May the Christian Lord guide my hand against a Roman potpourri!
When words like "honorable" or "moral code"
are attached to a character, we genuinely
associate them with a protagonist, maybe a knight
on a chivalrous quest or a soldier
trapped behind enemy lines.
These are traits we see in our heroes, not our villains.
But what happens when xenophobia, ruthlessness,
and intimidation marry with those gallant ideas?
How does this exact moment personify everything
vile and heroic about Bill the Butcher?
Ears and noses will be the trophies of the day.
But no hand shall touch him!
He'll cross over whole in honor.
Released in 2002, Gangs of New York
was a mythologized look at New York City's earliest days.
Based on the 1927 book of the same name written by journalist
Herbert Asbury, Martin Scorsese picked up the book in 1970
and obtain the film rights in 1979.
Though decades in the making, the script
would have a fairly simple premise.
The son of a murdered gang member
tries to infiltrate the killer's organization
and avenge his father's death.
But in typical Scorsese fashion, the premise
is just a means to tell a story about characters.
As a native New Yorker, Scorsese was
fascinated by the city's rich history and formation
of neighborhoods by local gangs.
Among those gangs were the Bowery boys, led
by the infamous William Poole.
The son of a butcher and ruthless fighter, Poole
was both charismatic and vicious.
He united several different street gangs
while remaining active in the Know Nothing
Party, a nativist organization who believed immigrants were
the destruction of the country.
Scorsese took the broad strokes of Poole and crafted William
"Bill the Butcher" Cutting.
Played by award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis,
Cutting was the mythological version of Poole.
Slightly tweaking the character gave Scorsese and Lewis carte
blanche to bend the facts to their whim.
Still a gang leader and butcher, Cutting
had united several gangs around New York,
building an empire based on fear and intimidation.
Who hold sway over the five points?
Us natives born right wise with the foreign hordes defiling it.
[CHEERING]
Part of that intimidation is constantly
reminding the city what he has done,
which brings us to here, an annual celebration where
Cutting toasts his victory over Priest Vallon, leader
of rival gang, the Dead Rabbits.
This is the moment Vallon's son, Amsterdam,
played by Leonardo DiCaprio, was chosen to be
Cutting's public execution.
Like most everything Cutting does,
the intent here is twofold.
One is to remind everyone of his victory.
It's the equivalent of throwing yourself
a party under the guise of a friend's memorial.
What he really wants is to remind everyone
that he has left every other gang under his foot.
This is his annual reminder that the entire city fears him.
And if not, they should.
The other is weirdly out of genuine respect.
We learn early on that Cutting believes
Vallon was the only man he'd ever killed worth remembering.
While their ideals could not have been more different,
he believed Vallon was a noble and worthy opponent.
Having been defeated by the man earlier,
Cutting cut out his own eye because he felt shame
for not being able to look at the priest.
It's a small bit of character that shows this is how strongly
and adamantly the man feels about betrayal.
And now, as he sends a clear and poignant message
that he is proud of his capacity for brutality,
he feels betrayed by a man he had grown to trust.
Up to this point, Amsterdam had disguised who his father was.
He worked his way into Cutting's gang
by saving the man's life not because he didn't
want the man dead, but because he felt his revenge should
be at his own hand.
And what better time to do it than a ceremony honoring
his father?
I extinguish his life and consume him
as I consume these flames, in honor of Priest Vallon.
Due to a betrayal by Amsterdam's friend,
Johnny, Cutting knows Amsterdam's identity
and intent.
Day-Lewis does an amazing job here
as Cutting, drawing the boy out as he makes his toast.
He holds uncomfortable eye contact with Amsterdam,
knowing the attack will come at any moment.
When it does, Cutting not only defends himself,
but wounds Amsterdam in the process.
While some of our most memorable villains
rely on surrounding themselves with followers
and staying in the background, Cutting
has always been content to be in the forefront of any attack.
At this moment, he only wants to wound.
He wants to make an example of what happens
to those who betray him.
Cutting is terrifying in his posture
as he walks toward the wounded Amsterdam.
He announces who the man really is and the what he
perceives as cowardly attack.
Saves my life one day so he can kill
me the next like a sneak thief, instead of fighting like a man.
When he calls Amsterdam a "sneak thief,"
it is genuinely one of the most horrific things
he could call a man that sullied the memory of his father.
When the actor calmly walks towards the reeling Amsterdam,
it's a march of intimidation and verbal attacks
that could really only be pulled off by someone like Day-Lewis.
A base de filer unworthy of a noble name.
After bounding atop the pinned down Amsterdam,
Cutting veers into a full kayfabe wrestler.
He understands the importance of maintaining his image
as a working class butcher turned gangster and tells
the crowd--
We need to tenderize this meat a little bit.
[SCREAMING]
--then levels a barrage of headbutts.
We have to take a moment here to talk
about Scorsese and cinematographer Michael
Ballhaus's framing.
While we initially started in level shots
with the camera never looking up to or down upon our characters,
everything in this brutality is from a character's point
of view.
We see Amsterdam battered and struggling on top of the table,
like a wounded animal.
We look up to the towering behemoth that is Cutting.
Every shot here serves the purpose
of showing who these characters are
and the power they possess or have lost.
And when we focus on that axe spin with Cutting's
outstretched hand beneath, we know
the man is putting on a show.
He has an innate ability to give the crowd what they want.
As he looms over the stabbed and wounded Amsterdam,
he asks the crowd what they want.
And the crowd bends to his whim.
When one man demands heart, Cutting is quick to retort--
The heart!
The heart?
This boy has no heart.
Here we have another wonderful usage
of slipping small moments of character
into what is otherwise a vicious attack.
We're quickly reminded that it isn't just the assassination
attempt that has angered the man.
We are certain that's happened many times.
What genuinely hurts his feelings is the betrayal.
Remember, this is a man who cut out his own eye when he felt
the sense had betrayed him.
He even said he would have cut out the other if he thought
he could defeat priest blind.
Now we're left to wonder what he could possibly
do to someone who not only deceived him to work
their way into his inner circle, but further tarnished
the memory of the only man he felt was worth remembering.
And while his motivations and moral codes
seem gallant on the surface, it's
important to remember who this man is.
He is not a good man betrayed, nor is he a noble hero
being usurped by cowards.
He's a xenophobic killer who has aligned himself
with fellow scared bigots.
For all his rhetoric about honor and bravery,
a lot of the crowd he gathers here
are members of the Know Nothing Party.
In another parallel to Poole, Cutting
has a deep resentment for any immigrant or Roman Catholic
he believes is here to take jobs or undercut
what they consider an honest wage.
Americans are mourning.
I don't see no Americans.
I see trespassers.
It's, frankly, deplorable and wholly depressing
that the same thoughts he had over 100 years ago
are still prevalent today.
That's clearly an idea not lost on Scorsese
or the screenwriters.
They know this man is evil and never try to tell us otherwise.
In this exact moment, in this scene, more than any other,
they shout from the rooftops, here's your villain.
Not just Cutting, but the room that cheers him on.
So what do you think?
What other scenes so brilliantly encapsulate
the vitriol of a character as clearly as here?
Let us know down in the comments below.
And as always, thank you so much for watching.
While you're here, why not poke around
and see some of our other villain pieces?