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The Warriors review
:. Director: Walter Hill
:. Starring: Michael Beck, James Remar
:. Running Time: 1:33
:. Year: 1979
:. Country: USA
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Transposed to a near futuristic gang-infested New York, The Warriors relates a journey of a group of Greek Soldiers who after the battle of Cunaxa (401 BC) found themselves isolated behind Persian enemy lines. The Warriors quickly gained cult status for its violence as well as for the riots that erupted between rival gangs during the screenings.
Directed by Walter Hill, a director who's specialized in the incarnation of "modernized westerns", whether they're direct remakes — Extreme Prejudice & Last Man Standing —, concept works — Streets of Fire — or actual westerns — The Long Riders, Wild Bill, Geronimo and the series Deadwood — the film follows Swan (Michael Beck) and his fellow Warriors as they try to make it back home alive to Coney Island, while being the target of every gang in town.
The film, which has a vignette-structure rather than a real narrative, is mostly a succession of encounters between The Warriors and other colorful gangs, including a few run-ins with the cops; a premise that isn't far from lots of westerns and war movies, including Hill's own Southern Comfort and Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down.
From a bunch a losers to skinheads, chicks with guns and baseball bat clowns (inspired by Clockwork Orange), each gang is approached as a chapter here, taking center-stage, while The Warriors' odyssey acts as the film's thread. With no distinctive personality and lame attires, they are actually used as the sidekicks of the gangs they encounter, who are the real heroes of this picture.
As always in Hill's films, including mainstream fare such as 48 Hours and its sequel, the action sequences are brutal and ferociously enjoyable. Those familiar with B-movies will notice the presence of several actors who started their career with this film — including Beck — and it is kind of amusing to see them 26 years later in the special features interviews.
The main update with this director's cut is that Hills incorporates transition scenes in a comic book format, in order to emphasize the comic-book sensibility of the story, which is what he had originally intended. While this new editing is somewhat reminiscent of Ang Lee's Hulk, to be honest, it neither really improves nor affects the original cut. Several documentaries and interviews round up this edition, celebrating The Warriors as a cult film that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Fred Thom
 Reviews of Cult Movies since 2012
Cult Films: 1998 - 2011 Reviews
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