Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York has at least three different groups; Blacks, Irish, Americans, and Chinese. Scorsese’s film parallels Spike Lee’s film Do The Right Thing portraying Blacks, Italians and Koreans. Scorsese’s film encompasses a broader area of New York City while Lee’s work is a smaller version of New York in one particular neighborhood. One must argue that both films are similar in the concept of multiethnic, however each utilizes different sites, settings and plots.
Sal’s Pizzeria is the main setting and object of controversy in Do The Right Thing.
The storefront not only is a backdrop for many scenes, it symbolizes how the American Dream of ownership and success is not always attainable to all ethnic groups. The window glass itself is symbolic
neighborhood. “[Italians] have spoken (and continue to speak) proudly of the ways in which they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps by working hard and shunning government assistance” (p. 42, Guglielmo). Sal explained to his son, Pino, about how he kept his business strong and has pride in it and does not want to lose the pride of Italian Americans. Later, Smiley, a Black man, appears at the window with a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. with Malcolm X. In the background, there is a Korean family run fruit stand. This scene is very critical for Lee and how he wants to show more than one culture living and dwelling in one geographical area. Lee decided to frame these th glass which acts as a barrier between Italians and Blacks. In one particular scene, we see an Italian father and his son inside the store by the window, discussing about moving the business out of theree cultures in this scene together while conveying that there is separation as well. Three ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood but always remain and maintain a degree of segregation from each other. Italians are separated from the Blacks. This message is conveyed to the viewer by Smiley and the picture of King and Malcolm, by the window storefront. The members of the two ethnic groups can see each other through the window glass but cannot go near each other, or if they do there will be problems. The idea of multiethnic in Bed-sty neighborhood is to stay Black. Black people in the area do not want to give up their homes or their rights, to white people like Sal and the Koreans. Pino begged his father to move out of the neighborhood because he knows that it is not their place to be in the Blacks’ neighborhood. “While Sal ‘owns’ his pizzeria, Pino reminds him again and again that ‘this’ is not ‘their’ neighborhood; they don’t ‘belong’ here” (p. 113, Lubiano). Each family member brings forth two sides of the conflict. Sal represents the pride of being Italian American by working hard and owning a business. Pino represents the problem of having a business in a different ethnic area other than their own and how wrong is it for Italians to own a business in a Black neighborhood while the Blacks that live there are unable to start up and own businesses of their own.Spike Lee casted with Italians and Blacks to show that they are different. From the article by Pasquale Verdicchio, “Lee casts Italians as different, but not so different, from Blacks, because in the end they too cannot achieve (nor may they desire) full assimilation” (p. 106). Lee wants to show us that not only Blacks have to struggle for their rights, fighting against racism. Italians and Koreans from Do The Right Thing have to fight for their rights to own and run a business in a Black neighborhood. The character, Bugging Out, is Italian Black in real life, which is very interesting and ironic because the film portrays issues between Italians and Black. Bugging Outs real ethnic biracial Black Italian background is not shown in the film. In the film he is representing Black.
Lee also shows us the struggle of identity in his film with Pino and Mookie in their conversation about being Black. Pino was asking questions about famous Black lea
ders and said that they are not really Black. Mookie got back at Pino by suggesting that Pino wishes that he was Black instead of Italian. Both identities, Black for Mookie and Italian for Pino, are struggling here. Mookie is Black but is he Black? Pino is Italian but does he really want to be Black? Another view could be that Pino is frustrated with black people in his father’s pizzeria? Verdicchio states that , “The varying degrees of blackness, as they involve Pino and Vito, is illustrated by Vito’s association with Mookie and Mookie’s confrontational relationship with Pino regarding his Identity problems” (p. 110). in this scene, we can see the painting in the background, centered between Pino and Mookie. The picture shows land in Italy which is degraded, which refers to the Italians and how they are declining in Bed –Sty neighborhood. It also shows the problem of identity with Italians in America.The concept of multiethnic appears in Scorsese’s film, Gangs of New York. The main setting in this film is the Five Point Area in New York during 1876, then again during 1890. There are Americans, Irish, Black, and many more ethnics groups in that area. They are battling over the rights to the land and battling over their own identity. The immigrants fought for their rights in America while there is slavery going on. Not only did Blacks have to fight back, but the immigrants from Ireland, Italy, German, etc. have to fight back as well. The Chinese exists in this situation as well and they too have to fight against the Whiteness of America society.
