In 1846, waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points. "Billy the Butcher" bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish gang "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon. After a bloody clash Vallon is dead and his son ends up in a brutal reform school. In 1862, that boy returns to seek vengeance against the man that killed his father.

Built in the 1960s, Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a sprawling housing project built to keep the poor as far as possible from Rio's glamorous beaches and resorts. By the 1980s, it has degenerated into a war zone so dangerous that visitors from outside risk being shot to death on sight, a poisonous stew of poverty, drugs, and crime. "If you run away, they get you, and if you stay, they get you, too, " says Rocket, who wants to be a photographer. Rocket's...

"After years of incarceration, Irish immigrant Amsterdam Vallon (DiCaprio) returns to lower Manhattan's lawless, corrupt Five Points section seeking revenge against the rival gang leader (Day-Lewis) who killed his father. But before long, Amsterdam's personal vendetta becomes part of an erupting wave of full-blown gang warfare."--Container.