1) Read this review of Gangs of New York.
2) Add at least one comment to my post expressing your reaction to the review and predicting what you will learn about New York City history from the movie. Read the comments that have come before you and jump into the discussion.
3) Write a post that focuses on one person, place, or event depicted in the movie, which has not yet been covered on the blog. For possible topics, see the Gangs of New York wikipedia page but avoid the last two paragraphs of the “plot” section if you don’t want to spoil the ending. Include an image or video (to embed video, you may paste the URL for a YouTube video into your post; this works best in Firefox, Chrome, or Safari) representation of the subject and describe the subject in 1-2 paragraphs based on research conducted in course materials or online. List any external sources consulted.
While reading that VERY long review, I decided that we probably won’t learn anything new that is factual, but instead learn how the people back then were very different from us now…which is understandable. I basically think that it’s going to give us action and a more interesting view of the past that’s way better than just reading a textbook. I think that the main idea is to show us how things were different back then and what occurred that caused New York City to become what it is today.
Despite the multiple comments towards the scenery and the ability to give viewers a “blast from the past,” I feel that the movie will be more oriented towards entertainment rather than a history lesson. As Shayna stated in the previous comment, its meant to highlight the differences between the two time periods.
After I reading the review I think we would be learning about the social relations between people of different groups. As the reviewer stated “Film is a visual and a highly compressed form of story telling-two facts that fact-obsessed historians typically fail to appreciate”, the movie would use an captivating perspective instead of the educational perspective a textbook would use. I agree with Shayna and Eleazar.
I agree with Shayna. Gangs of New York will help us visualize how people were different compared to us. Therefore, it is hard to capture exactly how different they were since no one had the ability to live for such a long time.
Based on the review, what it also depicts is how similar the characters from the past are to us. Revenge is a very common emotion that everyone can resemble to, regardless of the time period. Therefore, even though it captures the differences, it also captures the similarities
I agree with Shayna. Gangs of New York will help us visualize how people were different compared to us. Therefore, it is hard to capture exactly how different they were since no one had the ability to live for such a long time.
Based on the review, what it also depicts is how similar the characters from the past are to us. Revenge is a very common emotion that everyone can resemble to, regardless of the time period. Therefore, even though it captures the differences, it also captures the similarities
The movie will certainly help us to have a view on the different time periods, and also perceive a little bit what was happening in five points at the time. Of course the movie is not the typical story found in the book, but i believe that we can still learn from it
I can see why historians clash with movie-makers concerning topics related to history. Someone who spends endless time researching, gathering facts, and putting puzzle pieces together is very likely to be discouraged with a compressed 2hr and 40min film. Not everything will be covered, however, just doing research and reading articles and analyzing pictures doesn’t give present-day life a taste of what happened over a century ago. I agree with those who feel that a visual representation of a historical event not only tells us about historical events, people and places but also the psychology of human behavior during the time period and how they interact due to situations. I think we will learn about various causes and effects about formations of Gangs, such as how they came about and why, and also how they played an important historical role in shaping urban society.
Movie is the visual way for viewer to entertain. In the same way, Gangs of New York will entertain us by visualizing the past historical events and about the people and the society. It has basically cover the nature of social conflict in the 19th century American. It has also stated about the immigrants groups and people of that particular groups. Therefore, in my opinion through a movie we could learn about the past historical events.
After reading the review and watching a portion of the movie, I feel that we will be learning not only the differences between our society today and society back then, but the similarities as well. I think it will hold a more entertaining view than that of textbooks and websites that we have been learning from thus far. All in all, I am looking for an entertaining time looking at gangs of New York.
what i feel we will learn from the movie is the exact stories that happened in five towns. We will experience all the rioting the gun fighting the crimes and all of the history that happened in five towns. I also believe that we will see the purpose of the fighting and the ending of it. The review represents the similarities between the modern day characters/ actors to those back in the day.
As stated by nearly everyone before me, including Shayna and Eleazar, I think the movie and review have so far shown that the rest of the movie will be about showing what life was like back in the day. As stated by Radislav, I think the movie will show what happened in five points. I think the movie will show the similarities and differences that are apparent between society back then and society today. I think it will give us information on specific gangs and specific heads of gangs.
Even though, the review was long and strict on some historical facts. I still believed the movie was nicely done. It described the events, revenges and discrimination in the Five Points area. It also revealed the connection between political parties and gangs. The movie gave us a easy glimpse of the time frame of New York City during mid 1800s.
Many of you have said that the visual presentation of history will enlighten viewers through entertainment, rather than in an educational atmosphere. Some of that is true. But I am sure all of you know that documentaries, movies, and even some recordings came be quite a bore at times. One of the questions the reviewer posed was how do historians compete with that? The answer is they truly don’t! Reading new facts and arguments on the evolution of time and the events that have occurred during that time period can be very interesting to some while Hollywood movies based on historical facts, but then create fictional events within the plots to increase box office revenue can be even more interesting to others. Subsequently, with that you may at times miss the big picture. I’m sure Gangs of New York is a great movie, but the fun from watching it knowing what happened in that time period will be derived from analyzing the movie and seeing what the director and producers manipulated, omitted, and even what they kept the same to enhance the movie.
I believe the review was an argument stating how the filmmakers combined all that historical data into movie, and its effectiveness.
I agree with those who said that the movie will serve as a way of making that historic event more understandable as it a visual representation and not the conventional written documentary. I also agree with Ms. K. Subero who said that the movie may not make this much clearer as it could be found boring by some of its viewers. Consequently, the impact of the movie is relative to the perspective of the viewer.
