Isaacs Picture Conclusions

THE WARRIORS (1979) FIVE TOP HATS

When I first decided to try and write about The Warriors, I went into this thinking that this was a classic that everyone was familiar with and I might face some harsh judgement from critics with whatever I had to say. Then I showed the Netflix sleeve to Mary and she said something like “What is this? A comedy or something?” and I replied with with “Huh?? That’s one of my favorite movies, what are you an alien??” And I got “Uh, OK, I don’t know about this.” so I told her to “Beat it, kid” and then went about my business. A little bit later, my friend Jeffrey J came into my office to ask about something and I was like, “do you remember this???” and he looked at it and said something to the effect of, “Never heard of it” and I thought to myself, “who are these communists?” and then I got around to watching one of my favorite movies ever.

So, I guess I don’t know. In my eyes this is a CLASSIC film – a snapshot of the late 70s in gritty, gang style, dirty New York detail with wicked acting and a great story and a fantastic cast and killer music with super effective slow motion action scenes. No CGI, no fluff, no bullshit. I’ve probably seen this 50 times and I loved it the other day when I watched it just as much as I did when I was a kid. But I also got to thinking – you know – this might not resonate and be considered a classic by people who aren’t familiar with the time it was made (vis a vis Mary). I mean, this is about a group of GANGS making a truce to get together and talk about taking over New York – and they all come in many different “colors” – some of which include dudes in mime outfits, roller skaters, pink jackets, huge afros and leather vests with no shirts. So, using Mary again, she might try to check this out and think “whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatt?”.

In no way can i say that I “lived this”… I grew up in the 70s in middle America and California, but I remember street gangs before there was “Colors”. Groups of dudes hanging around the local 7-11 with switchblades who liked to push kids like me around and spit on us when we were playing video games – it was no fun but I wasn’t living in the boroughs of New York so I am sure it was much more tame. With all of that said, to me this is a classic movie and one that I will always love, but it might not be for “new” viewers who aren’t familiar with the subject matter or the time frame – as in – people that don’t remember what it was like to not have a cell phone or had to get up to change the TV channel : )

The story here is about gang land New York – and a dude named Cyrus (the leader of The Grammercy Riffs) calls a truce to stop wasting each other and gathers a shitload of people together to unite everyone and take over the city. If you’ve seen this, you’ll appreciate this quote: “Caaaaaaaaaaannn youuuuuuuuuuuuuuu diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigggg itttttttttttttt?” (If you haven’t seen it, that’s kind of his memorable unification line). Well, some weird looking memeber of The Rogues decides to waste Cyrus and blames it on The Warriors so they high tail it out of there, realize they’re marked men and that they’re going to have to Bop (fight) all the way back home to Coney Island when the new leader of The Riffs puts a bounty on their head.

That’s right Boppers! Swan, Snow, Ajax, Cochise, Cowboy, Rembrandt and Vermin are going to have the night of their lives! They have to escape from skin heads, The Orphans, The Lizzies, the roller skater gang, the cops, The Rogues and last but never least, The Baseball Furies. I don’t know about you, but these guys freaked me the fuck out and that chase scene through the park is fucking fantastic! If you haven’t ever seen this – yashould.

P.S. – After I watched this and  wrote my drafts, I gave it to Mary for a watch to test my theory and…….. she liked it!! Hopefully she’ll comment about her experience.

76 comments

  1. Mary

    I am really excited about this movie!! When I first read the movie description on the Netflix sleeve, I thought it sounded extremely lame. However, I decided I would watch it and boy I am sure glad I did!!! I actually went home to see if this was available for streaming through Netflix and sadly it is not. So now I have to wait for EI to buy it — but now that I have typed that sentence I am not so sure I can wait. I might have to go get my own copy!! This movie was extremely entertaining! And those Baseball Furies – scary peeps running through the park with bats — come on Warriors remember to use your feet in a fight!! I can’t wait to watch this again!!!!

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    • theipc

      For those of you who read the comments on posts – We normally make a big deal out of Friday the 13th here and I point everyone to the F 13 page but…. I used to have this blog over on iWeb and there I would just copy and paste images in to the browser. Right when I got the hang of iWeb they shut it down and I moved to WP and copied and pasted all of the old posts here. I noticed yesterday that every single picture from the old site has vanished and my OCD has me screaming so I am spending a ton of time fixing hundreds of missing images. WAAAAAHHH.

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  3. TheBruce

    Actually, the film IS a comedy. An unintentional comedy. Don’t get me wrong. I love it. But it’s cheesy. REALLY cheesy. It’s gritty and it’s fun. But cheesy, too. Plus, I love the look of NYC in the 1970s.

