Time for a little turf rumble. You got The Alleycats, The Amsterdam All-Stars, The Baseball Furies, The Black Hands, The Blackjacks, The Big Trains, The Boppers, The Boyle Avenue Runners, The Knuckles, The Lizzies, The Locos, The Magicians, The Meatpackers, The Mongols, The Moonrunners, The Napoleons, The Terriers, The Turks, The Turnbull AC’s, The Van Cortlandt Rangers, and The Warriors. If you didn’t recognize most of the names on this list, then you are not a fan of The Warriors. That’s right, I am talking about baddest gang movie to come out of the late 70′s suckas. Now it didn’t do well at the box office, in fact it is more of a cult classic than anything else because of the low budget, simple script, cast with relative unknowns (except for badass James Remar) and was more exploitative in nature. Out of all these little things, The Warriors is a fucking dope movie, with interesting gangs, interesting premise and some bitching street fights.
The story is simple, the leader of the most powerful gang in all of New York has sent a messenger to all the gangs of New York to come together for a meeting. We see numerous gangs all traversing the subway systems to head to the meeting ground, one group in particular is The Warriors. Once they are at the meeting, the head honcho named Cyrus is giving a riveting speech, trying to unite all the gangs of New York in order to rule the town. Near the end of the speech, Cyrus is shot by a gang known as The Rogues. The police come to break up the meeting and while chaos ensues, Luther of the Rogues blames The Warriors for shooting Cyrus. Now the Warriors have to fight their way back to their territory inside the heart of New York, but it is made difficult since the Riffs have put a hit out on the group. The Warriors will have to navigate through gang territory after gang territory to make it back home to their turf.
I caught this movie during one those midnight madness film fests years back in college and was hooked the minute the credit opened. While not the prettiest movie to look at, the grind house quality of the movie is what kept me interested from start to finish. The best part about the movie is the gangs that are involved. I actually had to do some research to find a first draft script and check out the gangs that there mentioned. I mean gangs like The Orphans (all made up of orphans), The Lizzies (the all female gang), The Baseball Furies (baseball uniform baddies) and The Riffs (Jim Kelly fans I assume), those are just some of the gangs that plagued the Warriors on their way back home.
Casting mostly unknowns really didn’t hurt the movie, since there wasn’t a lot of emotional scenes that needed that little touch of acting, but you got young guys who are excited to be in a movie and that makes for a fun watch. There are several gang fights in the movie, most notably the fight between The Warriors and The Furies (side note, those fuckers wield baseball bats and still get the shit kicked out them). The tension at every turn of their journey is what keeps the pace going in this movie. Even stripping down the story, dialog and acting doesn’t hurt the movie since it is a fun ride.
Do yourself a favor and see this movie. Even if it is late at night on a Saturday, you won’t be disappointed.
