The Warriors (1979) from Tuna And Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy)
The Warriors (1979) has a simple plot.
A gang from Coney Island, the Warriors, travels to the far end of the Bonx for a meeting of all the major gangs in the 5 boroughs. The speaker, Cyrus, is on a roll, advocating that all of the gangs join forces to drive out the mob and the police, then take over the city, when someone shoots him, and manages to shift the blame to the Warriors.

NUDITY REPORT
There is not much in the way of exposure, but Deborah Van Valkenburgh in her first role wears a very tight thin top, and pokes through it the entire film.
The Warriors now have to get home with every gang and every cop in New York after them. What could have been a rather dull gang exploitation film is actually very well made, and features great photography, wonderful costumes for the gangs, and lots of action.

I found myself drawn in to the story. It held my interest start to finish, and actually made me care a little bit about these street gang members.

Scoopy's notes:

This film was controversial when first released. Many people blamed it for encouraging , romanticizing, and glamorizing gang violence, and if I remember right, there were even some gang incidents at some theaters.

Director Walter Hill has had a long Hollywood career. Although he has never directed a great film, he rose to box office success with "48 Hours", and eventually sunk to the depths with last year's superstinker "Supernova" (which he removed his name from, and which was finished by two other directors). "The Warriors" is recognized as one of his best pictures, possibly his best action film, and may people consider it a stylish classic of the action film genre.

Hill has always been recognized, like Jean Rollin and Michael Mann, as being a director who is very skillful with nighttime ambience. He presented the swirling lights and images of the nighttime city, and choreographed the violence, turning it all into some stylized, colorful, ultra-bloody ballet.

The gangs are highly stylized, ala Clockwork Orange. One gang wears baseball outffits, one gang dresses as mimes, one as ninjas, etc. In general, this iconography would be pretty wussy for real gangs, but makes for some poetic images.

DVD info from Amazon.

  • Widescreen anamorphic, 1.85:1

  • no features
About half of the film takes place in the trains, tunnels, elevated stations, and underground subway stations of the New York public transportation system. In my opinion, these setting were used beautifully to create a creepy, paranoid, claustrophobic ambience.

I would like it a great deal if it were about 10 minutes shorter. In general the tension is maintained, but I think there are a few sections where the story bogs down. Half the gang spends a lot of time with the lesbian gang before anything happens, and there are a lot of moments when guys just sort of stare each other down, like a 20th century version of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Critics Vote

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDb voters score it 6.9, Apollo users 90/100. These scores are fairly consistent with the three-star critical consensus.
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

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