Prospectus

Prospectus

Films

For my Comparative Research Paper I will be comparing Martin Scorcese's Gangs of New York and Joon-Ho Bong's Snowpiercer.

Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York is based off real events that happened in the mid 1800's in New York's Five Points. Following the lives of Bill the Butcher (Daniel Day Lewis; There Will Be Blood) and Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio; Titanic) at the beginning of the American Civil War. Bill an American native and Amsterdam an Irish Catholic have many different identities that the other is not aware of, culminating in the New York Draft Riots of 1863.

Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer is a political sci-fi film apparently based on a real idea. The Snowpiercer is a train that circumnavigates the Earth in exactly one year. The numbers of cars is not mentioned in the film, but  an extremely large amount of cars is presented at certain points in the film with each one containing different social classes and personas. These social classes are each different, but each bring something to life on the Snowpiercer.

Cultural Identity

These movies both deal with cultural identity in many different ways, from social classes in Snowpiercer in every single train car to the nationalities, like the Irish Catholics, in Gangs of New York. The differences and similarities in these identities are what I plan to break down and discuss in my paper.

Timeline

My timeline will be as follows