[ansel12]

"I think Poole must have been the model for the "Cutter" character in Gangs of New York."




Glad he didn't mention the movie, the movie was crap, in the year of the opening scene where all those men are killed in that bloody hell of a gang battle, New York only had ten homicides for the entire year, there were no Chinese in New York yet except for a possible handful of sailors as ships crew in the harbor, and the rest of it was mostly fantasy as well. (anti American fantasy and imagery to my mind), the military never shelled anyone for instance.

[IronJack]

I know there wasn't much historical validity to the movie, but I found it strangely disquieting. Dramatically, it was a mess. But as a metaphor for a developing nation born out of reconciliation between diverse factions, it worked, even if it was a bit too hefty a theme for Scorcese to manage.

Don't make the mistake of viewing it as a documentary of living conditions in the Five Points. Besides the sewer-clogging gore, the naval bombardment and the entire milieu wasn't quite as infernal as Scorcese suggests. And the Dead Rabbits didn't even exist as a formal "gang."