Maybe it was a case of bad timing. Maybe it was the no name cast and an ad campaign slanted toward young male viewers. Maybe it was the exaggerated reports of gang violence that occurred in or near theatres that showed the film. Whatever the reasons for its disappointing public reception, The Warriors should have been a blockbuster hit for Paramount in 1979 and should have put Walter Hill on Hollywood's A-list of directors well before his genuine breakout success with 48 Hrs in 1982. It even ended up on many film critics' top ten lists for the year but even positive word of mouth didn't draw in the crowds. A pity because The Warriors is stylish, exciting, and imaginative with a striking visual design that transforms New York City into a nocturnal fantasy world of the near future. The look and feel of the movie predates the current trend of movies based on graphic novels and comic books and perhaps that's another reason for its low profile. The movie was simply ahead of its time.

Walter Hill based The Warriors on Sol Yurick's acclaimed novel which in turn was inspired by Xenophon's Anabasis, a tale about a small group of Greek soldiers stranded in Persia after the death of their leader and the obstacles they face on their return home. According to Danny Peary in Cult Movies Hill's film may have adapted Yurick's contemporary setting but his narrative and characters are more directly influenced by Anabasis. In the movie the Warriors "exhibit qualities characteristic of classical heroes: gallantry, self-pride, loyalty, discipline, resourcefulness, and most of all, the ability to fight. These are characters about which legends are told, epic poems written, movies made. On the other end of the spectrum is Yurick's youth gang, the Dominators, a bunch of punk kids who are frauds – they only play at being soldiers. Yurick has no respect for them at all, making them so ignorant that they can't figure out how to read a subway map, giving them such names as Lunkface, Bimbo, Arnold and The Junior."

Shooting on New York City locations at night - Riverside Park on the Upper West Side, the 72nd Street & Broadway subway station, the New Utrecht Ave-62nd Street station in Brooklyn - Hill avoided the gritty, realistic cityscape of Yurick's novel which depicted a city in decay populated by drug addicts, pimps, whores, psychopaths and the homeless. Instead he "transformed the city into a phantasmagoric labyrinth of weird tribes in fantastic dress and make-up who move over (and under) the streets as untouched as troglodytes by the civilization sleeping around them." (David Pirie, TimeOut Film Guide).

In the film's lean, linear narrative, nine members of the Coney Island gang the Warriors arrive in the Bronx to attend a meeting of the clans held by Cyrus, the leader of the most respected gang in the city. A riot breaks out when Cyrus is suddenly assassinated by Luther, head of the Rogues, who accuses the Warriors of the crime. When Cleon, the Warrior's leader, is killed in the ensuing chaos, the surviving members led by Swan attempt to make it back safely to their home turf. On their long journey home they inevitably cross over into hostile territory, battling such rival gangs as the Orphans, the Baseball Furies, the Lizzies and the Punks, all the while pursued by the Rogues and the psychotic Luther.

Although the poster ad for The Warriors with its armed and intimidating gang members looking ready to rumble promised a violent, bloody action thriller, Hill's film is actually closer in style to a Hong Kong martial arts film. The fights are choreographed as kinetic ballets and there is very little blood or even deaths that occur during the many skirmishes. Hill also adds an additional narrative device in the guise of a female DJ who broadcasts the play-by-play progress of the Warriors while playing appropriate tunes such as "Nowhere to Run." (Perhaps this was inspired by the 1971 cult film Vanishing Point which features a DJ who periodically gives updates on an ex-race car driver's suicidal speed run from Denver to San Francisco).

Walter Hill reveals in his DVD commentary for the director's cut of The Warriors that the final film was a departure from his original conception: "At the very beginning, I said [that] to do this properly and to do the vision of the novel, it really only makes sense if you do it all black and Hispanic. And the studio was not very keen on that idea. I later came to realize that the studio forced me into the comic book idea, because it was the only way I could make it all make sense to myself."

Among the actors in The Warriors, Michael Beck, as the take-charge Swan, seemed poised for a successful career after this promising debut. He had the chiseled features and laconic qualities of a young Steve McQueen or Charles Bronson but never found that major breakout role and got stuck in a B-movie rut supplemented by steady work in television. The other cast standout is David Patrick Kelly as the demented Luther whose grating chant, "Warriors, come out and playay!" remains the movie's most quoted line. Kelly has gone on to play a variety of weirdos (Dreamscape, 1984) and villains (Commando, 1985, Wild at Heart, 1990) despite attempts to break away from the stereotype (Flirting with Disaster, 1996, Songcatcher, 2000) but The Warriors will probably be the film engraved on his epitaph. The real star of The Warriors, however, is the cinematography of Andrew Laszlo. He would go on to photograph two more films for Hill (Southern Comfort, 1981, Streets of Fire, 1984) and such big budget pictures as Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

After the film was released, many urban theatre owners were reluctant to book it after reports of gang-related violence at a few screenings in Los Angeles and Boston. A legislator in Massachusetts even tried to get the film banned in his state. Regardless of its undeserved notoriety, The Warriors received glowing reviews from such respected critics as Pauline Kael of The New Yorker who wrote: "The film enters into the spirit of urban-male tribalism and the feelings of the kids who believe that they own the streets because they keep other kids out of them. In this vision, cops and kids are all there is, and the worst crime is to be chicken. It has – in visual terms – the kind of impact that "Rock Around the Clock" had when it was played behind the titles of Blackboard Jungle [1955]. It's 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 colors against the terrifying New York blackness; the figures stand out like a jukebox in a dark bar. There's a night-blooming, psychedelic shine to the whole baroque movie."

It will be interesting to see if Tony Scott's scheduled-for-2008 remake of The Warriors will be able to measure up to Walter Hill's iconic original.

Producers: Laurent Bouzereau, Freeman A. Davies, Lawrence Gordon
Director: Walter Hill
Screenplay: Walter Hill, David Shaber, based on the novel by Sol Yurick
Cinematography: Andrew Laszlo
Art Direction: Don Swanagan, Robert Wightman
Music: Barry De Vorzon
Film Editing: David Holden
Cast: Michael Beck (Swan), James Remar (Ajax), Dorsey Wright (Cleon), Brian Tyler (Snow), David Harris (Cochise), Deborah Van Valkenburgh (Mercy), David Patrick Kelly (Luther), Mercedes Ruehl (Policewoman).
C-93m. Letterboxed.

by Jeff Stafford

SOURCES:
wikipedia
Cult Movies by Danny Peary <>TimeOut Film Guide 5001 Nights at the Movies by Pauline Kael