Retro Film Review: The Warriors (1979)

Labelling is sometimes everything. In original Mad Max, the opening title set the plot of the movie in near future, thus making it one of the science fiction classics, despite the future world being almost exactly like our own. Walter Hill wanted the same opening title for his action classic The Warriors. Producers weren't thrilled by that idea and consequently the movie lost all of its futuristic overtones. On the other hand, producers were right on the mark; Walter Hill was accused of actually promoting some disturbing trends that were quite visible in contemporary America. To make the movie even more distant from future, plot was loosely based on Anabasis, historical book written by Xenophon, Greek mercenary soldier who had described his adventures in ancient Persia 2400 years ago.

Instead of ancient Persia, movie begins in contemporary Coney Island, where Cleon (played by Dorsey Wright), leader of the Warriors, local youth gang, gets invitation to the great gathering of all youth gangs from the city. The gathering, organised by Gramercy Park Riffs, most powerful gang in the city, is taking place in Bronx. That is far away from Warriors' home territory, but small and unarmed delegation of the Warriors gets there safely thanks to the general truce. On the gathering, Cyrus (played by Roger Hill), charismatic leader of the Riffs, announces his grand plan to unite all the gangs and take over the city. Crowd is enthusiastic, but the small gang of Rogues, led by psychopathic Luther (played by David Patrick Kelly) uses the opportunity to assassinate Cyrus. Police simultaneously raids the gathering, and in the commotion Warriors get blamed by the killing, and their leader gets killed by Riffs. The remaining eight, led by Cleon's lieutenant Swann (played by Michael Beck), must now try to get to Coney Island, but this time unprotected by truce and being chased by all the gangs.

Upon its release, despite the controversies and even some youth riots that were allegedly inspired by it, The Warriors enjoyed immense popularity and very quickly received some kind of a cult status. However, despite being one of the best movies of that year, and being directed by talented action director Walter Hill at the peak of his career, the movie failed to leave as strong impression to the future generations as some other cinematic achievements of that same year. The reason for that probably lies in a fact that this movie aged very quickly. If Walter Hill's idea was to warn the public about problems of urban America, he failed miserably. The future was much worse than his vision. The youth gangs, as presented in The Warriors, are far from shadowy armies, able to take over entire cities. Their members seem more interested in unorthodox fashion and their little petty feuds than such prosaic, and for the public more annoying, matters like crime. In their vocabulary, word "arms" is reserved for small knives and blunt objects, and only few of them use heavy artillery like handguns. They even have their own, very strict and detailed laws, upheld more strictly than some governments do with their own. Many people in American cities would be more than happy to see their young criminals behaving like those in The Warriors. Some of the critics who accused Hill of actually praising youth crime had a lot arguments in their favour.

Despite those objections, The Warriors have all the elements of a very good film. The plot is simple, and serves as good basis for numerous action scenes. The fights are brilliantly choreographed and quite realistic, although there isn't much bloodshed or gore in the movie. Editing is superb, events happen at quick pace, with the exception of middle, when boring moralistic exchanges between Swann and his would-be-girlfriend Mercy (played by Deborah van Valkenburgh) drag the plot from straight action to social drama territory. The soundtrack by Barry de Vorzon is very suggestive and recognisable. Yet, the trademark of this film are the actors who showed great talent, although most of them later sunk into anonymity. Best known of them is David Patrick Kelly, whose superb and original performance in this film later subscribed him to the roles of psychopathic villains. Michael Beck as cool, almost statesman-like leader of a gang, is also very good, and James Remar gives good contrast as his hot-headed contender for top spot. All in all, this movie is perhaps dated, yet in its hour and half can give a lot more entertainment than most of the contemporary movies.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 19th 1998)

==

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax
Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc

Brave browser: https://brave.com/dra011

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7