Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury Essay - 3497 Words

THE GANGS OF NEW YORK, written by Herbert Asbury, was used as the basis for the movie GANGS of NEW YORK, a gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio. Filmed in Rome, Gangs covers a period of New York Citys history, from the 1840s through to the bloody Draft Riots of 1863, at a time when graft and corruption permeated every level of government including the police department. The movies main plot revolves around revenge and the feuding between the gangs controlling the Bowery and the Five Points area of lower Manhattan and culminates with the Civil War draft riots. The two major political parties, Tammany Hall (Democratic based) and the Native Americans (Know-Nothing Party), used†¦show more content†¦He a brawler and school dropout. He became foreman of the Big Six Fire Engine Company (not was first elected to the Board of Aldermen, and then to Congress. He rose through the political ranks and over time gained control of Tammany Halls political machine and was able to control all of the Democratic New York state and city nominations from 1860 to 1870. Although Tweed and his crooked compadres, the infamous Tweed Ring , were corrupt and plundered public funds, some of the projects, such as improved water supplies and sewage disposal, benefited New Yorkers. William Tweeds graft, brought to the publics attention by the cartoonist Thomas Nast, eventu ally caused his downfall and he died in jail in 1878. The source for some of the slang used in the movie came from George Matsells The Secret Language of Crime: The Rogues Lexicon, 1859. Here are translations for some of the terms used: Ballum rancum: A ball where all the dancers are thieves or prostitutes; Crusher: policeman; Lay: a criminal occupation; and Mort: a woman. For more 1800s gangsta slang, click on the fictional vignette Bill the Butcher. The main source used by the movie in replicating the accent and speech patterns of the nineteenth century came from a recording made in 1892 by the now deceased poet, Walt Whitman. The result is a sort of Brooklyn cabby accent. BACKGROUND ON FIVE POINTS: The most wretched of New York Citys slums in the 1800s wasShow MoreRelatedVersions of the Gangs of New York: A Comparative Analysis965 Words   |  4 Pagestaken in the name of creative license. This is undoubtedly true in the case of journalist Herbert Asburys The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, a seminal piece of investigative reporting weaved with lyrically lurid prose describing the debauchery, squalor and institutionalized barbarism of the era. Published in 1928, Asburys chronicle of the gangster culture spawned during New York Citys turbulent adolescence became a cult classic, one which eventually inspired famed AmericanRead MoreNot All Street Gangs Were Formed For Ill Doing1745 Words   |  7 PagesNot all street gangs were formed for ill doing. Many people might think down on the creation of gangs but it is a part of survival in their region. Street gangs, which pull peers into gangs for protection and social status, as semble to protect their neighborhood, family and friends from other street gangs thus causing rising crime rate and innocent people dying because of this. First off, there are a few definitions for gangs because authorities had a hard time explaining what a gang even is. â€Å"Walter