Was the movie gangs of New York as true 2 life as it could have been?
Scorsese has received both praise and criticism for historical depictions in the film. In a PBS interview for the History News Network, George Washington University professor Tyler Anbinder discussed the historical aspects of the film. Anbinder said that Scorsese’s recreation of the visual environment of mid-19th century New York City and the Five Points “couldn’t have been much better.” All sets were built completely on the exterior stages of Cinecittà Studios in Rome. Anbinder also praised the depiction of the persecution and discrimination against immigrants at the time, particularly the Irish. The riot which opens the film, though fictional, was “reasonably true to history” for fights of this type, except for the amount of carnage depicted in the gang fights and city riots. In his book How The Irish Invented Slang, Daniel Cassidy says that the film misrepresents the true meaning of the gang’s name, the “Dead Rabbits”. There is a large gang fight in 1846 depicted in the film. While
