THE WARRIORS

A bunch of rival gangs in New York City are invited to a truce meeting lead by the biggest gang in all of the city called "The Gramercy Riffs". During the big meeting, the head of the gang gets assassinated by one of the gangs and they frame a gang called "The Warriors" for committing the murder. "The Warriors" must now try to get back to their home turf Coney Island, however, the word has spread and every gang is now after them. Can "The Warriors" make it home without getting wasted?

What's great about the casting in the film is everyone is an unknown actor and to be perfectly honest, that's what makes our heroes more identifiable and memorable. Their acting isn’t anywhere near Oscar worthy or anything, but is still good enough to match the grim and over the top tone that the film brings; as well as making the characters really fun, cool, and likable. The leader of "The Warriors" Cleon, despite being killed at the beginning, he's still a cool and badass leader despite his lack of screen time. The new War Chief Swan not only proves to be as cool, smart and badass as Cleon but he's the kind of guy who remains calm; always keeps his badass approach; and heck barley cracks a smile, and when ever you see him, you know he means business. He also has a love interest named Mercy who he meets on the journey and despite not being anything deep; you still feel a connection and a development between the two as the film progresses. In fact, when they first meet and throughout the majority of the film you'd never ever think that the two would ever be together which makes their relationship a lot more interesting. Next we have Ajax who is like the Sonny Corleone of the film, he's always tough; gets mad easily; and thinks with his fists and junk than he does with his head. Fox (Who was actually going to end up with Mercy in the original script but changed it because the actors who played Swan and Mercy were actually in a relationship) is just as smart as the new War Chief and he himself would actually make a good War Chief. In fact the scenes I really enjoy seeing him in are when he and Swan put their heads together. The other gang members like Rembrandt, Cowboy, Cochise, Vermin and Snow are all really memorable, cool, and enjoyable characters too and how they interact with other along with the different types of personalities that they have just makes them a lot more fun and interesting.

Aside from having fun, cool and likable main characters, the rival themed gangs that we see throughout the entire film are another huge reason that makes this film so memorable. You almost have every single themed gang in the book; you got a skin head gang; a pimp gang; a clown gang; an Asian gang; a loser gang; a lesbian gang; a psychopathic gang; a baseball gang and so on! Despite not seeing all of them as our heroes have to bop their way home (Which is a tad bit of a downer), you still remember them; you admire the creativity that was put in the film with these different themed gangs; and the ones that our heroes do face leads to nothing but pure awesomeness. The films main villain is the leader of a gang called "The Rogues" named Luther and every scene he's in, he's a riot and never stops being fun to watch. The leader of the biggest gang Cyrus (much like Cleon) is only in the film for a very short time but every time you see him, you can tell what makes him such a great leader. As for his second in command with the sun glasses, not only is he a great leader as well, but boy is he so tough and intimidating that he's the last person who you want to mess with in this movie. There's also a disc jokey in the film who we barley see the face of in this film and not only does the actress provide a haunting and cool approach but would you believe me if I told you that she was the chief in the game show "Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiago"? Kind of ironic that both the game show and this film that she practically hosts involves searching for a wanted criminal. If I had to pick a favorite gang in the movie, my favorite that "The Warriors" do face is "The Baseball Furies" and my favorite gang that just appears at the meeting is the clown gang who are called "The Hi-Hats" in the trailer.


What truly makes the film a masterpiece is its style! Now for those who think I'm going to talk about "The Ultimate Directors Cut" which is the current release of the film, I'm going to save my thoughts on it on a separate review. Right now, I'm just focusing on the original cut. The fight scenes and violence in this film are really extreme and creative with its choreography, fast edits, sound effects and use of slow motion and the crazy part is we don't see too much blood. The atmosphere is not only fantastic but the music and films soundtrack is what really creates the mood for each scene especially when there's suspense! As for the dialogue, it's a lot of fun and quotable especially the famous line "Warriors, Come Out To Play!". The style in the film is so great and so violent that the film received controversy for it because of its extreme violence; glorified look at gangs; and inspirational dialogue. The film has increased gang violence not only for its unrealistic style of violence but the whole speech that Cyrus gives about gangs out numbering cops as well as the films tagline "These are the armies of the night. They are 100,000 strong. They outnumber the cops five to one. They could run New York City" has left viewers so scared or so motivated to put this plan into action that the film has been temporarily pulled by several theaters.

"The Warriors" is perhaps one of the best gang movies of all time with its memorable characters, creative themed gangs, and unique style, all while having an on the edge of your seat storyline that it just gets better by each viewing. It's not "A Clockwork Orange" or anything but for a cult classic and a gang film, it's one of a kind!

RATING 5/5