Other mistake: Towards the end of the movie, when the mobs are breaking into stores/houses, the police come to try and stop them. The mob starts to throw rocks at the police. You can see one of these rocks, which look like they should be heavy, bounce right off of one of the officers' heads, and just bounce around as it hits the ground, like it weighs nothing at all. (02:14:30)
Other mistake: When Bill, Amsterdam and Tweed are standing on the docks, Bill mentions his father died in battle in 1814, 49 years before the movie takes place. Later, Bill tells Amsterdam that he's 47 years old. That means Bill's father died before he could have been conceived.
Other mistake: In the sequence where the "Natives" celebrate the 16th Anniversary of their victory over the "Dead Rabbits," we can see that the year is 1863 while the battle shown in the beginning of the movie happens in 1846. Shouldn't they have been celebrating 17th anniversary instead of a 16th?
Other mistake: When Mulraney tries to kill Amsterdam and Amsterdam grabs him from behind there 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. (01:53:25)
Other mistake: In the scene where Jenny is showing Amsterdam the advertisement for the ship (the Commodore) leaving for San Francisco, the movie makers made a misprint on the card. On the sail of the ship it says "Randolph M. Cooley - 118 Wall St". In the low right corner of the card, the address is "Randolph M. Cooley - 118 Water St. - Cor. Wall" (corner of Wall St.). (01:49:00)
Answer: Well, rather obviously, Amsterdam hates him because he killed his father. I mean, wouldn't you? It hardly matters that the fight was fair and that Bill showed respect about it, Amsterdam's not exactly likely to turn round, say "oh, that's alright then" and walk away. William Cutting (or William Poole, as he was in reality) was a ruthless, vicious man, who pretty much stopped at nothing to cement his control of the area. Whether he was actually worse than many of the others is questionable, but the film is based on Amsterdam's view of things - in that view, Bill is the enemy and we're supposed to see him as such.
Tailkinker ★