The Warriors (1979)

The Warriors is a thriller that takes place over one night in 1979 in New York that all starts when charismatic leader, Cyrus, summons the street gangs of New York together for a meeting. At the meeting, Cyrus is murdered and The Warriors are falsely blamed. On the run, The Warriors must fight their way back to their home turf in Coney Island, while every other gang are pursuing them to avenge Cyrus’s death.

Overall Review Score

6 out of 10

Review

Based on the 1965 novel of the same name by Sol Yurick, The Warriors takes the subject of gang warfare and uses it as a backdrop to a deadly game of cat and mouse. While the film faced several production issues including script re-writes, a low budget from the studio and many theatrical release issues, including sporadic outbreaks of vandalism and three killings of moviegoers during its opening weekend. The film itself has become a cult classic for its easily relatable story, fast-paced and cleverly crafted script which will leave audience members debating which of the different characters and or gangs are the best and why. The Warriors features a strong chemistry between the actors that is almost tangible and its portrayal of gangs in a neutral manner is both refreshing and uniquely dynamic. Overall, while The Warriors comes across as bland in places mainly due to its limited character development, its transition from one scuffle (fight) to the next, vastly different characters, use of New York as a gritty noire backdrop and infamous lines helps carry this film across its 90-minute run time and makes a classic worth viewing.

Reviewer 1's score & comments:

Score: 5 out of 10

Comments:

The Warriors is a 90-minute film that creates a unique bond between the main characters and the audience, through the use of subtle character development. Each new threat the warriors face in their effort to get home offers a variety of location design, costumes and well choreographed fight scenes. The only things that I personally did not like, was the overuse of the comic book “montage” to show the passage of events and the clinking of the bottles near the end of the film. Other than that, the warriors is a decent 70’s film that has withstood the test of time quite nicely.

Reviewer 2's score & comments:

Score: 7 out of 10

Comments:

The Warriors takes the audience through a rushed tour of New York in the 1970’s and its different fictional gangs. While it is only 90-minutes long and is cut together with sporadic cartoonish elements, The Warriors has stood the test of time well. Despite some of the characters being one-dimensional, The Warriors is a cult classic because the actors have a natural chemistry, the scenes including David Patrick Kelly’s ad-libbing of “Waaaaaariors come out to plaaay” capture the mood of the audience perfectly and the gritty backdrop of New York serves, in a hyperbolic visual sense, as a ‘danger meter’. Especially, when considering the film starts dark and dingy but progressively gets lighter as The Warriors get closer to Coney Island. Overall, it is a film that sums up the 1970's - cheap, fast paced and action orientated.

#action #thriller