Gangs of New York (2002): Welcome to 1860s Manhattan, Where Everyone’s Angry and Hygiene Is a Myth
If you’ve ever wondered what The Godfather would look like if it were set in a diseased mud pit full of xenophobic moustaches and inexplicable top hats, congratulations – you’ve already seen Gangs of New York. Released in 2002, this was Martin Scorsese’s long-gestating passion project: a historical epic so ambitious, it took three decades, a small fortune and the full emotional range of Daniel Day-Lewis’s eyeballs to complete.
At 167 minutes long (not including the time you’ll spend Googling “Who were the Dead Rabbits?”), it’s a grandiose, blood-slicked opera of vengeance set against the backdrop of Civil War–era New York – a city where democracy is a bar fight and patriotism is mostly stabbing people for fun. Gangs of New York is ranked in our list The 50 Greatest Gangster Movies of All Time
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The Plot: Vengeance Served Lukewarm in a Bowl of Sludge
Our story begins in 1846, when a gang war erupts in the Five Points district – think of it as the grimy epicentre of 19th-century Manhattan, or “Times Square with more syphilis.” Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson, in full Christ complex mode) leads the Dead Rabbits, a gang of Irish Catholic immigrants. He’s promptly killed by Bill “The Butcher” Cutting, a violently patriotic nativist who believes in America the same way toddlers believe in Santa Claus: loudly and with frequent tantrums.
Flash forward 16 years and Vallon’s son Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio, still looking like a choirboy who’s just found his first whisky) returns from reform school to exact revenge. But instead of immediately stabbing the man who gutted his dad, Amsterdam decides to infiltrate Bill’s inner circle like some Dickensian Donnie Brasco.
Cue a swirling mess of political corruption, gang violence, romantic tension with Cameron Diaz (more on that later) and a third act so chaotically American it involves both a draft riot and a naval bombardment.
Yes, really. The U.S. Navy shells Manhattan. And not one person says, “This escalated quickly.”
Daniel Day-Lewis: A Man, A Moustache, A National Treasure
Let’s just get this out of the way: Gangs of New York belongs to Daniel Day-Lewis. Not in the sense that he stars in it – no, he devours it. Every frame with Bill the Butcher is like watching a Shakespearean warlord trapped in a Quentin Tarantino western. He twitches. He shouts. He carves meat like he’s been possessed by Gordon Ramsay’s war criminal ancestor.
And the accent. Oh, the accent. Allegedly based on recordings of 19th-century New Yorkers, it sounds like a drunk pirate doing slam poetry in an iron lung. But somehow, it works. It’s theatrical, terrifying and oddly poetic – like a racist peacock in a bloodstained apron.
Day-Lewis reportedly stayed in character between takes, because of course he did. He caught pneumonia after refusing to wear a modern coat in freezing temperatures. Method acting or cinematic Stockholm syndrome? You decide.
Leonardo DiCaprio: Pretty Boy Turns Pugilist
As Amsterdam Vallon, DiCaprio delivers a performance that straddles earnest vengeance and Victorian cosplay. He broods. He squints. He stabs people in the neck with a crucifix. His accent drifts between Brooklyn, Dublin and Mars, but that’s part of the charm. He’s the straight man in a world populated by walking caricatures and you can practically hear Scorsese whispering, “This is your pre-Oscar practice run, kid.”
This is Leo before The Revenant made him crawl into animal carcasses for awards, but after Titanic made him the poster boy for damp heartbreak. Here, he’s angry, confused and constantly getting punched – kind of like America itself.
Cameron Diaz: The Slightly Miscast Pickpocket with a Heart of Gold
And then there’s Jenny Everdeane, played by Cameron Diaz. She’s a pickpocket. She’s a con artist. She’s… very blonde, for 1860s Manhattan. Diaz tries her best in a role that mostly consists of looking conflicted while men shout at each other with knives. Her chemistry with DiCaprio feels more contractual than romantic, but again, that’s probably true to the era. Nothing says “steamy period romance” like unresolved daddy issues and lingering class resentment.
Historical Accuracy: About as Reliable as a Victorian Surgeon
Let’s be clear: this is not a documentary. If you walked away from Gangs of New York thinking, “Ah, yes, this is what 1863 looked like,” you may also believe in flat Earth theory and homeopathy.
Yes, the Five Points existed. Yes, there were gang wars. And yes, the New York City Draft Riots did occur and were, in fact, the largest civil uprising in U.S. history apart from the Civil War itself. But no, the Dead Rabbits and Bill the Butcher didn’t all live in a steampunk version of Mad Max. The film compresses, condenses and outright fabricates much of its narrative. It’s more myth than memoir, but Scorsese never promised accuracy. He promised knives, rage and people getting hit with bricks in slow motion. Mission accomplished.
Gangs of New York: 10 Bits of Trivia That’ll Stab You in the Curiosity
1. Daniel Day-Lewis Went Full Maniac
Lived as Bill the Butcher off-camera, learned to throw knives, refused modern clothes, caught pneumonia. Because sanity is for amateurs.
2. They Built the Bloody Five Points
Scorsese recreated 1860s NYC in Rome. Real buildings, real pig carcasses. No CGI. Just mud and madness.
3. Leo Got Punched. For Real.
An extra accidentally clocked DiCaprio during filming. Method acting meets amateur boxing.
