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.
Gangs of New York (2002)
2 trivia entries
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Liam Neeson, Cameron Diaz, John C. Reilly, Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Henry Thomas
Factual error: In one scene where Bill is in the Mayor's office, the mayor is sitting behind his desk and holding a bunch of papers, and on the upper right hand corner of the papers is a paper clip. Paperclips were not invented until 1899. (00:21:15)
Bill: He was the only man I ever killed worth remembering.
Question: Can someone please explain to me why the audience and Amsterdam are supposed to hate Butcher so much and think he's a loathesome person? He killed Vallon during a fight, fair and square, and was nothing but respectful to his dead enemy. He almost seemed to have regretted killing Vallon. He didn't act like a worse scum than anyone else until quite a while into the film.
Answer: Because he's very racist. That's why the audience hates him. He's very racist.
Answer: Because he was a racist? Secondarily while others might have acted that badly in his situation he was the one with the power and therefore the one holding a city hostage.
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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 ★