Gangs of New York

In early 1860s New York, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon is released from prison and returns to the Five Points, seeking revenge against his father's killer, William Cutting, a powerful anti-immigrant gang leader. He knows that revenge can only be attained by infiltrating Cutting's inner circle. Vallon's journey becomes a fight for personal survival and to find a place for the Irish people.

Scorsese's sprawling historical epic earned broadly favorable notices, though rarely the full-throated acclaim its ambitions invited — critics were divided over whether its sheer scale and Daniel Day-Lewis's commanding villain were enough to paper over a weak central story, an overstuffed thematic agenda, and two leads many found miscast. The production design and historical texture drew consistent admiration; everything built around them proved far more contested.