PopHorror Let's Get Scared
“You Warriors are good.” – Masai
“The best.” – Swan
Ah, The Warriors…. it’s a personal favorite of mine since childhood, and one of the most iconic action movies ever to grace the big screen. A lot can be said about the film; even this article can’t do it true justice.
Director Walter Hill (48 Hours 1982) greenlit a production based off the 1965 Sol Yurick novel, The Warriors, which was about New York street gangs. Co-writing the screenplay with David Shaber (Flight of the Intruder 1991) for the film, which was released in the US on February 9, 1979, Hill created an entity that has taken on a life of its own for the last forty five years. Let’s take a look at how it got there.
So, what is The Warriors about? The protagonists of the movie are the Coney Island Warriors, representing Coney Island obviously. The leader, Cleon (Dorsey Wright: The Hotel New Hampshire 1984), tells his crew that they’ve been invited to a massive gang meeting in Central Park. They’re supposed to go in with nine delegates, none with weapons, keeping a general truce with the other gangs. Cleon’s crew includes his second in command, Swan (Michael Beck: Xanadu 1980), the renegade hot-head, Ajax (James Remar: Horns 2013), the strong, silent Snow (Brian Tyler: Vamp Bikers 2013), the wise cracking Vermin (Terry Michos: The Great Skycopter Rescue 1980), the lookout specialist, Fox (Thomas G Waites: The Thing 1982), the fast talking Cochise (David Harris: Fatal Beauty 1987), the spray paint wizard, Rembrandt (Marcelino Sanchez: Death Penalty 1980), and the supporting muscle, Cowboy (Tom McKitterick: Angela’s Ashes 1999).
The opening scene is an incredible montage of the gangs of New York City all making their way to the Bronx for the big meeting, all set to a killer synthesizer tune.
Gangs such as The Turnbull AC’s (from Turnbull Avenue in the Bronx), The Savage Huns, The Electric Eliminators, The Saracens, The Jones Street Boys (from Jones Street in Brooklyn), The Van Cortlandt Rangers (from Van Cortlandt Park), The Lizzies, The Moonrunners, The Boppers, The Baseball Furies, and the biggest gang, The Gramercy Riffs (from Gramercy Boulevard in Manhattan).
As the gangs settle into Central Park, the leader of the Riffs, Cyrus (Roger Hill: Hazard’s People 1976) goes on an epic speech about how gang members outnumber the police 10-1. Instead of fighting over turf, they should unite all the gangs and take over New York City. As he finishes his speech, a gang known as The Rogues pass a gun down the line until its in the hands of its leader, Luther (David Patrick Kelly: The Crow 1994). Luther inexplicably shoots Cyrus just as the police arrive to break up the party. Luther, thinking no one saw him do it, points the finger at Cleon, and The Riffs believe him. The Warriors, now without their leader, have to make it home to Coney Island, fighting through every gang in the city that think they shot Cyrus. Will they do it? Watch the movie and find out.
Where to begin on the greatness of The Warriors? First and foremost, it’s an action movie. If you’re looking for Oscar-worthy material, you’re digging in the wrong place. The Warriors have to fight their way back home, taking on various gangs along the way, including the face-painted, baseball uniform-clad Baseball Furies, and The Punks on roller skates.
A lot of the charm of the movie comes from its dialogue. The back and forth banter between The Warriors themselves are one-liners that can still be said today (within reason), like “The chicks are packed! The chicks are packed!” and, “I’ll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle.” There are also iconic lines from other gangs such as, “Can you dig it?!?” and “Who are The Warriors?!? I want all The Warriors!”
The personalities of The Warriors also differ giving you several different characters to get behind or root against. Each Warrior has a strength, whether its combat, scouting, spray painting their logo, or simply talking themselves out of situations.
Ironically, the movie did launch at least one career but not the one that was expected. The love story of the movie was originally supposed to be between Fox and Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh: Streets of Fire 1984), but Thomas G. Waites got sideways with director Walter Hill and was written out of the script. Swan then became the love interest for Mercy, and the chemistry between Michael Beck and Deborah Van Valkenburgh was much better. Beck was praised as the lead of the movie but he himself admitted that The Warriors launched his career only for the bizarre Xanadu to end it.
Meanwhile, James Remar, who played the loudmouth of the group, Ajax, was hired due to the actor literally lifting the desk he was handcuffed off the ground to during the audition when others could barely move it. James has been in over 180 shows and movies the last forty five years. Not a bad career.
The villains of the movies range from interchangeable to downright iconic. As mentioned earlier, various street gangs try to get in the way of The Warriors, including the unheralded Orphans and the big fight with the Baseball Furies, baseball bats included. Also, at one point, The Warriors are forced to split up, and half the crew encounter The Lizzies, the only female gang in the city.
Then there’s Luther and The Rogues. Luther, played by David Patrick Kelly of The Crow fame, chases The Warriors for the whole movie, and they’re the one gang that’s there to meet them in Coney at the end. In a literal hearse, Luther utters the line that even non-movie fans have most likely heard. “Warriors… come out to play… Warriors…. come out to play!” It all adds up to one final showdown on the beaches of Coney Island.
According to David Patrick Kelly, his own mother said, “Wow, you almost looked tough in that movie.”
The little things also play a factor into The Warriors. The soundtrack is a motley mix of synthesizer-based score and established songs such as Joe Walsh’s “In The City.”
One of the most well known characters isn’t even shown apart from her lips. Played brilliantly by Lynne Thigpen (mostly known as the Chief in the game show, Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?), the DJ’s voice pseudo-narrates the movie and plays the tunes such as Arnold McCuller’s rendition of “Nowhere To Run.” The DJ portion was later parodied (along with a lot of other things) in John Wick 4.
So how did The Warriors do? At the box office, the movie grossed $16 million after six weeks which technically made a profit, since the movie cost $7 million to make. It took on a life of its own after the released and remained a cult classic… until 2005. In what should be an entire article in itself, Rockstar decided to make a video game based on the movie with a huge prequel story wrapped around the iconic scenes. A lot of the original actors reprised their roles, including Thomas G. Waites, even though he was unceremoniously dumped from the original. The video game ended up being one of the best games of the year and revitalized interest in the movie.
Thankfully, a lot of the actors are still with us and managed to reunite in 2015 for a short called The Last Subway Ride. Michael Beck, Thomas Waites, Dorsey Wright, Terry Michos, and David Harris got together for one last romp. Sadly, James Remar was busy with another project; otherwise, he would have been there as well. Unfortunately, Marcelino Sanchez died of AIDS-related cancer in 1986. The status of Tom McKitterick and Brian Tyler are unknown.
In The Warriors, you have a one-of-a-kind action movie with quotable dialogue, epic fight scenes, and a killer soundtrack that’s still talked about forty five years later. Not only is the movie great, but so is the video game. Play it and watch the movie. You won’t regret it!
