Gangs of New York movie corrections

Mistakes

When Mulraney tries to kill Amsterdam and Amsterdam grabs him from behind there's is no way that he would just have put his arms around his neck and not neutralized the gun first. Luckily Mulraney was kind enough to shoot into the air and then drop the gun. See more...

Trivia

At the end of the film you see two gravestones, "Priest" Vallon and William Cutting. Behind them is a river, with a view of lower Manhattan after that. You see a bridge being built,and the city growing and changing. The two men had to have been buried in Brooklyn, rather than Manhattan for this view. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Gangs of New York (2002) - 25 corrections

Directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Brendan Gleeson, Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Henry Thomas, Jim Broadbent, John C. Reilly, Leonardo DiCaprio, Liam Neeson (add more)

Genres: Crime, Drama

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Corrections

When the four scapegoats are hanged you see two shots of people watching them fall, following them with their eyes on their way down: first the wife of one of the condemned scapegoats, then Bill's followers. The funny thing is that in the second group, only Amsterdam seems to look at the executed, while McGloin and the others keep staring into empty space where the hanged had been before they fell. [McGloin and the gang are looking at the right place, it is Amsterdam who is simply looking down in disgust. You can see in the following shot that Amsterdam looks back up like everybody else for a split second.]

Time

In the movie, Amsterdam says that the New York City Draft Riots lasted for four days. It really lasted only three days. [They ran for four days. July 13-16, 1863. 13, 14, 15 and 16, four days.]

At the end of the movie (before the credits roll) you see the skyline of modern New York, with the World Trade Center Towers included. As patriotic as this is, the towers are placed incorrectly in relation to the Brooklyn Bridge. They should be more to the left. [The positioning of the World Trade Centre is correct. As it was shot on location, that is the correct position, and the Towers should not be "more to the left" as suggested.]

Late in the film when Bill is standing outside the barber shop staring down Monk, the Irish man running for Sheriff, Monk holds his club in his right hand with the leather strap around his fist. A quick cut to Bill's straight face, and then they show Monk holding the club in his left hand with no strap visible. [First of all there is enough time between shots for Monk to switch the club to his left hand. Second of all the strap isn't visible when the club is in his left hand, because he is now gripping the other end of the club and the end with the strap is not visible in the shot.]

Time

Near the end, when they are reading off the telegraph messages, one message reports an ironclad lying off the city, ready to act. But the ship we see firing into the city is a wooden ship, not an ironclad. [Perhaps there are TWO ships out there?]

Time

In the scene where Amsterdam is looking at the dead at the end of the movie, the dead are shown breathing. [This "mistake" is often submitted for films with a large battle sequence that leaves a lot of bodies on the ground. The question is this: why assume they are all dead already? Battle casualties in the real world almost always list more wounded than dead, and the wounded still breathe. In a fight with melee weapons (or even firearms, for that matter), most kills are not instant, but delayed deaths following serious wounds. Those "dead" just aren't quite dead yet.]

Time

Every time you see a person or soldier holding a rifle or pistol, you'll notice that the weapon has no primer cap under the hammer (which means there is nothing to create a spark to ignite the powder) and (especially with the rifles) quite frequently has no ram rods (without which they cannot reload.) [The movie primarily takes place in 1863, when most firearms were using cartridge ammunition, or at least cap-and-ball ammunition, no ramrods or external primer systems required. You're describing muzzle loading firearms, from an earlier period.]

At the very beginning of the theater scene, we see an actor's face close up who is dressed as Abraham Lincoln. Look closely at the right side of his beard. It's a false beard because you can see a gap between it and his skin where the beard has lost its grip on his cheek. [It's a theater scene. The beard is supposed to be fake. It's a make-up mistake in the play, but not in the film itself.]

