Gangs of New York Page #27

JENNY:

This city will burn like Gomorrah.

AMSTERDAM:

Then we'll take what we can before it gets too hot.

JENNY:

I think it's past that already.

AMSTERDAM:

It'll never come to that. These people ain't gang-led and they have no

purpose.

They'd rather die for themselves than the army, that's the purpose. What

would you do?

AMSTERDAM:

Fight better and not get so mad. They're only doing what they should have

done years ago. Why'd they ever think there was another way to live?

JENNY:

They believed what people told them, that's all.

AMSTERDAM:

What people is that? The Reverend at the mission? Boss Tweed? Daniel

Killoran? People like Johnny Sirocco?

JENNY:

You believed Johnny.

AMSTERDAM:

Hell.

JENNY:

And I believed you.

AMSTERDAM:

I ain't done nothing different than what I told you, Jen.

JENNY:

I believed what you said abaut being with me, with me alone. But you lied

to me. It's not me alone, it's just you and Bill Poole. Youlre so

blood-blind you can't see nothing else, not even this!

AMSTERDAM:

I don't care a fine damn about what they want! It's what I want! They

won't dare harm the Points, that's all I care about! Let them turn the

rest of the city into hell! It's another country anyway.

JENNY:

It's not a country for me, Amsterdam. I don't know about you. Will you

come with me?

AMSTERDAM:

Not now.

JENNY:

Now is when I'm going. Will you come?

AMSTERDAM:

I don't want all this fighting to go to waste, Jen. I want to come out of

it with something. And I got to be waiting for the Butcher.

CUT TO:

101 INT. UNDERGROUND/JACOB'S LADDER

Jenny digs out her treasure from her mother's grave, throws open the box,

starts to GRAB all the swag she can and hide it on her person... in her

pockets, under her clothes, anywhere. She takes as much as she can, but

she has to travel fast.

CUT TO:

102 EXT. STREET NIGHT

Beginning a swift series of scenes that are like a laudanum nightmare.

The street is JAMMED with people fleeing and people fighting... as Jenny

forces her way through, trying to escape.

A small mob starts to ATTACK a house where a TERRIFIED FAMILY stands in

the doorway.

FAMILY MAN:

We're with you, don't harm us!

MOB MAN:

Show us your spirit and come out with us then!

MOB WOMAN:

And put a candle in the window to show you're one with us! Every light is

a flame against the draft!

The WIFE begs her husband not to join the mob, but they PULL HIM out into

the street. The Mob Woman hands the Wife a candle, then runs back to join

the mob.

Jenny starts to cross Paradise Square now... tries to cross, anyway... and

passes the stand where Tweed delivered his speech that very morning. She

sees:
the Cavalry officer. Several MOB WOMEN have revived him with water.

He has been beaten terribly, but as he MOANS and starts to regain

consciousness, the MOB WOMEN fall upon him with fresh fury, KICKING and

HITTING his helpless body. They BREAK his bones with rocks and TEAR OFF

the fancy braid of his uniform to hang around their necks.

Now a SECOND MOB RUSHES toward the first from the opposite side of

Paradise Square. Chaos. Jenny is buffeted wildly. It's like being in a

whirlpool. She grabs a LITTLE GIRL whose face is bruised and blaody but

whose eyes shine wildly.

JENNY:

What is it?

LITTLE GIRL:

Cops has everything closed to the north, and the militia's coming.

CUT TO:

103 EXT. STREET/FIVE POINTS NIGHT

As Jenny presses her way through the mob-devoured streets. She sees: MEN,

WOMEN and CHILDREN attacking a small group of BLACKS.

BOY:

My Daddy don't have to die for you! Why should he fight and die for you?

Jenny looks ahead, sees: the river, in the distance. And flames. She runs

forward, STUMBLES. Some of the swag FALLS to the street. She SCRAMBLES to

pick it up as Rioters rush by her.

CUT TO:

104 EXT. PIERS HUDSON RIVER NIGHT

MATTE:
The surface of the water looks like a mirror made of flame. The

piers are BURNING. The docks are ash.

SAILORS battle a MOB for possession of a small rowboat. As they fight, the

boat starts to DRIFT. Jenny spots it, RUNS for it

... but so does ANOTHER GIRL. Younger than Tenny--20 maybe, Jennyls age

when Amsterdam fell in love with her. They both get to the boat at the

same time. Each grips it by a gunwale, and they STARE at each other like

two jungle beasts over a kill.

JENNY:

I'd kill you for this.

The Girl lunges at her with a knite, and Jenny SHOOTS. The GIRL slides

into the flame-reflecting Hudson as if she drowning in a pit of lava.

Jenny climbs into the boat and frantically starts to row. We stay CLOSE on

her ... working the oars clumsily, furiously ... moving the boat across

the water, trying to get away from the city...

... and we go WIDER now. A huge line of IRON--like the side of a

glacier... bisects the frame, then starts to move. Jenny

turns, SEES it. It is ...

... the looming hull of an ironclad war ship (MATTE). It LOBS cannon fire

into the city, setting off tremendous explosions.

Jenny TURNS back for the shore...

... as cannonballs land, devastating rioters.

CUT TO:

105 EXT. SHORE/RIVER NIGHT

MATTE:
Police and MILITIA push the rioters back toward the river like

rats. A cannanball EXPLODES in their midst...

... injuring many more cops and militia than rioters. The rioters rally,

RUN over the bodies of fallen cops and soldiers. Now the advantage is

theirs; cops and militia are in retreat.

Jenny climbs up on shore and joins the mob as it presses back inland.

CUT TO:

106 EXT. DOYERS STREET/THE BLOODY ANGLE NIGHT

Further from the docks. Shells still exploding in the distance. Jenny

moves with the marauding mob, recognizes Doyers Street. She splits away

from the mob, moves stealthily into the street known as the Bloody Angle.

And STOPS.

Weird shadows dance on the walls of the buildings. SMOKE and EERIE LIGHT.

The angle is lined with lampposts. And from every lamppost dangles the

BODY of a black man. Or woman. Or child. Some are still smouldering.

At the base of a lamppost, a group of RIOTERS have cut open the hog-tied

CORPSE of a black man and are pouring oil into it. One of the Rioters sees

Jenny, grins and holds out the TORCH he's holding. She shakes her head and

starts to BACK out of the alley.

The Rioter touches the torch to the oil in the wound of the corpse. The

body IGNITES in flame. The RIOTERS pull on a rope and the body rises,

burning, to the top of the lamppost ...

... where its awful shadow joins all the others in the madhouse

refractions on walls all up and down the street. On the street, as the

flames dance and the bodies burn, rioters DANCE and SING. Walpurgis Night.

From these mad SHADOWS, we...

DISSOLVE TO:

107 EXT. ROOF/JACOB-S LADDER NIGHT

... the face of Amsterdam, stepping out of the SHADOWS of the roof. There

are flames in the distance. The whole gang is assembled, facing him as he

speaks.

AMSTERDAM:

No we ain't going to fight, but we can take something for ourselves out of

this.

JIMMY SPOILS:

I want to know who hung them bodies in the Bloody Angle. I want to address

who done it.

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