As the film begins, there is an American leader who is half American and half Irish, and he goes by the name Priest Vallon. As he prepares for battle, he looks like he is preparing for Mass. This is because of how he puts a collar around his neck. Priest has a young son who is called Amsterdam who trails behind his father as they pass through the labyrinth to fight a rival American born gang known by the name, Nativists (Asbury, 2001).
In war, the men use crude weapons such as knives, cleavers, bayonets, cudgels and swords to fight. As the war ends, the battle field is littered with dead bodies and Priest does not get lucky, he is slain by his enemy Bill the Butcher. This was the most famous gang fight that was ever …show more content…
He is one of the fearsome men in the movie and is fond of using his knife to tap his eye and in one case he uses the carcass of a pig to show Amsterdam how to kill a man using a knife (Cocks, 1993). Bill is a professional knife artist and he at one time terrifies Jenny during a knife-throwing sport. He misses narrowly to kill her. Jenny is a very independent young woman. As a pickpocket, she ranks very high in the hierarchy of other criminals. However, when she meets Amsterdam and falls in love with him, she becomes loyal and tender. At one point, she had to nurse Amsterdam whose health was failing (Scorsese,