By Lubna Abdel Aziz The gangs of New York could be found only on the pages of American history books. The famous bloody tribal wars at Five Points on the Lower East Side of Manhattan between the forces of American-born gangs the Nativists and Irish émigrés, the Hibernians, remained a footnote in the history of the New World until now. Martin Scorsese, New York native and one of film's greatest visionary directors has dreamed of bringing the battle of Five Points to the screen for the last quarter century. At last in a $100-million sweeping spectacular epic, that is as real as it is hallucinatory, The Gangs of New York are here. In this authentic two-hour dissection of the city's early immigrants - recent natives violent barbaric roots, a mythic battle of lower class supermen unfolds. In the brutal spectacle, when Manhattan's streets wage their primal wars, they fight with knives, bats, cudgels, cleavers, bare hands and sharp teeth. The result is a veritable field of blood with bodies of dead men covering every inch of the city streets. Scorsese, never one to shy from reality, serves it well. He grew up among the shady walls and cobblestones of Little Italy in New York City. He witnessed the lawlessness and brutality and racial divide. He lived and breathed the stench of the bloody violence and ruthless crime. It was on their walls, their columns, their rooftops, their floors, in their alleys and corridors, down to the deepest pits of their underground to the entrails of the earth, where the light does not reach. Gangs is a sensational blend of the epic style of Star Wars and The Godfather with a number of Goodfellas strewn in between. One of America's greatest living directors, Scorsese has scored again in this fierce account of 19th century New York in a stunning epic that is equally shattering, funny, personal and grand, despite the bloody mess that he depicts so well. A very diminutive man, 160cm, Scorsese is a giant in the world of cinema. He is a deeply respected serious filmmaker, who has devoted his life to his profession with the undivided zeal and fervour of a Catholic priest. His dream was to become a priest and preach redemption to the sinners of Little Italy. A small asthmatic boy, he could see himself doing nothing else. But after one year in Cathedral College Seminary, where he spent his days in silent prayer, Scorsese dropped out and entered New York University to study film. Perhaps by exposing the violence and brutality of his streets to the world, the healing would be more effective. Scorsese obtained a Master's degree in cinema in 1964. Much like a psychoanalyst would, he began in earnest to reveal the pains of his Italian American Catholic upbringing through the medium of film. During the 60s he made several student films, eventually becoming assistant director and co-editor of the famous documentary Woodstock in 1970. His talent caught the eye of veteran low-budget producer Roger Corman who adopted young Martin. He gave him the chance to direct his first feature film Boxcar Bertha in 1972, which was followed by his first meaningful work Mean Streets, a troubling and exhilarating look at one man's obsession, "and at a subculture that other movies rarely examine beneath the surface". Scorsese reveals his fascination with guilt, sin, crime and redemption, a theme that has emerged in all his following works. "You don't make up your sins in the church, you do it in the streets," became a benchmark for his New York mural, with its colourful ethnic settings, its sinners struggling with their conflicts and inner demons, where rock meets opera in his Little Italy. So impressed was Ellen Burstyn with Mean Streets, she chose Scorsese to direct Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which won her an Oscar. In 1976 his Taxi Driver was voted best film of the decade. A controversial yet influential film about a lonely taxi driver in New York City, Robert de Niro, and a child prostitute, Jodie Foster. It won the coveted Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or and several Oscar nominations. The best film of the 80s was another Scorsese film, a daringly tough and brutal black and white biography of lightweight boxer Jake La Motta, Raging Bull (1980), again with de Niro, earning his best actor Oscar. Paul Newman received his first Oscar in Scorsese's Colour of Money (1986). Serving his craft with the devout zeal of a priest, Scorsese went so far as to enrage his Catholic community and shake its very roots by attempting to portray the human side of Christ in Kazanstaki's The Last Temptation of Christ. In 1990 he gave us his excellent dissertation on Mafia wars: Goodfellas. Scorsese's exceptional grasp of day to day life, the rhythm and cadences of his native streets, his visual and aural capabilities make him one of the most influential filmmakers of our generation. Though he revels in the details of violence and finds exciting beauty in danger and crime, his dizzying vision continues to excite and inspire us. His films stick in the memory long after you have seen them. This is the best of times for Martin Scorsese. February 11th he received his fourth Oscar nomination for Best Director in 2002. The world today is paying homage to the man and his works. He received the highest award from King Mohamed VI of Morocco -- Commander of the Order of Wissam Alouite at the International Film Festival of Marrakech last September. A month later he received the Hollywood Outstanding Achievement Award, and last month he was awarded the Best Director Golden Globe for Gangs. Today Harvard University, the oldest undergraduate dramatic organisation in the US, bestows its Hasty Pudding Award, given to those who have made a lasting impressive contribution to the world of entertainment. Next month he gets his star at the Hollywood Hall of Fame, and is a strong favourite to win the 55th Director Guild Award, and maybe at long last, he will get his Oscar. This could be the year of the Gangs. The film opens with a solemn hair-raising scene beneath Manhattan's underground as Irish- American gang leader Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson) prepares to make battle with rival gang leader William Cutting, known as Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis). Among the fallen men in the battle is Vallon slain by the Butcher and witnessed by his young son Amsterdam. Young Amsterdam never forgets his father's murderer. After two decades in an orphanage he returns to Five Points to avenge his father's death. Another strange and colourful character on Scorsese's mural is Cameron Diaz, Jenny Everdeane, the pickpocket con woman friend of the Butcher who diverts her attention to young Amsterdam. One irony among many was the reconstruction of 1850s New York City at Cinecitta studios in Rome. Scorsese is set to film his next project The Aviator, a biography of billionaire Howard Hughes, again with Leonardo di Caprio, and Nicole Kidman as 1950s glamour queen, Ava Gardner. Once again Scorsese serves us a ragout of riots, violence, gore and bloodshed, in an epic operatic tragedy that often seems more of a poetic intermezzo to the painful drama that is life. His wonderful spectacle of a city under siege, strewn with fallen men fills us with respect for this filmmaker's craft. His fierce intellectual and visual energy has made him a unique auteur of the violence and terror that freezes men's souls. When recognised with the greatest honour, awarded only 29 directors before him -- the Director Guild of America's Life Achievement Award -- Martha Coolidge explained why: "because of his remarkable ground-breaking films, his nurturing of young filmmakers and his vigilant fight to preserve the legacy of motion pictures for future generations". There are few who have impacted the industry in the numerous ways that he has, so Oscar or no Oscar, Scorsese is a winner.
