Walter Hill's 70's Gang epic "The Warriors": Classic or Dud?

Yeah, I have it. It's ridiculous. The "special features" boasts "four featurettes," but it's essentially one documentary. And that's pretty much it. Big whoopity whoop.

Film's still fucking gold, though, and anyone who says "dud" should be handcuffed to a park bench and smacked in the groin with a nightstick.

Come out and Plaayyaayyyyyyy!

So yeah, classic. And a nice tie in w/the samples used by PWEI from the other thread. This is a good day.

Anybody want to hazard a guess how many times the "Can You Dig It!" line has been sampled?

Renegade Soundwave used it effectively on the intro to Ozone Breakdown...

good news boppers, the big alert has been called off...the early reports were wrong, all wrong. I guess the only thing we can do about it is play you a song.

Uh, classic. C'mon. Its an utterly fantastic, fantastic film. And the video game shows all signs of being godly too.

I have a theory, which is ridiculous but surely accurate, and it goes like this:

If you consider the way he says that -- four times in succession, volume increasing each time, as well as the strangled scream fashion he delivers it in -- then you have that actor essentially inventing a typical Pixies chorus years in advance.

http://warriorsmovie.co.uk/photos/images/photo20.jpg

http://warriorsmovie.co.uk/photos/images/photo67.jpg

Alex, I've heard the changes to the movie itself are appalling.

Walter Hill has completely ruined the movie by intersplicing "comic book" elements (paneled screen segueways). It's robbed the film of its tension and dignity. It's a travesty.

aw bloody hell

"do you SEE what happens?!!?

Oh yeah!

i may well just be on a belly full of drugs

Going back a bit, my favorite NYC movies are The Apartment and Sweet Smell of Success.

Taking of Pelham is the perhaps the most pitch-perfect movie I've ever seen. Not a word or scene wasted, not a bad note, perfect entertainment from start to finish. The Dud is the ABC tv-movie remake staring Vincent D'onofrio!

'Warriors' is a fun silly gritty genre movie, sniffed at by the bourgeois mainstream in its day and now overcelebrated as some monument of '70s cinema by fanboys. Middle Ground, people.

the wanderers was. and the ducky boys in the wanderers were actually scarier than any of the gangs in the warriors.

surprised i havent expressed my appreciation of this classic, it informed my view of nyc as an nyc way outer burbster in the early 80s.

Unstoppably classic.

― scissorlocks and the three bears (Eric H.), Wednesday, May 18, 2011 7:09 AM (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

WARRIORS
WARRIORS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOH-t-eCEOg

i would kill to see this in 35mm on a big ass screen.

and not the director's cut either.

I was probably one of a tiny minority of people who saw the original release of this movie in the theaters, specifically because I heard it was based on Xenophon's Anabasis and I was a huge stan for the Anabasis.

i have never seen this movie

'Warriors' is a fun silly gritty genre movie, sniffed at by the bourgeois mainstream in its day and now overcelebrated as some monument of '70s cinema by fanboys. Middle Ground, people.

Morbs so otm

I saw it at a drive-in double feature with Cheech & Chong's Up in Smoke.

i would kill to see this in 35mm on a big ass screen.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Tuesday, February 28, 2012 5:41 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Seconded, I went to a showing here a while back but it was the DVD with all the comic book transition panels and crap...talk about breaking the mood. Loved the movie anyway but still. OTM whoever it was that put this alongside Taking of Pelham-123 as the great 70s New York movies - everybody's cranky, sweaty and underpaid and nothing really works right but it doesn't keep anyone from being cool.

i would kill to see this in 35mm on a big ass screen.

Was lucky enough to be able to do this a few years back at the Nuart with a few ilxors, clean print and everything. Good fun.

I asked on some other thread whether this movie takes place in the future or not - watched it (for the first time) the other night and Hill seems to have wanted to set it "vaguely" in the future per his comments on the DVD intro but it's never really made clear. Movie is fun but kind of boring - so much running! Rape-y bits are gross. The comic-book inserts in the "director's cut" are totally stupid and unnecessary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECpu3KV4Ngg

Movie is fun but kind of boring - so much running!

you know i agree w/ this in spots but hill has a really nice sense of cinematic rhythm so that even the repetitive parts aren't really that dull.

yeah it's not bloated or anything. but, as my wife said, "she remembered there being more of a plot"

er she "remembered there being more of a plot"

I do like how the titular gang is so hardcore they're from ... Coney Island

*thug life*

I haven't seen this in years but is it challops to prefer Southern Comfort?

let's drop Shakey in Coney '77 and see what happens

morbs...not coney. he'll never make it out alive.

the hot dogs will tear his guts out, if the cotton candy doesn't get him first

My favorite bit is when they finally get off the train at the end and swan sez "we fought all night to get back to this?" like he forgot coney island sucked

― El Tomboto, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 3:05 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

really can't get over this, kind of perfects the movie for me honestly.

Can't think of an opening credits sequence that starts me up anywhere near as much as this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkTAanTR3sI

I'm sure I posted that upthread somewhere, but it can't be stressed enough.

awesome music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAyQ81g-NZE

President Ronald Reagan was a fan of the film, even calling the film's lead actor, Michael Beck, to tell him he had screened it at Camp David and enjoyed it.[5]

hey Aimless, ppl live in the shithole part of Coney that isn't the Boardwalk. Visit sometime.

