Gangs Of New York
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- United States, 2002
Gangs Of New York follows the fortunes of Amsterdam Vallon, orphaned as a young boy by the mercurial leader of a rival gang in 19th century lower Manhattan.
The film marks the return of Leonardo DiCaprio who had given a string of pin-up roles the slip and DiCaprio’s protagonist Amsterdam Vallon is backed by a fine cast of Irish players.
Daniel Day-Lewis was persuaded by Martin Scorsese to quit his apprenticeship as a Florentine cobbler - a job he’d been doing since his self-imposed retirement from acting five years previous - and join the cast of Gangs. His picaresque performance as the formidable object of Vallon’s vengeance dominates Scorsese’s most successful period drama to date.
