Anger, hostility, and control are the main elements in the movie I watched “Gangs of New York”. Even though the film was very complex to understand there were some connections from what was learned in class from lecture 19 mostly, that the film represents. The setting of the movie takes place in the 1860’s of New York.
This film connects with lecture 19 “The Antebellum North” because what is being discussed in that chapter is how the Irish migrate to America due to the potato famine to begin a new life. In the film the main character is Amsterdam who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio, his father is a catholic priest from Ireland who migrated to New York. Which creates issues with the natives from New York, they are Protestants and against immigration. As said in lecture 19, “the Irish move to poor cities unable to go further west.” Also “there is a lot discrimination against the Irish […] due to having new people coming in, [the …show more content…
The film showed both sides of how people reacted to this situation, how New York had a huge parade in the streets many where happy and had sighs; while others were angered and picked fights with African Americans or they threw things at them in hatred and anger. In lecture 20 the radical reform movement was discussed alongside with Uncle Tom’s Cabin. In the film the natives go to a theatre to watch a minstrel show of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the audience quickly showed disapproval and threw food and rocks at the actors. In lecture 19, “audience at this time would show their approval or disapproval through loud hand clapping or throwing rocks in this fashion (Waynen, 19).” Also discussed with this is opening acts to plays such as, “magic show or something of that sort (Waynen, 19)”. In the film it shows before a performance they conducted opening acts to get the crowd pumped and