Do I tend to watch movies that fall under the ‘cult’ banner intentionally, in order to create a sort of reputation for myself? I don’t think so, or rather I choose movies to write entries based on whether they appear interesting or not, and the movies that most often catch my interest are those that tend to fall outside normal radar channels. Have I become that which is most feared in man’s world, the dreaded hipster? I don’t hate movies that are mainstream, whatever that may entail, but I know what I like and what I don’t like. I also don’t pretend to hold any great knowledge of much of anything, taking a few film classes doesn’t make you a film scholar after all, but I feel that by watching different styles and genres help to gain some sort of knowledge. Experience in the field, you know?
Who am I defending myself against? I’m too insignificant to be hated, at least as far as I know.
One of the biggest cult films that I had never seen (popular enough to get it’s video game at least, in the PS2 era), was The Warriors. Based on a novel by Sol Yurick, the name refers to our protagonists the Warriors, a gang of street toughs that dress like the nerdy end of the Hells Angels and operate in a distinctly empty Coney Island. The title is apparently also supposed to reference the infamous Battle of Thermopylae, in which 300 Spartan soldiers faced the Persian forces of King Xerxes, laid out for us in literal storybook form at the beginning of the film. Which is confusing, because the plot of The Warriors isn’t really that similar to that situation at all, which may potentially be spoilers, I don’t even know anymore. If anything, it much more closely resembles the Odyssey, but even that is somewhat of a stretch. Any time you start off your film by basically putting up a sign saying “THIS IS WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO DO, REMEMBER THIS?”, it seems a bit sketchy. If it is a B-movie, is it more appropriate for it not to make sense, or is it still stupid because all films are judged on particular guidelines? These are kind of questions that are raised while watching this movie, or maybe just me watching this movie, I’m not sure.
The Warriors, known exclusively through the nine members Swan (Michael Beck), Ajax, Cleon, Snow, Cochise, Cowboy, Fox,Vermin, and Rembrandt, are invited to a gathering of all the street gangs in New York City. Said gathering has been organized by Cyrus, the prophet-like leader of the Riffs, the A-grade gang in town. In one of the two (that I know of) iconic scenes in the film, Cyrus addresses the assembled committee of various vagabonds, riffraff and scoundrels. His message is an interesting one: In terms of sheer numbers, the total population of all the major street gangs gathered there outnumber both the Mob and the NYPD combined. If, by chance, all of those aforementioned gangs were to join forces rather than engage in the petty territorial squabbles that they had been locked up in for so long, what could they accomplish? Perhaps they could take over the entire city, and no cop or mafia thug would be able to stop them. CAN YOU DIG IT?!
Tragedy strikes, however, when Cyrus is shot and killed at the apex of his speech (the meeting was being conducted during an unarmed truce, you see), by Luther (a very Spicoli-esque David Patrick Kelly), leader of the leather-jacket clad Rogues. As you might have guessed, Luther claims that Cyrus was murdered by the Warriors, and in the aftermath there’s no way for the group to prove their innocence. The new leader of the Riffs puts out the order, he wants the Warriors brought to him dead or alive, and all the gangs of NYC have answered to his call. It’s now a mad dash back home to Coney Island for the Warriors, avoiding cops, thugs, jezebels and all sorts of city-based obstacles along the way. You’ll thrill at the intense chase scene, and be driven to the edge of your seat by the pulse-pounding other chase scene! If ever there ever a film there was that really pushed the limits of how many times you could see the main characters run around like Mystery Inc. in a particularly spooky haunted house, this would be it.
Also they pick up a prostitute along the way, because you can’t have a movie without a romantic subplot, and New York is packed with whores. Packed.
To be honest, this is not what I would call a good movie. For example:
- The Gangs: It is appropriate that scene transitions in this film are marked by shifting into a comic book style (so it’s like you’re moving to the next panel, or the next page), given the fact that every single gang in The Warriors look like rejected henchmen from a Silver Age rogues gallery. Which is not a bad idea in and of itself, because seeing weirdos in facepaint dressed like the ‘29 Yankees get into street fights sounds stupid enough to be fun, but you hardly ever get to actually see these strange guys actually do anything. So what’s even the point of having them in the first place, or to have them seem so outlandish? Purely for visuals? Lame.
- Acting: I don’t know what it is about putting some people in front of a camera that paralyzes their facial muscles while simultaneously removing all traces of inflection in their voice, but man is it ever present in this film. I know that due to budget constraints I shouldn’t really expect DeNiro levels of performance, but can anyone actually behave like a human being in this film without devolving into a cardboard cutout? Which sort of ties into my next point…
- Characterization: As it turns out, trying to split the focus over nine ways tends to subvert attempts at character development. All of our titular Warriors are two-dimensional at best, if they even get the screen time to actually interact with each other, which makes me wonder why there needed to be so many in the first place. Swan is an untalkative stoic at the beginning of the film and doesn’t get a hint of an arc throughout the film, the same with Luther as the often seen and overdone ‘unrepentant psychopath’ archetype. These guys are all members of street gangs anyway, who am I supposed to sympathize with? The Warriors? Leaving aside the fact that one of their numbers is a bigot and an attempted rapist (he gets a large amount of dialogue as well, as if you couldn’t guess), none of the Warriors feel real. That goes for the rest of them as well.
- Action: It’s the one thing you would expect to see in a film called “The Warriors” that’s filled with gangs, but you would be sorely disappointed, because this film is very much geared towards the ‘running the fuck away’ crowd rather than the ‘punching’ crowd. I understand what they were trying go for; the Warriors are but nine men, unarmed and under constant threat of attack, so it makes sense for them to want to avoid confrontations. That’s what they intended, but all I really felt was a profound sense of boredom. Running away in Doctor Who works because I know that it’s leading up to the Doctor pulling some pseudo-scientific thing out of his ass to win, but in The Warriors there’s no payoff. Besides, if I don’t feel anything for the characters, because the film failed in giving them engaging personalities or reasons to feel sympathy for them, why should I care? I don’t.
- The last major point involves plot-holes, and since I try to avoid spoilers in these entries/musings, I don’t want to go much further than that. Trust me when I say that this is not the watertight script you might think it is. A subtle dig at the inherent ridiculousness of comic books? I doubt it.
Sometimes a movie is cult not because it’s a hidden gem, but that it is so bad that you can’t help but enjoy it. The Warriors would definitely fall into that category, but it’s the inaction that keeps it from making that leap. Check out the Cyrus speech and the Warriors chant, and you’ll get the two things about this movie that anyone remembers. Just trying to save you some time.
Result: Not Recommended
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