Tweed, the political boss of Tammany Hall. As Bill plays a cruel game of tossing knives at Jenny, Amsterdam struggles to free her and becomes injured in the act.įollowing the derailment of his plans, Amsterdam regroups and conspires anew, hatching a plan to manipulate an election in a conspiracy with William M. Jealousy over their romance leads Johnny to betray his friend, allowing Bill to anticipate the strike. Amsterdam and Johnny both share a love interest in Jenny, a bold ingenious but also beautiful pickpocket- except Jenny only has affections for Amsterdam, to the perturbation of Johnny. Just as young Amsterdam’s plans are ready to come to fruition, his vision of killing Bill, on the very anniversary of his father’s defeat manifesting, his scheme is ultimately exposed and thwarted by his friend, Johnny. Armed with the knife that slew his own father, Amsterdam stays true to his mission as he deceives Bill and earns his trust. He seeks to avenge his father, infiltrating Bill the Butcher’s ranks. Amsterdam re-emerges as a young adult played by Leonardo DiCaprio, re-entering the realm of the Five Points Gangs with a deadly mission. Having witnessed his father’s murder, Vallon’s son “Amsterdam” flees the scene as he ensconces the blade used in the act, a tool the audience will later be reintroduced to.Īmsterdam grows up in a New York orphanage, destitute and alone, but never forgetting the memory of his father– or those responsible for his death.

Cutting slays his enemy, Vallon, after a vicious fight between the groups. With his young son in tow, the Dead Rabbits face off with the Natives, a group of American-born men of Irish descent led by William “Bill the Butcher” Cutting ( Daniel Day-Lewis). The Dead Rabbits, a Catholic clan of Irish-Americans, are led by Liam Neeson’s Vallon, a man clad with a priest’s collar and a cross as he braces to lead his gang into a battle. The film opens with the jarring and bloody struggle between the Dead Rabbits and the Protestant Confederation of American Natives. It is the year 1846, and the various gangs of the area fight for dominance of their territory. Overview of the Film and Critical Reception

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