Fans brave the cold as Gang stars come to town

FANS waited for hours in the cold to catch a glimpse of Daniel Day-Lewis and Leonardo DiCaprio, who were in London last night for the premiere screening of Gangs Of New York, the epic tale of how the Irish put their indelible stamp on 19th-century New York and consequently many heads also.

This is the first time that DiCaprio has wowed his movie audience in two years, but latter-day Irish citizen Day-Lewis is the one tipped for an Oscar for his role in the Martin Scorsese directed movie.

The movie’s plot orbits around the fightin’ Irish, those who fled their homeland in the mid-1800s to carve a new life in America. On arrival many of these immigrants were forced to carve a few British and Dutch settlers who, in the slums of New York, were less than welcoming.

This violent rise of gangland power in New York is played against a backdrop of massive political corruption and the city’s evolution into a cultural melting pot.

The film, which will open in Irish cinemas on Friday next, was the pet project of the award-winning director for 30 years before being finally committed to celluloid. The bloody action is set in 1846 as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighbourhood of Five Points.

A number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage, who were born in the US, began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals.

One of the central characters in the plot is William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as Bill the Butcher for his deadly skill with a knife. This blackguard bands his fellow “Native Americans” into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants. The immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, The Dead Rabbits, organised by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing. The boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio). Amsterdam’s love interest is Jenny Everdeane, played by Cameron Diaz, a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill.

Irish actor Brendan Gleeson has a role in the film, as does Finbar Furey, who can also be heard on the soundtrack singing New York Girls in his own distinctive style.