Interesting perspective -- there's an active discussion right now on the
mailing list for high school social studies teachers, and the general
consensus there is that "Gangs of New York" misrepresents the real
history something awful. The main controversy in the discussion is not
about the historical accuracy of the film (which is deemed poor at
best), but about the broader question of whether such significant
fictionalizing of true events and people for dramatic purposes really
matters, and how far can a filmmaker go and still legitimately claim the
work depicts real events.
-----------> AH