Hi -- If you are looking for an historical perpective,
against which to place your reaction to the movie, I
would recommend _Five Points_ by Tyler Anbinder (Assoc
Prof of History at GWU) (2001). I have just started it
-- I'm about a quarter of the way through -- and I
would like to finish it before I bring a critical
historical/archaeological eye to "Gangs of New York"!
So far the book has thoroughly captured my attention,
and I'm already pleased to see references to the Five
Points collection and the point of view that the
artifacts bring to otherwise solely documentary study.
The book was published in 2001 but before September,
so the footnote about the collection (the first I've
seen in what little I've covered, anyway) says that it
is housed at the WTC. It was jarring to read that.
-Carolyn
--- "Leslie C. \"Skip\" Stewart-Abernathy"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi. Good thread, since there's major archeological
> background
> available. I never even heard of Five Points until
> a bunch of good folks
> in NYC started doing mitigation of some major
> projects there. Not sure if
> Diana DiZerga Walls has seen the flick, but she and
> some others have some
> personal archeological perspectives, with site
> reports and books to
> match. Unfortunately, I understand the artifact
> collection disappeared
> when the WTC did. I do recall that Five Points'
> reputation (and the
> sources for the anti-Five Points movement) was
> primarily an Anglo-Saxon
> elites' response to poor folks doing their best.
> Something about Diana et
> al finding same old blue transfer print and whatnot
> in the assemblages of
> those awful scum. I haven't seen the movie, but
> when I do I'm going to be
> looking at the dishes!
> Same with another awful movie, Barry
> Lyndon. That movie suffered
> mostly from Thackery's writing and the actors'
> performances, but the
> artifacts were all perfect. Bunch of us grad
> students went to see that
> when it first came out, and we all realized then
> that the property people
> on movie sets knew more about 18th century material
> culture than maybe even
> Ivor Noel Hume. Best for us to go hide in academia.
> The History Channel did a "History versus
> Hollywood" edition on
> "Gangs", but it was mostly a fluff PR piece, though
> the producer did let
> Mr. Scorsese make his case for historical fiction.
> What the heck.
>
> 12/28/2002 +0000, you wrote:
> >Good point, the old "every generation recreates
> Napoleon", how true. My
> >question was mainly to see were the film is lacking
> in historical detail or
> >does well. There is no doubt many things are
> fictionalized, there is no
> >history %100 accurate nor will there ever be
> especially from Hollywood. If
> >complete truth could be found we would all go out
> of work. Everyone has a
> >perspective on an event, so virtually limitless
> versions of an event are
> >possible.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >>From: Andrew and Rebecca Hall <[log in to unmask]>
> >>Reply-To: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
> <[log in to unmask]>
> >>To: [log in to unmask]
> >>Subject: Re: historical movies
> >>Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2002 10:47:53 -0600
> >>
> >>Interesting perspective -- there's an active
> discussion right now on the
> >>mailing list for high school social studies
> teachers, and the general
> >>consensus there is that "Gangs of New York"
> misrepresents the real
> >>history something awful. The main controversy in
> the discussion is not
> >>about the historical accuracy of the film (which
> is deemed poor at
> >>best), but about the broader question of whether
> such significant
> >>fictionalizing of true events and people for
> dramatic purposes really
> >>matters, and how far can a filmmaker go and still
> legitimately claim the
> >>work depicts real events.
> >>
> >>-----------> AH
> >
> >
>
>_________________________________________________________________
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> Leslie C. "Skip" Stewart-Abernathy
> Arkansas Archeological Survey
> phone 479 968-0381, fax 479 964-0872
>
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