Gangs of New York

Gangs of New York is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book The Gangs of New York.  The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis.

Gangs of New York was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture (won by Chicago).  It didn't win any.

The film is set in 1863 (during the American Civil War), when a long-running Catholic–Protestant, nativist-immigrant feud erupts into violence, just as an Irish immigrant group is protesting the threat of conscription during the Civil War. Scorsese spent twenty years developing the project. Principal photography took place in Cinecittà, Rome and Long Island City, New York City.

Amsterdam (DiCaprio) and Bill (Day-Lewis) are leaders of rival criminal gangs in New York City.  Unknown to Bill, Amsterdam is the son of a rival gang leader he killed years before.

The Civil War draft riots break out just as the two rival gangs are preparing to fight, and Union Army soldiers are deployed to control the rioters. As the rival gangs fight, cannon fire from ships is directed into Paradise Square, interrupting their battle shortly before it begins.

Many of the gang members are killed by the naval gunfire, soldiers, and rioters. Bill and Amsterdam face off against one another until Bill is wounded by shrapnel. 

Historically, on July 11, 1863, (8 days after Gettysburg) mobs, mostly of foreign-born, especially Irish, workers surged onto the streets, assaulting residents, defying police, attacking draft headquarters, and burning buildings to protest their conscription into the Union Army.  Immigrants mostly arrived in northern cities and their numbers gave the north an advantage over the south in the war.

One thing that struck me about this movie was that Bill's gang was made up of the grandchildren of immigrants (now nativists), while Amsterdam's gang was of current immigrants.  I have never forgotten that I, a native born American, am a grandchild of immigrants to the USA.