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The Warriors (1979)
From director Walter Hill comes one of the greatest cult films of all time; "The Warriors". Like many films made around this time the city of New York served as the backdrop for the film, but in this case it's one of the best uses of the city that I've ever seen. To be perfectly honest if you asked me what films made the best use of the city I would certainly include "The Warriors" along with movies like "Taxi Driver", "Ms .45" and "Basket Case". Not only that but it's a film that's a hell of a lot of fun from start to finish, with great characters, soundtrack, cinematography, and it has a nice sense of style too. "The Warriors" is one of the greatest cult films ever made and I'm going to explain why right here.
"The Warriors" is about a street gang of the same name that has been summoned along with just about ever other gang in the city to a meeting at Central Park in Manhattan. The meeting has been called by Cyrus the leader of the roughest gang in the city in The Riffs. He gives a speech to all of them pertaining to the fact that if the gangs would unite it would make it so that they would outnumber the police and can rightly stake their claim to ruling the city. The only issue is that he is killed by a gang member who is attempting to frame up The Warriors for the murder. Now The Warriors have to try and survive a trip from Central Park back to their turf of Coney Island traveling the entire way through other street gang's territory. Finding trouble every step of the way the guys are cut off from just taking a train back home and have to use everything they've got to survive the night.
I still remember back to the first time that I ever saw this film. It played late night on one of the pay TV channels that I had when I was about 8 or 9 years old and I was immediately hooked. The movie is simply mesmerizing by the wonderful use of New York City as the backdrop that you'll be drawn into the movie simply because of that. From there you have a great story and some interesting characters that you'll meet along the way. The Warriors are built up as the anti heroes of the movie and you'll find yourself rooting for them as well as thinking about the coolest gang they encounter along the way. It's one of the coolest "gang" movies I've ever seen and it's easily one of my favorite films ever made.
The movie itself also features some very good fight sequences as well as some pretty suspenseful buildup's to get there. The soundtrack is great in the film and adds to the intensity of a lot of the scenes and the same thing could be said for Walter Hill's great sense of style. This mixed in with the uber cool gangs and great backdrop give the movie an atmosphere all its own and has never been matched in any film I've seen since. It was a movie that really did bring something new to the table as far as these types of movies go and it's been attempted but never accomplished again.
Overall it's easy to say that The Warriors is a great film, but to be honest it's much more than that. It's a nostalgic trip back to a time and place that simply doesn't exist anymore which would be late 70s New York City as a film that's as entertaining as it is gritty. "The Warriors" is a timeless cult classic that will be wonderfully discovered time and time again as the generations move on, and it's certainly a wonderful discovery to say the least.
Rating - ****
-Ed Demko
