"The appearance of the law must be upheld, especially while it's being broken."

Rating: 8/10 (10 September 2017)

The story takes place during an era of American History that's generally overlooked in the history books, beginning in 1846 (for the opening sequence) through the early part of 1863 with the Civil War in progress. Some of the film deals with the New York City draft riots that occurred when Congress passed a conscription law, but the overarching story deals with the revenge sought by Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) some sixteen years after seeing his father murdered by Native gang leader, Bill 'The Butcher' Cutting (Daniel-Day Lewis).
For those of faint heart and weaker stomach, it's not an easy picture to watch with the amount of violence and bloodshed, dealt out by individuals with little regard for humanity. Alliances are switched by members of the former 'Dead Rabbits' gang after their leader, Vallon's father 'Priest' Vallon (Liam Neeson) is killed in a street brawl. It occurred to me at one point that the roles of Neeson and Day Lewis could have been reversed, that's how much they resembled each other as gang leaders.
The movie doesn't rate that highly here on IMDb with a fair number of detractors in the reviews section. That surprises me somewhat, as the story is gripping from a historical perspective, and the performances by the principals are more than adequate. Because the film's locations are situated primarily in a congested area of the City known as The Five Points, you don't have the epic sweep of more highly regarded films like "Gone With the Wind", but that's a minor point. For me, the picture opened up an era of American History worthy of further study that was bypassed during my own education. It looks like I'll be spending some time there learning about The Tammany Hall years and the corruption that took place under the regime of Boss Tweed.