Corrected by SexyIrishLeprechaun

At the beginning, when the two gangs meet for a fight, there is snow on the ground - indicating that it is winter. But there is no condensation vapour coming from the actors as they speak. ["Breath-steam" is dependent on the lungs adding enough heat and moisture to the air during a single breath. The longer you are outside in the cold, the cooler and dryer the inside of your lungs are and eventually the steam stops. The atmospheric conditions also are a factor (humidity/dew-point) so that sometimes you don't get any effect at all even if it is quite cold.]

Corrected by Myridon

Amsterdam's accent changes frequently through the movie from American to Irish. [It's supposed to - he's lived in the house of reform for 15-16 years, so his accent is going to be very inconsistant. This is confirmed on the commentary on the DVD.]

In the first big fight scene (when Amsterdam was a young boy), the conflict is shown in great detail. Viewers can see the deaths of hundreds of people, most of them occurring in the center of the brawl. However, when the camera pans out at the end of the scene, there are only a few bodies scattered around, and the majority of them are on the edges of where the fight occured. [The people in the middle of the brawl are already being wheeled away in carts or wagons, leaving only two dozen or so bodies on the outskirts.]

Time

In the scene where Daniel Day-Lewis shows Leonardo DiCaprio how to stab a person, using a pig, Day-Lewis hands over the knife to DiCaprio. In the shot that actually shows the knife exchanging hands, the handle is black plastic. [It's not clear if the hand of the knife is plastic or wooden or made of some other material. One cannot be certain about that.]

Time

When Amsterdam sees the man who told Bill who he was, he walks up to him with his hands in his pockets. Camera angle changes and his hands are now at his side. [The first time Amsterdam and Johnny meet one-on-one after the betrayal Amsterdam has his hands in his pockets, then takes them out and reaches for a beam. There's nothing wrong with this scene.]

When Amsterdam is fighting with the police officer, the policeman is seen with his gun in his hand and he fires it as it's pointed straight up. The camera angle changes and the policeman now has his hands around his neck and the gun is nowhere to be seen. [Mulraney visibly dropped the gun.]

Time

When Bill calls Jenny up to the stage, Amsterdam stands up and reaches over to help her up. Camera angle changes and he is seen standing up again. [He is not getting up in the second shot but just straightening a little.]

When Bill is talking to Amsterdam about fear being the reason he has lived as long as he has, the camera cuts to Amsterdam and you can hear an audio clip that was added after the scene was shot. [I have listened to the scene several times and I couldn't hear anything strange.]

When Bill thanks Amsterdam he kisses his own hand and lays it on Amsterdam's head. Camera angle changes and his hand is now on his forehead. [There's a huge bunch of hair hanging over Amsterdam's forehead that, in the first shot, may give the false impression that Bill lays his hand on top of Amsterdam's head. If there's a difference it may be an inch or less.]

In the scene where Amsterdam has slept with Jenny and Bill the Butcher comes into the room, Amsterdam makes a point of covering Jennys shoulder with the bed cover. When Bill has left the room the cover is under Jennys arm even though she hasn't stirred at all. [Jenny's arm is over the bed covers during the entire scene. Amsterdaam just pulls part of the covers higher up her shoulder to cover her up bit more, but because he is moving about on the bed, the covers move back down again during the rest of the scene.]

Corrected by mandy gasson

The young Amsterdam had very crooked teeth. Leo DiCaprio has much better teeth. I don't think they had braces back then, especially not in asylums. [At the time Amsterdam was very young and naturally had a bit crooked teeth of a young boy which naturally changed the shape when he grew up without any braces.]

Near the end of the movie the Brooklin Bridge is shown. The year is 1863, and the Booklin Bridge wasn't constructed until 1870. [ The Brooklyn Bridge appears in the very last sequence of the film where the gradual growth of New York is shown from 1863 to our days ending with the Twin Towers shot. The bridge simply represents the first significant change of New York's landscape after 1863, which indeed occurred around 1870. Scorsese in no way intended to show it as a part of 1863 New York.]

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Gangs of New York (2002) - 25 corrections

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