It’s 1863. Amsterdam Vallon returns to the Five Points of America to seek vengeance against the psychotic kingpin, Bill the Butcher, who murdered his father. With an eager pickpocket by his side and a new army, Vallon fights his way to seek vengeance on the Butcher and restore peace in the area.

Martin Scorsese has never made a western, but that genre’s approach to myth-making finds its urban equivalent in this vigorous historical epic. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis, the vastly underrated Gangs of New York carries even more political potency today than it did on release.