Throughout the entire film, the Irish are trying to become assimilated and equal to Americans. They formed gangs to fight with other ethnic gangs in the area. The Irish were reall
y fighting for their rights to be Americans all at the same time as the Civil war was going on. The civil war is brought out in the film to convey the huge race conflict, the segregation between black and white America. However, in the film, what really is set forth is that these two conflicts, Irish and Civil War, are actually the very same idea with how any new immigrants continue to be segregated from the current Americans, or the people who were there before the Period of Immigration. The film clearly not only focuses on the New York area but includes the entire country with the Civil War which is happening in America. From Scorsese on Scorsese, he said, “After two and a half hours, I hope the riots do seem inevitable, even if you don’t understand fully why they erupted. You see how little attention the main characters pay to the Civil War and how little they care about the abolition of slavery, but there are other currents running through other parts of the city, beyond the Five Points” (p. 263). Scorsese used the civil war to show us the larger concept about multiethnic and how the general population is struggling with their own individual identities. Scorsese also took advantage of subtitles to label a variety of locations where there are battles going on. “In northern cities like New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Rochester, New Haven, Buffalo, and Philadelphia, various immigrants groups vigorously resisted the influx of Italians (particularly those from the South of Italy)…. Likewise, on Chicago’s near North Side, bloody battles involving sticks, guns, knives, and blackjacks occurred regularly between Swedes and Sicilians” (p. 35, Guglielmo). Scorsese shows the viewers the part of American history which most people are not aware of. He is educating us about immigrants’ history and of their experiences moving to America.Throughout the film, Gangs of New York, the priest Vallado’s son, Amsterdam, represents immigrants from European countries. In one scene, the native leader, Bill the Butcher, asks priest’s boy for his name. The boy said “Amsterdam” and the leader joked back and said he is now “New York.” The leader is representing the people who lived in America befo
re the immigrant’s period. This significant to demonstrate how Scorsese compares two cities from two different countries in the same room. Scorsese used the concept of putting these two together to create multiethnic into an issue between the leader and the priest’s son. The message of multiethnic is very broad and encompasses people one a very visual level but there is also a very deep and personal component to this issue. This is demonstrated by looking at Amsterdam and Jenny.When Amsterdam found out about Jenny’s abortion, in Gangs of New York, it causes Amsterdam to hold and control his sexual desires. This can be explained further by comments by Richard Dyer. “To ensure the survival of the race, they have to have sex- but having sex, and sexual desire, are not very white: the means of reproducing whiteness are not themselves pure white” (p. 26). It was Bill the Butcher who took out the baby. Bill is American while Jenny and Amsterdam are Irish. It is clearly that Bill does not want to lose his American whiteness with an Ir
ish woman. He removed the baby to protect his whiteness. He also wanted to protect his classification as a gang leader by not having kid with a prostitute, Jenny. Later in the film, Jenny and Amsterdam had sex. Richard Dyer wrote, “White men are seen as divided, with more powerful sex drives but also a greater will power. The sexual dramas of white men have to do with not being able to resist the drives or with struggling to master them” (p. 27). Amsterdam could not resist wanting to be with Jenny. It is ironic how Dyer wrote about keeping pure white by not having sex and but having great desire for sex. Jenny is a character which represents sexuality between Bill and Amsterdam.Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee used the concept of multiethnic frequently in their other works as well. This is a reflection on themselves in their real life. The characters in the film are struggling with identity. In reality, Scorsese is struggling with his Italian identity as well as his Christian identity. Spike Lee also struggles with his own identity within the Black community. Lee questions himself wondering if he is Black enough to be Black. Interesting enough Lee has become the voice for the Black community, carrying out messages that are not so obvious but still loud through his films. Lee has evolved to become one of the most successful Black filmmakers during late 20th century and into 21st century today. Martin Scorsese, has too, became one of the most well known directors of today’s Hollywood.
WORK CITED
Christie, Ian, ed. “Gangs of New York-New Projects.” Scorsese on Scorsese. Faber and Faber: London, 2003. 250-272.
Dyer, Richard. “The Matter of Whiteness.” White. Routledge: London UK, 1997. 1-40.
Guglielmo, Thomas A. “No Color Barrier: Italians, Race, and Power in the United States.” Are Italians White? How Race is Made in America. Routledge: London UK, 2003. 29-43.
Lubiano, Wahneema. “But Compared to What?: Reading Realism, Representation, and Essentialism in School Daze, Do the Right Thing, and the Spike Lee Discourse.” Representing Blackness: Issues in Film and Video. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick New Jersey, 1997. 97-122.
Verdicchio, Pasquale. “If I was Six Feet Tall, I would have been Italian: Spike Lee’s Guineas.” Bound by Distance: Rethinking Nationalism through the Italian Diaspora. Associated University Presses, Inc., London, 1997. 106-111.
