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Gangs of New York's Bill the Butcher is considered one of Daniel Day-Lewis's best roles. Yes, there are wonderful performances from the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio, and Martin Scorsese's direction can't be out done. But Daniel Day-Lewis brought honesty and a ruthlessness to Bill the Butcher that no one else could match. But what exactly makes Bill the Butcher in Gangs of New York so terrifying?
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May the Christian Lord guide my hand against your Roman potpourri
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When words like honorable or moral code are attached to a character
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we genuinely associate them with a protagonist, maybe a knight on a chivalrous quest or a soldier
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trapped behind enemy lines. These are traits we see in our heroes, not our villains. But what
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happens when xenophobia, ruthlessness, and intimidation marry with those gallant ideas? How does this exact moment personify everything vile and heroic about Bill the Butcher
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His and noses will be the trophies of the day. But no hand shall touch him
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He'll cross over whole. Inhonorable. Released in 2002, Gangs of New York was a mythologized look at New York City's earliest days
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Based on the 1927 book of the same name written by journalist Herbert Asbury
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Martin Scorsese picked up the book in 1970 and obtained the film rights in 1979
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Though decades in the making, the script would have a fairly simple premise. The son of a murdered gang member tries to infiltrate the killer's organization
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and avenge his father's death. But in typical Scorsese fashion, the premise is just a means to tell a story about characters
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As a native New Yorker, Scorsese was fascinated by the city's rich history
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and formation of neighborhoods by local gangs. Among those gangs were the Bowery Boys, led by the infamous William Poole, the son of a butcher
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and ruthless fighter. Poole was both charismatic and vicious. He united several different street
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gangs while remaining active in the Know-Nothing Party, a nativist organization who believed
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immigrants were the destruction of the country. Scorsese took the broad strokes of Poole and
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crafted William, Bill the Butcher, Cutting. Played by award-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis
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Cutting was the mythological version of Poole. Slightly tweaking the character gave Scorsese
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and Lewis carte blanche to bend the facts to their whim Still a gang leader and butcher Cutting had united several gangs around New York building an empire based on fear and intimidation Who holds sway over the five points Us natives born rightwise
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For the foreign hordes, they're filing it. Part of that intimidation is constantly reminding the city what he has done. Which brings us to
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here, an annual celebration where Cutting toasts his victory over Priest Valon
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leader of rival gang, the Dead Rabbits. This is the moment Valen's son, Amsterdam
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played by Leonardo DiCaprio, was chosen to be Cutting's public execution. Like most everything Cutting does
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the intent here is twofold. One is to remind everyone of his victory
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It's the equivalent of throwing yourself a party under the guise of a friend's memorial
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What he really wants is to remind everyone that he has left every other gang under his foot
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This is his annual reminder that the entire city fears him. And if not, they should
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The other is weirdly out of genuine respect. We learn early on that Cutting believes Valon was the only man he'd ever killed worth remembering
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While their ideals could not have been more different, he believed Valon was a noble and
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worthy opponent. Having been defeated by the man earlier, Cutting cut out his own eye because he felt shame
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for not being able to look at the priest. It's a small bit of character that shows this is how strongly and adamantly the man feels
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about betrayal. And now, as he sends a clear and poignant message that he is proud of his capacity for
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brutality, he feels betrayed by a man he had grown to trust. Up to this point, Amsterdam had disguised who his father was
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He worked his way into Cutting's gang by saving the man's life, not because he didn't want
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the man dead, but because he felt his revenge should be at his own hand
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And what better time to do it than a ceremony honoring his father? I extinguish his life and consume him as I consume these flames in honor of Priest Valen
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Due to a betrayal by Amsterdam's friend, Johnny, Cutting knows Amsterdam identity and intent Day does an amazing job here as Cutting drawing the boy out as he makes his toast He holds uncomfortable eye contact with Amsterdam knowing the attack will come at any moment
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When it does, Cutting not only defends himself, but wounds Amsterdam in the process
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While some of our most memorable villains rely on surrounding themselves with followers
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and staying in the background, Cutting has always been content to be in the forefront
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of any attack. At this moment, he only wants to wound. He wants to make an example of what happens to those who betray him
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Cutting is terrifying in his posture as he walks toward the wounded Amsterdam
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He announces who the man really is and the, what he perceives as, cowardly attack
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Saves my life one day so he can kill me the next like a sneak thief instead of fighting like a man
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When he calls Amsterdam a sneak thief, it is genuinely one of the most horrific things he could call a man that sullied the memory of his father
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When the actor calmly walks towards the reeling Amsterdam, it's a march of intimidation and verbal attacks
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that could really only be pulled off by someone like Day-Lewis. A base defiler, unworthy of a noble name
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After bounding atop the pin down Amsterdam, Cutting veers into a full kayfabe wrestler
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He understands the importance of maintaining his image as a working-class butcher turned gangster and tells the crowd
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We need to tenderize this meat a little bit. then levels a barrage of headbutts
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We have to take a moment here to talk about Scorsese and cinematographer Michael Ballhaus' framing
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While we initially started in level shots with the camera never looking up to or down upon our characters
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everything in this brutality is from a character's point of view. We see Amsterdam battered and struggling on top of the table
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like a wounded animal. We look up to the towering behemoth that is cutting
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Every shot here serves the purpose of showing who these characters are and the power they possess or have lost And when we focus on that axe spin with Cutting outstretched hand beneath we know the man is putting on a show He has an innate ability to give the crowd what they want As he looms over the stabbed and wounded Amsterdam he asks the crowd what they want
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and the crowd bends to his whim. When one man demands heart, Cutting is quick to retort
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The heart! The heart! This boy has no heart! Here we have another wonderful usage of slipping small moments of character into what is otherwise
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a vicious attack. We're quickly reminded that it isn't just the assassination attempt that has
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angered the man. We're certain that's happened many times. What genuinely hurts his feelings
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is the betrayal. Remember, this is a man who cut out his own eye when he felt the sense had
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betrayed him. He even said he would have cut out the other if he thought he could defeat Priest
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Blind. Now we're left to wonder what he could possibly do to someone who not only deceived him
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to work their way into his inner circle, but further tarnished the memory of the only man
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he felt was worth remembering. And while his motivations and moral codes
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seem gallant on the surface, it's important to remember who this man is
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He is not a good man betrayed, nor is he a noble hero being usurped by cowards
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He's a xenophobic killer who has aligned himself with fellow scared bigots
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For all his rhetoric about honor and bravery, a lot of the crowd he gathers here
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are members of the Know Nothing Party. In another parallel to Poole, Cutting has a deep resentment for any immigrant or Roman Catholic he believes is here to take
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jobs or undercut what they consider an honest wage. Americans are born
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I don't see no Americans. I see trespassers. It's frankly deplorable and wholly depressing that the same thoughts he had over 100 years
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ago are still prevalent today. That's clearly an idea not lost on Scorsese or the screenwriters
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They know this man is evil and never try to tell us otherwise. In this exact moment, in this scene more than any other, they shout from the rooftops
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here's your villain, not just cutting, but the room that cheers him on