Labelling is sometimes everything. In the original Mad Max, the opening title set the plot of the movie in the near future, thus making it one of the science‑fiction classics, despite the future world being almost exactly like our own. Walter Hill wanted the same opening title for his action classic The Warriors. Producers weren't thrilled by that idea and consequently the movie lost all of its futuristic overtones. On the other hand, the producers were right on the mark; Walter Hill was accused of actually promoting some disturbing trends that were quite visible in contemporary America. To make the movie even more distant from the future, the plot was loosely based on Anabasis, a historical book written by Xenophon, a Greek mercenary soldier who described his adventures in ancient Persia 2,400 years ago.
Instead of ancient Persia, the movie begins in contemporary Coney Island, where Cleon (played by Dorsey Wright), the leader of the Warriors, a local youth gang, gets an invitation to the great gathering of all youth gangs from the city. The gathering, organised by the Gramercy Park Riffs, the most powerful gang in the city, is taking place in the Bronx. That is far away from the Warriors' home territory, but a small and unarmed delegation of the Warriors gets there safely thanks to the general truce. At the gathering, Cyrus (played by Roger Hill), the charismatic leader of the Riffs, announces his grand plan to unite all the gangs and take over the city. The crowd is enthusiastic, but the small gang of Rogues, led by the psychopathic Luther (played by David Patrick Kelly), uses the opportunity to assassinate Cyrus. Police simultaneously raid the gathering, and in the commotion the Warriors get blamed for the killing, and their leader gets killed by the Riffs. The remaining eight, led by Cleon's lieutenant Swann (played by Michael Beck), must now try to get to Coney Island, but this time unprotected by the truce and being chased by all the gangs.
Upon its release, despite the controversies and even some youth riots that were allegedly inspired by it, The Warriors enjoyed immense popularity and very quickly received some kind of cult status. However, despite being one of the best movies of that year, and being directed by the talented action director Walter Hill at the peak of his career, the movie failed to leave as strong an impression on future generations as some other cinematic achievements of that same year. The reason for that probably lies in the fact that this movie aged very quickly. If Walter Hill's idea was to warn the public about the problems of urban America, he failed miserably. The future was much worse than his vision. The youth gangs, as presented in The Warriors, are far from shadowy armies able to take over entire cities. Their members seem more interested in unorthodox fashion and their little petty feuds than such prosaic and, for the public, more annoying matters like crime. In their vocabulary, the word 'arms' is reserved for small knives and blunt objects, and only a few of them use heavy artillery like handguns. They even have their own, very strict and detailed laws, upheld more strictly than some governments uphold their own. Many people in American cities would be more than happy to see their young criminals behaving like those in The Warriors. Some of the critics who accused Hill of actually praising youth crime had a lot of arguments in their favour.
Despite those objections, The Warriors has all the elements of a very good film. The plot is simple and serves as a good basis for numerous action scenes. The fights are brilliantly choreographed and quite realistic, although there isn't much bloodshed or gore in the movie. Editing is superb; events happen at a quick pace, with the exception of the middle, when boring moralistic exchanges between Swann and his would‑be girlfriend Mercy (played by Deborah van Valkenburgh) drag the plot from straight action into social drama territory. The soundtrack by Barry de Vorzon is very suggestive and recognisable. Yet the trademark of this film is the actors, who showed great talent, although most of them later sank into anonymity. The best known of them is David Patrick Kelly, whose superb and original performance in this film later assigned him to the roles of psychopathic villains. Michael Beck, as a cool, almost statesman‑like leader of a gang, is also very good, and James Remar provides a good contrast as his hot‑headed contender for the top spot. All in all, this movie is perhaps dated, yet in its hour and a half it can give a lot more entertainment than most contemporary movies.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on October 19th 1998)
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