The Warriors 1979 Film Review

Film fans i've reviewed alot of films some good others not so much but i've never reviewed a film that is a favourite film for one of my family members and out of respect to that family member i'm not going to mention them by name or my relation to them. This is also a film that i've seen quite a few times over the years and I never get tired of watching and so film fans here is my review of 1979's "The Warriors" enjoy.

The plot of the film is a well respected gang leader called Cyrus summons every gang in New York but he gets killed and a gang known as The Warriors are framed for his death and so now the gang have to try and make their way back home alive. I'll be the first to admit that the story is really easy to follow and it's very creative since i've not seen this story repeated in any other film I can safely say that this film is the only one to do this story but I could be wrong.

Starring in the film is Michael Beck as Swan , James Remar as Ajax , Dorsey Wright as Cleon , Brian Tyler as Snow , David Harris as Cochise , Tom McKitterick as Cowboy , Marcelino Sánchez as Rembrandt , Terry Michos as Vermin , Thomas G. Waites as Fox , Deborah Van Valkenburgh as Mercy , Roger Hill as Cyrus , David Patrick Kelly as Luther , Lynne Thigpen as The D.J , and Edward Sewer as Masai.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the film I honestly remember it being alot better then what it was bearing in mind that the last time I saw this film either last year or two years ago. So I know this film fairly well even so I thought that the acting would have been alot better especially given how good the story is but for me every actor just seems to be doing the bare minimum and nothing more.

Now as not alot of you will know this film is was inspired by the book of the same name by author Sol Yurick. When I say inspired by I really do mean it because outside of the central plot the book and the film have nothing in common with each other , since from what I can gather of Wikipedia none of the characters from the film and of the gangs from the film appeared in the book but there's a huge chance that i'm wrong.

I'm basing this cut of the directors cut of the movie there's not really a huge amount of difference so your not missing out on anything. However I will say the directors cut has something which really got on my nerves and really should have been left out of the movie and that's the comic book style transitions they were so bad in my opinion they really did take me out of the film and they just didn't fit the tone that the film was going for if this was done as a parody then i'd be all for them but it wasn't so it was a bad call to have them in the film.

I really did like the tone that this film was going for which just to be clear the film was going for a more realistic tone. Which was something that I liked about the film since I see alot of films that portray the gang subject matter as something that's akin to fantasy but here they took the opposite approach and it was something that I felt worked because it allowed the viewer to get sucked into the film alot more.

This film has become a cult hit and it's honestly not hard to see why since it is a really good film and it's one that not that many people know about. Honestly just from taking one look at any of the pictures I use from this film you'd be forgiven for not believing me when I say that the film is a cult film but it's true so much so that not only has there been a remake in the works for over a decade but there's also a TV series in the works from the directors of Avengers: Endgame Joe and Anthony Russo.

When this film first came it out in 1979 it actually caused alot of gang violence at screenings i'm not even kidding if you thought that the gang violence in screenings of the film Blue Story was bad then you've not seen anything yet. Since this film was released when gangs pretty much ruled the world so you just know that alot of rival gang members would have been seeing this film it got so bad that Paramount to remove advertisements from radio and television completely and if you see an advert in the paper all it would have been was just the films title and mention nothing about it being a gang film , heck theatres had to put on security during screenings of the film.

Let us take a second to talk about the films running time for even tho the film is just over an hour and a half with the actually running time being an hour and thirty four minuets. It honestly does feel alot longer then that and alot of that does boil down to how the film slips into a pattern of The Warriors making it to a new part of New York they meet a rival gang who wants them dead or beat up a fight breaks out The Warriors escape wash , rinse and repeat.

Now this does fall under the action genre at least according to Wikipedia which is good enough for me and so it means that we have to talk about the action in the film itself. Like with the tone the action takes a more realistic approach and like with the tone it really does work since it now makes each hit all the more brutal and almost agonising to watch with perhaps the best example of that being the action scene set in the men's bathroom every aspect of that scene is so well put together from the placement of the cameras to the editing it all works in that one scene of the film.

Overall all I can say is if you haven't seen this film go and see it even if it's just to say you've seen it you should watch it just because this film needs more love and attention. I'm not going to lie I can see some people being put of by this film but you have to trust me when I say that there's more going on beneath the service of the film and that this is a truly great film that deserves it's rotten tomatoes score of 89% from the critics and 88% from the audience and so while I did have some issues with the film it's still gets a 9 out of 10 from me.