Gangs of New York: Making the Movie

by Luc Sante (Introduction)

• Used

  Paperback
  2003

  $4.19

  Gangs of New York is the film Martin Scorcese has been wanting to make since the 1970s and is the natural follow-on to his other films about New York gangland: Mean Streets and Goodfellas . Set in the period 1840 to 1863, it is the story of the gang members, outlaws, crooked cops and corrupt politicians that flourished in New York's underworld. The Dead Rabbits and the Native Americans are the two gangs at the heart of the film. Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio), the son of the Rabbits' murdered leader, vows vengeance on the man who killed him, Bill The Butcher Poole (Daniel Day-Lewis). Production started in August 2000 on a specially constructed site in Italy that recreates mid 19th-century New York. The film is believed to have cost around $100 million to make, Miramax's most expensive ever, and this book charts the making of this epic, with cast interviews, full shooting script and production photographs, costume and set-designs, and behind-the-scenes images.