The Warriors

The Warriors (1979) is about a gang trying to get back to their own neighbourhood across one night in New York. Every gang in the city is called to a meeting in the Bronx. A leader named Cyrus makes a proposal: united, the gangs could take the city; the police are outnumbered. During the speech someone shoots Cyrus and blames the Warriors. They have to get back to Coney Island. It is about forty kilometres and roughly ten thousand people are looking for them. The film is built as a journey: another gang at every stop, each with its own look. The group in baseball uniforms and face paint is the most remembered. Walter Hill does not hide the source: the story is taken from Xenophon's Anabasis, the march of Greek mercenaries back to the sea through hostile territory. After it opened there were real gang fights and deaths at some screenings. Paramount pulled all television and newspaper advertising, stopped promoting the title, and released cinemas where trouble occurred from their contracts. The studio stopped marketing its own film. In the long run that increased its standing. The subway sequences were shot at night on real lines and real trains. A disc jockey's radio announcements act as narration and her face is never shown, only her lips. Hill later released a version adding comic book panels to the scene transitions. It runs 92 minutes. Good for: cult action, seventies New York, and gang films. Less good for: there is violence, the acting is uneven, and it makes no claim to realism.