4. Cameron Diaz Almost Got the Chop
Weinstein tried to replace her mid-shoot. Scorsese told him to jog on.
5. Bill the Butcher Was Based on a Real Racist Psycho
William Poole: actual butcher, boxer, nativist. Less charismatic, equally stabby.
6. It Took 30 Years to Make
Scorsese dreamt it in the ’70s. Got funding in the ’90s. Studio patience level: saintly.
7. U2 Beat Peter Gabriel to the Credits
Gabriel bowed out after Bono’s anthem bumped his track. There was blood. Not literally. Yet.
8. The Navy Bombed Manhattan (Kind Of)
Yes, the U.S. actually shelled New York during the Draft Riots. America: where overkill is tradition.
9. Day-Lewis Learned to Butcher for Real
He trained in Brooklyn and could carve meat like it owed him money.
10. Scorsese’s Cut Was Over 4 Hours
Weinstein slashed it. Somewhere, a longer, bloodier, even more epic version still lurks in a vault.
Production: Scorsese’s Money Pit of Mud and Murder
Gangs of New York had one of the most infamously chaotic productions of the early 2000s. Scorsese had been trying to make the film since the 1970s. Once Miramax and Harvey Weinstein got involved (shudder), things got messy.
The set? Built entirely from scratch at Cinecittà Studios in Rome, where they recreated 19th-century New York down to the dirt-covered cobblestones and suspiciously stained curtains. The budget ballooned to over $100 million, mostly because Day-Lewis insisted on real meat cleavers and Scorsese kept saying things like “More smoke. More mud. Make it filthier.”
It was a miracle the film even made it to cinemas. Weinstein reportedly wanted a shorter, more commercially friendly version. Scorsese wanted a 5-hour Irish opera of doom. What we got was the uneasy compromise: a nearly three-hour gangland fever dream that somehow managed to win zero Oscars despite ten nominations.
Because the Academy, like Amsterdam, can’t always get its revenge.
Cinematography & Design: Gorgeous Grime
Say what you like about the story, but visually, Gangs of New York is a masterpiece of organised chaos. Dante Ferretti’s production design is meticulous – muddy alleyways, makeshift tenements, gaudy saloons where every glass has a story (and at least three diseases). It looks, sounds and smells like the kind of place where tooth decay is a way of life and rats are considered tenants.
Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus bathes everything in golden gloom. The fights are brutal. The blood is almost artistically excessive. It’s a painting of Hell as imagined by a drunk historian.
Soundtrack: U2’s Worst Sin
The score, largely composed by Howard Shore (yes, Lord of the Rings guy), is as dramatic and sweeping as you’d expect. It combines traditional Irish folk tunes with ominous orchestral swells, underlining every knife fight and brooding stare.
Then there’s the U2 song – “The Hands That Built America.” A title so pompous it sounds like an Ayn Rand novel. It plays over the credits like Bono has just emerged from the rubble in slow motion to lecture you about history. The song was Oscar-nominated, because apparently the Academy was feeling generous toward Irish rock messiahs that year.
Themes: Immigration, Violence and the American Delusion
Beneath the beards and bloodshed, Gangs of New York is a furious love letter to the birth of modern America – if your idea of a love letter involves headbutts and institutionalised racism.
The film grapples with immigration, nativism and identity. It asks big questions like: Who gets to call themselves American? What does loyalty mean in a city built on grift? And is patriotism just tribalism in a top hat?
It’s about cycles of violence. About father and son legacies. About the kind of nationalism that wears a flag and carries a meat cleaver. And, in the film’s most cynical move, it shows how easily the oppressed can become the oppressors – a lesson that remains depressingly relevant.
Legacy: A Flawed Epic That’s Aged… Weirdly Well?
At the time of its release, Gangs of New York was divisive. Some called it a masterpiece. Others called it an overcooked mess with a side of facial hair. But over time, it’s come to be appreciated as one of Scorsese’s boldest, messiest achievements – a film that tries to punch history in the face and ends up punching itself a bit too.
It paved the way for more historical crime dramas (Peaky Blinders, Boardwalk Empire) and reminded Hollywood that historical epics don’t need to involve kings or corsets. Sometimes, all you need is a knife, a monologue and a really, really big hat.
My Final Thoughts: The Best Film About Gangs, Beards and Butchery You’ll Ever See
Gangs of New York is not perfect. It’s long. It’s loud. It’s historically wobbly. But it’s also utterly unique – a violent, chaotic, unashamedly operatic take on America’s ugly birth. It’s like watching a nation crawl from the gutter, dragging its prejudices behind it like a severed limb.
And at the heart of it all is Daniel Day-Lewis – part demon, part dandy, all legend.
Watch it again. Then take a hot shower. You’ll need it.
If You Like Gangs Of New York, I Recommend These Movies:
There Will Be Blood (2007) – Watch Daniel Day-Lewis drink everyone’s milkshake while capitalism slowly eats itself.
The Revenant (2015) – Leo gets mauled by a bear, crawls through the frozen hellscape of Canada and still ends up out-acted by a raccoon.
The Irishman (2019) – Three-and-a-half hours of regret, murder, and men eating bread alone in diners
Gangs of New York
Amsterdam Vallon
Bill "The Butcher" Cutting
Jenny Everdeane
Boss Tweed
Happy Jack
Johnny Sirocco
"Priest" Vallon
Walter "Monk" McGinn
