From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Gangs of New York is a 2002 film made by the studio Miramax, set in the middle 19th century in the Five Points district of New York City. It was directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan. The film was loosely inspired by Herbert Asbury's 1928 book of the same title, ISBN 1560252758.
The cast:
- Leonardo DiCaprio
- Cameron Diaz
- Daniel Day-Lewis
- Jim Broadbent
- John C. Reilly
- Henry Thomas
- Brendon Gleeson
- Gary Lewis
- Liam Neeson
The opening of the film takes place in 1846, but most of the action takes place in the early 1860s, a period when the two principal controversies in New York were the great wave of Irish immigration to the city, and the federal government's prosecution of the American Civil War. The story follows the careers of Amsterdam and Cutting as they rise from crime bosses to political kingmakers during the reign of Boss Tweed (Broadbent), and culminates with a confrontation between the that coindcides with the New York Draft Riots of 1863.
While praised for the accuracy in reproducing costumes and the general environment of the mid-1800 New York City, the film has been criticized for greatly exaggerating the violence in the gang fights and city riots, and also for historical inaccuracies (for example, Bill the Butcher never lived in the Five Points and died much earlier than the film depicts). See for example [1], [1] and [1].
