Gangs Of New York (2001) - Synopsis

gangs of new york - synopsis headingBased on the novel by Herbert Asbury and Luc Sante, Gangs Of New York (2001) is set (oddly enough) in New York City, 1840-1863. A young man named Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio) seeks vengeance against Bill 'The Butcher' Poole (Daniel Day Lewis), the man who killed his father. Though he secures the help of pickpocket Jenny Everdeane, the task at hand may be more dangerous than Amsterdam ever imagined when he realizes that his father was murdered as a result of gang warfare between the powerful Manhattan Irish and Italian gangs. Amid the crooked cops and corrupt politicians of the Tammany Hall era, political enforcer Bill Poole stands out as only one scoundrel in the crime-plagued Five Points section of lower Manhattan in the early 1860s.