Birth of a Nation”, December 2002.
• Scott Tobias at The A.V. Club describes Gangs of New York as “nothing less than Scorsese’s Birth of a Nation”, January 2003.
• Darren Mooney at the m0vie blog on the bloody American nightmare of history in Gangs of New York, October 2020.
• Paul Lieberman at The Los Angeles Times on the push and pull between Scorsese and Weinstein over Gangs of New York, December 2002.
• Greg Young and Tom Meyers at The Bowery Boys on the fire that burnt down Barnum’s American Museum, July 2015.
• Jay Caspian Kang at The New Yorker reflects on Noel Ignatiev’s study of race in America, November 2019.
• Patrick McKenna at The Irish Times on how the Irish became white in America, February 2013.
• Amy Briggs at National Geographic looks back on the “know nothing” party of the early American anti-immigration movement, July-August 2017.
• The Irish Independent reports on Martin Scorsese’s comparisons between Bill the Butcher and Donald Trump, December 2016.
• Eric Alterman at The Nation considers the comparison between Trump and Bill the Butcher, April 2020.
• Nikki Glostin at Page Six reports on Charles Dance’s buff beach bod, September 2020.
• Daniel Day Lewis talks to Rolling Stone about listening to Eminem and getting in character for Gangs of New York, March 2003.
• The Guardian reports on rumours that Gangs of New York may never see release, April 2002.
• The Guardian reports on the screening of twenty minutes of footage of Gangs of New York at Cannes, May 2002.
• David Denby at The New Yorker criticises Gangs of New York for obscuring the African American perspective, December 2002.
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Filed under: The 250 | Tagged: accents, bill the butcher, Daniel Day-Lewis, DiCaprio, gnags of new york, jay coyle, jim broadbent, john c. reilly, Leonardo diCaprio, martin scorsese, podcast, summer of scorsese, The 250 |