Gangs of New York is a movie that tells the story of the Irish immigrants who moved to New York after the famine in Ireland. The movie’s main character, Amsterdam Vallon, returns to Five Points after many years to avenge his father’s death. This movie is mainly violent as it portrays the conflicts between the natives and the immigrants that moved to New York. The situation in this movie is mainly gloomy and this helps the viewer better understand the struggles and the brutality that the Irish and other immigrants faced while living in New York. Most of the scenes are rushed and dark so they portray cruelty and fear at the same time amongst the people living in the harsh conditions at Five Points.
The scene I am choosing to write about is one of the first well-lit scenes in the movie. It starts at 49:58 until 52:45. The overall setting of the movie is dark, gruesome and chaotic. This scene is Amsterdam’s second encounter with Jenny Everdeane, the beautiful pick-pocketer. Amsterdam had just returned to New York and people still had not figure out who he was. When Jenny bumped into Amsterdam and snatched his medallion, he ran after her to get it back. This scene was so different because it was the first intimate scene when we got to really know some of the main characters.
Jenny Everdeane was not willing to give Amsterdam his medallion back and held a knife to his throat to get him to back off but Amsterdam tested her because he felt her incompetence to hurt him. This scene was very well-lit so it was easy to clearly see the faces of the characters and carefully analyze the methods of the cinematographer. The camera keeps moving back and forth from Jenny to Amsterdam as they test how far the other will go to get what they want. This method also is different from other scenes.
This scene is also really quiet and there are no surrounding sounds so this makes it easy to hear every word and every breath. These aspects really add to the scene making it more intense and more aesthetically pleasing than the other scenes. This scene is also special because we get to see the true characters of both Jenny and Amsterdam. Jenny comes off as strong and quite violent but when she id not able to hurt Amsterdam, it shows otherwise. Also, Amsterdam had the chance to hurt Jenny after he managed to take the knife from her. However, he does not hurt her and even closes her shirt after he takes back what is his.
Amsterdam is pretty mysterious in the beginning of the movie when he returns to New York. This shows us what Amsterdam is really like; empathetic, honest, and noble. I feel that we get this because of the way the camera is moving and how close it is to the characters’ faces in this scene.
