Gangs of New York

Warning:Wikipedia contains spoilers

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

It is a story about outlaws of that time, centering around the conflict between the "native" criminal underworld and immigrant gangs. Bill The Butcher Poole was a real-life character who is buried in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

The opening of the film takes place in the 1840s, but most of the action takes place in the early 1860s.

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].