The Warriors
Directed by: Walter Hill.
Written by: David Shaber and Walter Hill based on the novel by Sol Yurick.
Starring: Michael Beck (Swan), James Remar (Ajax), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), Brian Tyler (Snow), David Harris (Cochise), Tom McKitterick (Cowboy), Marcelino Sánchez (Rembrandt), Terry Michos (Vermin), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy), Roger Hill (Cyrus), David Patrick Kelly (Luther), Lynne Thigpen (D.J.).
If nobody told you that The Warriors was controversial in 1979, you would never be able to tell it was, watching in in 2017. This vision of gang life in the “near future” in essentially an escapist fantasy, with simple characters that director co-writer/director Walter Hill gives a romantic view – comparing these street gangs with the fighters in Ancient Greece (I watched the directors cut, which highlights this comparison in the beginning – and adds unnecessary comic book panels at various points). Apparently in 1979, this film riled up real street gangs – and inspired violence at screenings, although the extent of which seems to have been exaggerated. Hill says the reason that young people responded to the film so strongly, was because it was a film that didn’t judge or condemn its street gang members – which is true. But the film doesn’t really show us the gang doing anything that we could judge them for. This is a street gang whose whole existence seems to be about being a street gang – with none of the crime that goes along with it. They don’t rob anyone, steal anything or beat up anyone who isn’t a rival gang member – or a cop trying to keep them down. They aren’t racist – all the gangs seem to be fully integrated. What precisely their purpose in being a gang is unclear – they just are.The plot of The Warriors is simple. The title gang is from Coney Island, who come to Manhattan (I think, they’ll end up more than one of the boroughs however) for a huge gang summit. The leader of the biggest gang is killed during his inspirational gang speech, and The Warriors are framed for his murder – their leader essentially beaten to death in the melee. The rest of the gang somehow escape though – and head out on the run. They need to make it make to their own turf, and quick, because word has gotten out (via a DJ, who I assume is the official DJ of gangland, I guess) that they are dead meat. Through the streets and subways, this gang has to fight their way home. There is some infighting – Swan (Michael Beck) and Ajax (James Remar) don’t agree on which one of them should be the leader – but mainly, the eight of them stick together. They even pick up a girl along the way (Deborah Van Valkenburgh) – mainly it appears so that Swan can say misogynistic things to her until she falls in love with him.
It’s hard to see the controversy this movie inspired today – everything about its themes, characters and dialogue is so simplistic, straight forward and frankly, dull, that it’s tough to take it seriously as a film about, well, pretty much anything. Yet, the film has become a cult item – something many people still gravitate to. And, to be honest, there is still value to the film. Most of that comes from Hill’s direction – this is a fluid action movies, with a great pace, and a camera that follows, often at length, as these characters go to the dark places in New York. Hill, who has always been a fine director of action (and, for me anyway, not much else), knows precisely what he’s doing in the staging of the action sequences – most of which have an extended buildup, and then are over quickly. As a purely visual experience, I enjoyed The Warriors.
As anything approaching social commentary, the film fails though. It presents a New York gang scene that never was, and is never going to be – sanitizing it to the point of making it dull. No, the film didn’t judge its characters – and maybe the gangs of the time liked seeing themselves as heroes. But they’re hardly even that in The Warriors – more than anything, they are bland, boring, one-dimensional characters in a film that works as a visual experience, and not much else.
