Dead Famous lifts the lid on the slaughter that resulted when two underworld tribes went to war over drug profits during Melbourne’s infamous gangland killings.

This documentary takes viewers behind the frenzied headlines to put the killings in their true perspective. Leading crime writers John Silvester and Andrew Rule analyse the causes and effects of the decade-long war.

The film investigates the reasons it began, why it was allowed to escalate and flourish for so long and point to what lessons, if any, have been learned by law makers and breakers alike.

It was a unique combination of circumstances that allowed the gangland wars to flourish – and saw so many criminals turn the underworld into a glitzy public soap-opera, played out on the front pages of newspapers, nightly television news bulletins and popular magazines for months on end.

Using a mix of archive and actual event footage, subtle dramatic recreation in actual locations, interviews with major players from both sides of the law and incisive and entertaining comment from Silvester and Rule, Dead Famous traces the history and character of this brutal episode that has become such a part of our recent social history.