America: Heaven or Hell? The film Gangs of New York is one of those films that isn't afraid to show the ugly side of life in America. The immigration process left thousands struggling to make a living and left tensions high between the natural born citizens and those who travels across oceans to make a living. The movie displays this tension quite marvelously. In the days of early immigration, people were treated like garbage by those who were natural born citizens. The Irish were one of the major groups of people that were outright despised for traveling to America. The living conditions were horrendous, finding work was a challenge, and government officials were corrupt with power. The movie demonstrates the hatred that bred between people …show more content…
People living in structures that hold thousands of people who are depicted as dirty, smelly, and overall disgusting. Some of the people even live underground in a cave structure that's dark and windy. Even the blood on the ground after the all out war between Bill Cutting and his gang as well as Priest Vallon and the Dead Rabbits (Gangs NP). Right from the beginning its seen that these people live in squalor with gross conditions. The people are disgusting to look at, and live in highly unsanitary situations. The situation doesn't get better as more and more people arrive in the United States every day, which is seen as thousands of people are lined up to receive food and supplies. Unfortunately its learned that those who are meant to help the immigrants are actually taking advantage of them by buying votes for elections so they can remain in power where all the wealth is. Those taken advantage of the most were the Irish, who were absolutely despised by natives. They could vote though, which was seen as their only redeeming quality which is seen with the conversations between Boss Tweed and Cutting where Tweed admits to feeding the immigrants so they will vote for his upcoming election. It's also seen in the important scene in which Cutting murders Walter “Monk” McGinn in cold blood in front of the people he is meant to represent (Gangs NP). These are only some of the ways that demonstrates the corruption that is involved during immigration