I've received many invitations to visit various shitholes, but so far I've declined.

is it possible to see the original version now? My first and only time seeing it was the directors cut and I was really really turned off by the stupid comic book garbage

There's the original dvd, which can be had used for not too-much on Amazon.

this was awfulsome

hey Aimless, ppl live in the shithole part of Coney that isn't the Boardwalk. Visit sometime.

― Literal Facepalms (Dr Morbius), Saturday, March 3, 2012 3:56 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I've received many invitations to visit various shitholes, but so far I've declined.

― Aimless, Saturday, March 3, 2012 5:28 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh shitttt

This is a great contemporary doc that acts as some kind of a companion piece to The Warriors. So great that the whole thing is on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDb8Nr_gVcw

^that's great

Yes to pelham 123, yeah to west side story, kinda conan snake god vibes off dude that was shot at the start, dj voiceover lady had a fuckin scary mouth, where did everyone get their coke, sold it to gf by telling her 'yerman from twin peaks and yerman from sex and the city are in it' she wasnt impressed this was great tho

is it possible to see the original version now? My first and only time seeing it was the directors cut and I was really really turned off by the stupid comic book garbage

― catbus otm (gbx), Saturday, March 3, 2012 12:39 PM (1 year ago)

was pleasantly surprised to discover the original version streaming on netflix

http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=6629

Lots of then and now pictures of Warriors locations.

Awesome. Yesterday my two year old was running around chanting "Di-no-saurs...come out and play-ay".

Two Fridays ago I was sitting in a bar in SFO waiting to fly home and the Golden State/San Antonio game was on one of the TVs. The girl sitting next to me, who couldn't have been more than 22-23 years old, kept saying, "Warriors, come out and play-ay."

Awesome. Yesterday my two year old was running around chanting "Di-no-saurs...come out and play-ay".

― how's life, Monday, May 20, 2013 4:08 AM (1 hour ago)

awesome². ty, mr. life, this made my rainy monday morning.

Just watched it for the first time in years (wife hadn't seen it -- she liked it). Holds up well. I forgot how good the use of music is, and how much energy Walter Hill has. It really moves. But it also makes room for some quiet little scenes, like the prom couple mentioned above.

Pauline Kael called it "visual rock," which is pretty otm.

I really disliked it the one and only time I saw it a long time ago, but its reputation keeps making me think I should revisit it. My memory is fuzzy here, but I remember there being a scene of (attempted?) sexual violence that the film never condemns.

There's definitely a lot of casual sexual menace. The movie does sort of condemn it -- the worst offender gets busted by an undercover cop -- but it gets off on it too, no question. On the other hand, the the only major female character is pretty much a bad-ass.

http://manslife.com/9329/warriors-reunion-festival-2015/

I really disliked it the one and only time I saw it a long time ago, but its reputation keeps making me think I should revisit it. My memory is fuzzy here, but I remember there being a scene of (attempted?) sexual violence that the film never condemns.

― The New Gay Sadness (cryptosicko), Thursday, July 2, 2015 10:55 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's definitely a lot of casual sexual menace. The movie does sort of condemn it -- the worst offender gets busted by an undercover cop -- but it gets off on it too, no question. On the other hand, the the only major female character is pretty much a bad-ass.

― something totally new, it’s the AOR of the twenty first century (tipsy mothra), Thursday, July 2, 2015 11:07 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Isn't there a scene that kind of ambiguously suggests the female character thinks she is going to get gang raped and maybe kind of wants to? That definitely bothered me a little at the time I saw it although I guess I dismissed it as just being not much more absurd than the rest of the film.

cross posting this because it just popped up on netflix

Rubble Kings - a documentary about early 70s Bronx gang culture & the roots of hip hop

Hello.

https://www.diabolikdvd.com/product/the-warriors-imprint-2-disc-le-blu-ray-all-region-preorder/

This 1979 cult classic is now available in this all new limited edition release featuring together for the first time in HD the original 1979 Theatrical cut in addition with the 2005 Directors cut.

This new Limited edition set also delivers a host of new bonus features including commentaries, Interviews and video essays examining the cult phenomenon of The Warriors!

Limited Edition 2 Disc Hard box edition with unique artwork. 2000 copies.

Special Features and Technical Specs:

Disc One: The Directors Cut – (HD)
NEW Audio commentary by author/historian Chris Poggiali and former editor of Fangoria/author Michael Gingold
1080p High Definition presentation on Blu-Ray
“The Warriors: Introduction to the New Edition” (by director / co-writer Walter Hill)
“The Warriors: The Beginning” featurette
“The Warriors: Battleground” featurette
“The Warriors: The Way Home” featurette
“The Warriors: The Phenomenon” featurette
Theatrical Trailer
Audio English DTS HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0 Mono
Original aspect ratio 1.78:1
Optional English HOH Subtitles

Disc Two: Original Theatrical Cut (UK)

1080p High-definition presentation on Blu-Ray
NEW Audio commentary by film critic and author Walter Chaw
NEW Interview with composer Barry De Vorzon
NEW Interview with actor James Remar
NEW Interview with actor Dorsey Wright
NEW Interview with actor David Patrick Kelly
NEW Interview with UCLA Professor Bryant Kirkland on the origins of the story based on
Xenophon’s Anabasis
Theatrical Trailer
Audio English DTS HD 5.1 Surround + LPCM 2.0 Mono
Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
Optional English Subtitles

also on UK tv tonight, on 5Star, freeview ch30, about midnight