Sloppy and Inaccurate

Rating: 2/10 (25 August 2005)

Along with so many people, I had waited for this movie to come out, but for a different reason. I have studied the Five Points at great length and wanted to see how Scorcese would deal with the subject. I was never more disappointed than when I left the theater after this drivel.
The storyline was okay if it stuck to the story. However, the action went in too many directions. But to an amateur historian, the fallacies are far too glaring. Fights between gangs were not agreed to in some formal setting, they just happened. And no one ever agrees to not use firearms...they were too frequently used. The Draft Riots were not central to the Five Points...the neighborhood had actually started to improve by the Civil War. By then, the Irish already controlled the Points and simply ignored the natives. The worst riot was in 1857, when the Bowery Boys' Riot flared up and left over 100 dead. The actual Bill the Butcher was a bit different from this one. William Tweed did not ascend to the head of Tammany until after the Draft Riots...
I could go on and on. Read Tyler Anbinder's "Five Points" or selections from "Gotham" to get a more accurate picture of the period.