I believe that the movie will give an overview of this historic event and not focus on as much detail as that which would be specified in a written documentary. This is due to the fact that it’s almost virtually impossible to compress all that information into a movie.
Well, this review wouldn’t load on my computer so I read another one. I feel like we are going to strengthen, as others already mentioned, what we learned already: The five points, rifts between ethnic groups etc.
After reading the review of the movie and the comments made by my class mates I think the movie will be move about life in five points. Having differing cultures and not just Irish I think we will get an insight of how different people live and interact with each other. I don’t think that will we being learning another new bur just have a better understand of what life wad in five town.
After reading the review and my classmates comments, i also agree that a lot of the movie is going to be incorrect or misleading but it also depicts some facts/historical moments correctly. It will be exciting to see or hear facts that we have already covered in class, but of course a Hollywood movie’s main objective is to make money so facts will be made up just for entertainment.
Reading this review, and looking over the comments, I agree that although you may not learn anything new you are looking into a view of the past in the slums and of the five boroughs and how people interacted. Film makers dont necessarily make it their priority to be completely factual, but to express the overall vibe of the moment and cash in a little as well.
I also think that you have to be wary of watching entertainment films when looking for factual evidence. One of show business’ priorities is to make money, especially when they have invested a lot of money to begin with. When watching the movie, I plan on focusing on the overall main message and the imageries of how the director visualized the ‘Five Points’ district to look and behave. The best part about a movie is seeing the words you have read in books, such as Chudacoff, come to life. Since I’m a visual person, pictures and movies resonate with me well.
After looking over the review, I wasn’t surprised that the critic wasn’t entirely happy with the movie in the historical content. I feel like in most movies that depicts historical events, there are always twists and changes made in the movie regarding events that may never have really happened. The critic brings up this point in the review about the movie.
I think the movie will show us historical events but at the same time, the point is to entertain.
History is a story, many times reading through books and articles it becomes difficult to consolidate facts into a time line or something fluid and understand able. From the film presents a story and from it we will learn how different groups of people interacted with one another. We might not think the film is realistic or that it changed some of the historical facts or even made some up but who really knows. There are many things that went undocumented; maybe that movie does not show enough.
I believe that review raises many issues that were excluded from the movie, like the African Americans, a women issue, and the Chinese immigrant, Italian immigrant and German immigrant. The movie put the historical fact of fives points in contest of war between two groups of people who looking to establishe their identity and the ultimate owner ors of the land. Unfortunately the political agenda at that time doesn’t help none of the two group beside used them to sustained the power as long as possible.
After reading the review of Gangs of New York I’m sad because the movies ruined a bit now. I’ve never saw Gangs of New York so I didn’t know what to expect. As DiGirolamo infers the movie is based on fictional characters depicting how they were thought to act. There are no real characters that we see. As Shayna says I think we will learn more of the different values and thoughts they had back then. Along with seeing a lot of violence. It would only make sense that we see a lot of violence befcause that was a very bloody time period. As we’ve learned already the five points were the bloodiest civil disturbances of that time.
Judging from the review, the movie “Gangs of New York” will help its viewers understand the clash between the different social classes and political parties through an entertaining medium. Although the portrayal of the life of the mobs may be biased in one way or another, it will help the viewers have a deeper understanding of the subject.
I agree with several comments up there that describe how a movie, even though not factually accurate in every sense and not as in-depth as historical research, is the best way to visually present the events and contrast and compare the past and present. I believe that even if the characters in the movie are fictional, they portray to us in the best sense of how it would have been in real life; from the characters’ mannerisms to the scenes and screenplay, it is highly effective for both entertainment and educational purposes.
I agree with every one else that the movie will not be 100% accurate and factual but it will give us a general idea and vision of what is what like back than, how people lived, what they wore and how they talked, even though that probably isnt too accurate either. The movie will help us in class because we can use facts that you give us and put together a good visualization in our head.
It is nearly impossible for a movie about a historical event or time period to be 100% accurate. Being a huge fan of Martin Scorsese, I know this film will not disappoint in terms of aesthetics. The scenery, accents, and culture will be mimicked as best as it can be based on Scorsese’s past works, creativity, and skill. There is bound to be a “Hollywood Element” added to the film in order to make it into entertainment and not a documentary, whether it is a love triangle or feud between characters. I hope the movie does, however, provide another way for our class to learn and become interested about the time period and content. The time period and content could not fit our class better (Five Points, Boss Tweed, Etc.). Instead of being used a primary source for historical content, we should look at the movie to motivate and interest us to learn about the content on our own. There is no substitute to good old fashioned textbook learning about history and anyone who things one can learn about history solely on a movie is very naive (even though I wish it was true).
After reviewing several comments and re-watching the movie in class, although it is a hollywood depiction of the happenings in five points in the late 19th century, the use of the historical fact is what gives the movie some meat. As aesthetically pleasing and visually exciting as it might be, the real interest for me is gained through the movies accuracy. Yes, its pretty impossible for one to fallow history very strictly because it is likely to have its dull moments, but the movie turns it into an exciting story that one can relate to.
Most of what I had wanted to say was already stated by the comments above. The movie will effectively show the difference between our time period and how different our societies are. We’ll be able to see the diversity, the competition, and many aspects of the past that historical facts can’t provide. The movie will provide a realistic depiction of the past and gives us the time period from a different perspective, which is very important. Knowing the time period is completely different than experiencing it. This movie will probably be the closest we can get to experiencing the 19th century.