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The movie starts with Bill the Butcher killing the leader of an Irish gang named Priest Vallon played by Liam Nesson in the 1850s. The 'Priest' s son Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five-Points, and plots revenge against Bill the Butcher for killing his father, during the American Civil War. Di Caprio’s character successfully ingratiates himself into Bill's mob, but he does not reveal his true identity.
The movie's plot is driven by both his desire to kill Bill and his growing admiration for the man. In the finale of the movie, Amsterdam confronts Bill the Butcher and his gang during the historic Anti-Draft riots of 1863. Amsterdam kills the gang leader and leaves for a new life in San Francisco. The movie was roughly based on the book by Herbert Asbury's, <i>The Gangs of New York</i>. This book is controversial, and many critics believe that Asbury sensationalized the period and his that his book is riddled with inaccuracies. <ref> Herbert Asbury's, <iii>The Gangs of New York</i> (New York, Garden City, 1928) </ref>.
====The Five Points====
[[File: Gang one.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Martin Scorsese, director of Gangs of New York]]
However, there are many exaggerations and inaccuracies. These include overstating the violence that took place at the time in the Five Points. The nature of the gangs and their motivations is not portrayed particularly accurately. Additionally, all of the characters and gangs in the movie are all fictional. The most serious inaccuracy is the distortion of the Draft Riots of 1863. Hopefully, someone makes a movie that does accurately portray these riots. On this basis, it could be said that the movie does manage to capture something of the Five Points and its gangs but is not a realistic portrayal of New York in the 1860s.
<div class="portal" style="width:85%;">====Related DailyHistory.org Articles====* [[How accurate is the movie The Aviator?]]* [[How Historically Accurate is the Outlaw King?]]* [[How Historically Accurate is season 3 of The Last Kingdom?]]* [[How historically accurate is the Medici Masters of Florence Series?]]* [[Is the movie Dunkirk historically accurate?]]* [[How historically accurate is the movie 'The Battle of the Bulge'?]]* [[How historically accurate is the movie 'Tora, Tora, Tora'?]]* [[How historically accurate is the movie 'A Bridge Too Far'?]]* [[How Historically Accurate is Season 2 of Versailles?]]* [[How accurate is the movie Patton?]]* [[How accurate is Stanley Kubrick's 'Spartacus'?]]* [[How Historically Accurate is Season 2 of Last Kingdom?]]* [[How Historically Accurate is Alexander?]]* [[How historically accurate is the Gladiator?]]</div> ====Further Reading====Dearstyne, Bruce W.Dearstyne, <i>The Spirit of New York: Defining Events in the Empire State's History</i> (Albany: Excelsior Editions, 2015) Herbert Asbury, <i>The Gangs of New York</i> (New York, Garden City, 1928) Barnett Schecter, <i>The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America</i> (New York, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005)
====References====
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