REMEMBERING A CLASSIC 1970S FILM – THE WARRIORS…

In the near future (well, the 1970s) a charismatic leader of the biggest gang in New York – Cyrus, gathers representatives from all the other gangs together for a meeting in a bid to take the city over.

When he is killed, The Warriors (who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time) get framed for it.

This starts a film-long chase in which they have to make their way across the city to the safe haven of their own turf with every gang in New York out for their blood.

The super-stylized action film unfurls in a dystopian near-future, when various gangs control New York City. One of the most influential films of the 70s, The Warriors may have been Walter Hill’s finest hour.

Very loosely based on a Sol Yurick novel of the same name, The Warriors was Paramount’s attempt to tap into the youth market and its burgeoning obsession with gang warfare.

Each gang sports a unique moniker (‘The Warriors,’ ‘The Baseball Furies,’ ‘The Rogues’), and a costume underscoring its “theme” to each geographical area. The Baseball Furies are probably the weirdest – think gothic clowns in baseball uniforms. One gang even has rollerskates. The eponymous Warriors are all decked out in tight leather waistcoats with no vest underneath, in case you were wondering.

The Warriors is one of the most original films of that year, and as the viewer, you enter into the spirit of urban-male tribalism and the feelings of kids who believe that they own the streets because they keep other kids out of them.

The Warriors sentimentalizes the whole gang business. But how exactly do the gang of the battered boroughs function? Do they shake down storekeepers? Do they mug old ladies? Do they torch derelicts for kicks, or push perfect strangers into the path of an oncoming train? The movie doesn’t say.

Watching in 2013, it’s hard to believe that The Warriors was ever a major mainstream motion picture. Culturedemandsgeeks feel perhaps the movie they wanted – a realistic, violent take on the problems of street gangs – and the movie that director Walter Hill finally delivered were two very different things.

The “rumbles” between gangs, are considered lame compared to the set-fights of recent films, and sometimes descend into handbags at dawn.

No one actually dies throughout all the endless staring and circling around one another (with the exception of one character who has a nasty accident – but he was apparently written out on-set because the actor didn’t get along with Walter Hill).

Even the character names (Swan, Mercy, Cleon, Ajax, Cyrus, etc) are removed from the real world. Many are rooted in mythology. Plus, you never feel like any of these boys actually engage in stereotypical gang activity in between flouncing about the city.

This is near-confirmed in an exchange between Warriors where one says, “it’s all out there for the stealing” and the other just sighs and mumbles, “yeah, but first you’ve gotta figure out what’s worth stealing”.

Than some 30 minutes into the movie, we see Mercy – the first woman in the film – enter a scene. One Warrior turns to another and whispers nervously, “Do you know what that is?” The other rolls his eyes and replies, “Yeah! Trouble!” They, naturally, try their best to get rid of her as quickly as possible.

Mercy throws herself at gang leader Swan, and is rejected until the very end, where he begrudgingly gives her a corsage that someone dropped on the subway. Still, even this is only because he “hates to see anything go to waste”.

Interestingly, the only other women in the film are the husky-voiced DJ whose face we never see – only her shiny crimson lips whispering veiled threats into a microphone – and an all-girl gang called The Lizzies who (as the name crudely suggests) are lesbians.

In the hyper-hetero environment of late-70s action cinema, The Warriors is unique in this defiance of the norm, but it’s only one of many aspects that lead it away from the traditional shackles of its genre.

The Warriors is a beautiful oddity of a film – gorgeous, suspenseful, and is like visual rock, and it’s bursting with energy. The action runs from night until dawn, and most of it is in crisp, bright Day-Glo colours against the terrifying New York blackness. A flash, snap Saturday viewing movie for film-lovers everywhere.