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    • theipc

      I know – one of the things that really stood out to me was how 100% dirty everything was… their clothes, the streets, their fingernails – everything –

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      • TheBruce

        It’s actually like that for a lot of NYC movies in the 1970s, and to an extent, into the 1980s. It seemed a lot more… “alive” in the ’70s films though. Sleazy, dirty, grimy, dirty, graffiti-ed, all before they began cleaning it up. In THE WARRIORS, Walter Hill really makes the city come “alive” though, like it has its own identity. The film wouldn’t have been the same without that gritty look and feel.

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      • theipc

        absolutely! I am guessing you’ve seen this in its original format – the copy I got from netflix had an opening by Hill and some sort of comic book segue at certain points. People need to root out the “original” IMO.

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      • TheBruce

        Yeah, I’ve never seen the “comic book segue” one. Man, I feel like watching this one again. Who could forget the music? That opening theme song kicks ass (with the gang members posing and delivering their dialogue with monotony). IN THE CITYYYY. Even the subway stations look alive. Plus, DAVID PATRICK KELLY as a gang leader? Hilarious. I’m going to watch this again.

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  4. mistylayne

    I’ve never heard of this but it sounds fantastic! 70s gang movies are generally awesome (if somewhat cheesy) and though I usually tend toward the girl gangs (Switchblade Sisters, Pinky Violence), those dudes seriously look creepy!

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  6. Brad

    Warriiiiiiiors…come out and playeyay!

    Hells yeah it’s a classic! But I too didn’t see this flick until it was 15 years old or so when I was in high school.

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  10. Smash

    I grew up in the 90’s, but this movie is one of my mom’s favourites. She busted it out one family movie night and we were all riveted. I was probably 12 when I saw it for the first time and I remember thinking how scary it would be if all the gangs in the city rose up and revolted against the cops. It stayed with me for a long time and I still love this movie today. Great post!

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  11. theipc

    Reblogged this on Isaacs Picture Conclusions and commented:

    This reblog is to test a couple of things for the upcoming holidays. 1) I want to see if have figured out how to mess with a reblog and not jack up my theme I pay for and 2) this is one of my favorite posts I’ve done and I would only love it if some of the new Most Beloveds would like to check it out and 3) I could copy the post but I don’t want to lose all of the previous comments and 4) I heart you all. Except Brian. It is purely a sexual thing between Brian and I. Or do I mean “asexual” thing?
    ei

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  12. jjames36

    So I remember not having a cell phone, and having to stand up to change the channel on the TV. I remember when email was a big deal, and if you had an address, you were awesome. And I remember when high speed internet was as Sci-Fi as alien abductions.

    But I have never heard of this movie. (That I was born the year it was made might have something to do with it.) I’ll look into it at some point, though.

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    • theipc

      Well – I certainly hope you like it – it’s one of my favorites.

      Also – I remember when there were only THREE TV channels where I live….

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      • jjames36

        I think we had four. ABC. NBC. CBS. And PBS. Eventually FOX came along to make it five.

        And then cable exploded and I got to be jealous of most of my friends.

        And then my single mom finished school, found a real job and got off of welfare. And suddenly, we had cable, too. 🙂

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      • theipc

        You’re right – I forgot PBS and the nightly sign offs “I have reached the bounds of heaven” or some such…

        Sounds like a success story!

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  16. The Heretic

    The Warriors is definitely awesome! Never want to see a remake of it. I remember they made a video game based off this movie for the Amiga/Commodore(I think?). I always wanted to splice clips of this movie and make a music video for the Twisted Sister song “Come Out And Play”.

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  20. MojosWork

    Scrolling through the comments, I am flabbergasted and appalled at all the people who don’t know how fucking awesome this fucking awesome movie is. It’s fucking awesome, and whenever I get a haircut, I bring the lady a photo of Matthew McConaughey from Surfer, Dude, so she can see what I want, but next time, it’ll be a Swan photo.

    “Warriorrrrrrrrs. Come out and plaaaaay-yay.” I also remember that dude as a homeless guy from this PBS show, Ghost Writer, where five kids could see otherwise-invisible words that formed clues –written by a ghost – to solve mysteries around New York. That was a great show, too.

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    • theipc

      FUCK YEAH BROTHER!!! And all of your readers will be very excited to see a pic of that fancy hairdo on your site. Maybe Movie Squirrel can do a review of it : )

      This movie is fucking awesome and should be mandatory watching : )

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  22. Pingback: The Warriors (1979) Review | Cinema Parrot Disco

  23. Pingback: IMDB Top 250 Horror Recap | Cinema Parrot Disco

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