Review: The Warriors

New York is an urban jungle where street gangs outnumber the police. The Warriors are one such gang, and they are joining all of the other gangs from across the city at a meeting presided over by the magisterial Cyrus (Roger Hill), leader of a gang called the Gramercy Riffs. Cyrus preaches a message of unity across all gangs, so that they can truly rule the streets together, overthrowing the police and various criminal organisations, gaining control through bribery and intimidation tactics (Lest you think Cyrus’ intentions are noble!). However, before this unity can be put into practice, Cyrus is assassinated by the scummy Rogues member Luther (the inimitable David Patrick Kelly, with long-ish hair), who swiftly flees the area, but not before placing the blame on The Warriors, after one of its members spotted him doing the deed. Sneaky bastard, that Luther. The Warriors, unofficially led by Swan (Michael Beck) quickly make a run for it themselves (their original leader doesn’t make it out of the meeting and is presumed dead), as they realise they will be targeted by every gang in the city now. It’s up to them to last the night as they head for home turf, Coney Island. Deborah Van Valkenburgh turns up as a hanger-on of a gang called The Orphans (led by Paul Greco), who quickly realises her chosen gang are kinda wimps. Mercedes Ruehl has a brief but important scene sitting on a park bench towards the end, as James Remar’s Ajax (who tries to take leadership of The Warriors away from Swan at one point) takes a fancy to her.

 

Writer-director Walter Hill (“48HRS”, “Red Heat”, “Extreme Prejudice”) isn’t really known for making terribly deep, contemplative films. By and large he makes pulpy, almost comic-book action movies for predominantly male audiences and featuring mostly archetypes instead of fully-realised characters. His fans do not see this as a problem at all, and some of his films are indeed a lot of fun to watch. This 1979 urban gang flick may be his best-known and best-regarded film (alongside “48HRS”), even if I personally prefer “Streets of Fire” and the slightly underrated “Red Heat”. Co-written by David Shaber (the under-seen “Nighthawks”- seriously, go see it NOW!) and based on a novel by Sol Yurick (though the story also has Greek mythology origins), this is a pretty simple story. The Warriors attend a meeting for all of the city’s gangs, they get framed for murder of the keynote speaker who is calling for unity with all gangs, and they spend the rest of their film running from all of the other gangs who are now out for blood. That’s seriously all she (or he, in this case) wrote. 200 gangs, one night, and The Warriors are in enemy territory. Simple or not, if that’s not an awesome premise, I don’t know what is. What Hill does with this basic premise is give it hyperreal style and coolness. The opening scene with all the gangs brought together to hear the rather oddball Cyrus make his call for unity is a memorable and exciting one. Roger Hill is wonderfully silly in the part.

 

This may not look like a truly dangerous urban hell in the modern sense, and the supposed ‘tough guy’ gang members aren’t exactly comparable to the gangs of the 90s South Central L.A. for instance (or whatever the 2016 equivalent would be). However, they’re also not The Cats and The Jets, and Hill is aiming for (and achieving) a comic book visualisation of urban hell. With due credit to cinematographer Andrew Laszlo (“First Blood”, “Poltergeist”, “Streets of Fire”) as well, it looks brilliant on that level, even if “Streets of Fire” does it even better. That film was more of a pastiche, however, whereas the use of real NY locations and adherence to the late 70s time period here keep this one just a tad more grounded. Let me make it perfectly clear though, that while Hill has made a very cool-looking film, this film does not glorify gang violence. To suggest that is insane, this is far too pulpy and comic book in style and in its worldview to be taken on such a literal, real worldview level (Hill apparently originally envisioned the film being set in an indeterminate future, which makes a lot of sense). It’s set in New York and contains enough known locations to be familiar, but this is no docudrama. Anyone who would commit violence in this film’s name (and apparently it did see violent incidents amongst gang members attending screenings) would have committed violence anyway. The use of a deserted Coney Island in particular, makes for an interesting and eerie location late in the film. The soundtrack features a nice cover of Martha and the Vandellas’ hit ‘Nowhere to Run’, as well as a song at the end by Joe Walsh (of The Eagles, whom I normally find toxic) that is probably the best song on the soundtrack. Music is always a key factor in a Walter Hill film, and the music score by Barry De Vorzon (“Dillinger”, “Hard Times”), whilst very 70s, definitely adds a pulse to what is essentially one long chase, editing is also a highlight of the film.

 

However, the film does have one genuine, major flaw that stops it from being an even better film. For a film about street gangs, there ends up being a whole lot more running than there is fighting in the film. I was particularly miffed that the cool-looking Baseball Furies (who allegedly have a young Steve James among them, but good luck finding him under the painted faces) to my knowledge never got involved in any fights in the film. Even when The Warriors finally meet up with the treacherous Luther (the awesome David Patrick Kelly) and his gang The Rogues, there’s no big final fight. What the hell? That was definitely an oversight on Hill’s part. Also, I can’t deny that some gangs look more imposing and dangerous than others. I mean, the only thing lamer than a gang in overalls (unless it’s The Droogs from “A Clockwork Orange” of course) is a gang in overall led by a dork on roller skates. Sigh. Meanwhile, The Orphans are clearly the runts of the street gang litter. Thank you, you’re a lovely audience. Try the lobster. But like I said, this isn’t meant to be taken too seriously, and I’ll bet the late Michael Jackson was a huge fan of this film’s depiction of gangs. You can see the influence in his music videos (‘Beat It’ and ‘Bad’ in particular). If you were to take this film’s depiction of street gangs too literally you’d be wondering why a gang of skinheads would be welcoming African-Americans into the fold, so it’s probably best not to think too much during this film. However, there’s one rather oddball bit of dialogue where it appears that the filmmakers have had themselves a brain explosion. About an hour in, one of the Warriors suggests that everyone thinks they shot Cyrus. Um…hasn’t that been known all along? Why did they run in the first place if they didn’t know they had a reason to do so? Someone fucked up on the screenwriting front there, methinks.

 

The performances are mostly pretty amateurish, so that David Patrick Kelly easily runs away with the whole thing. Diminutive in stature, he’s a great movie scumbag and here he’s a creepy and unpredictable psycho. His screechy ‘Warriors…come out to Playyyyayyyyy!’ is a movie classic. A very young-looking James Remar and Deborah Van Valkenburgh (who had a larger role in “Streets of Fire”) probably fare next best, but the latter is a distant third, and the rest are pretty ordinary. Michael Beck may be the leader of the title gang and is OK, but Remar’s the only actor in the bunch (Though Terry Michos I swear is a dead-ringer for a young Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi). Character actress Lynne Thigpen is interesting, but her DJ character is more a narrative presence than an actual character. Look out for a memorable cameo by Mercedes Ruehl, whilst “Predator” and “48HRS” actor Sonny Landham can be briefly seen as a cop.

 

This is a solid, hyperreal gang film, even if it’s more of a chase film than a fight film. If you can accept that and forgive the mostly pretty raw (i.e. amateurish) performances, this is pretty fun stuff.

 

Rating: B-