This week Mia and I watched The Warriors twice and were entertained both times because of its flashy, surreal fight scenes and the cool jackets. The Warriors was argued to be “insightful” of violence at the time of its release, almost being banned in Boston. The depictions of gang wars and the game of catch-up are choreographed and made to be a dream-like version of New York City in a time in which the depiction of the city was depressing and downbeat. The original text of The Warriors was based on a novel by Sol Yurick in 1965 which depicts a much angrier and grimy, but one that isn’t saved by any courageous gang heroes. It is an unearthly world that the Warriors step into when they go to the gathering in the Bronx. In the wrong place at the wrong time, they have to beat some ass to get home.

you can put ur dick away now

           The article “The Warriors” describes the movie as a theoretical baseball game in which the gang hits different subway station bases to get back home to Coney Island. Being based on a greek epic, a few men are lost to their masculine sensibilities unsurprisingly, one of which including young James Remar with an earring. Being filmed almost entirely at night, the empty streets and subway stations depict the city as a territory over run completely by the gangs. You can see why it would cause paranoia in 1979, with a city boiling with midnight movies and serial killers. However the film is made to be hopeful and keeps attention the whole film with the strangely different personalities and accessories of the gang aestheticism. I personally loved the outfits of the Lizzies, and the frizzy hair and insane chair smash move. I loved the role of women in the film, they were as unruly as the men surprisingly for a movie about gang-violence nevertheless in the 70s. It was a quick turn of the tables, like sirens with all similar shirts on that they obviously underestimated because they’re hot. The characters were easily the most interesting part to me; the Baseball Furies were easily my favorite, but the fight scene in the bathroom with the Punks was so on beat and epically staged you can see why there are no other movies quite like The Warriors. 

extremely casual

          In The culture of Fandom by John Fiske, he explains that the cultural economy created by over enthused fans is what pushes the industry to produce more content to be consumed. This is how the cult-audience of The Warriors were able to score a video game in 2005 and revive the classic and its groovy music. They fought for the film to be shown despite it’s enraging of the masses; it’s describes in the warriors article as “ artistically, (is) an uneven fim to say the least, but it’s so full of unbridled energy and drive, with frenetic pacing from beginning to end, that it’s hard not to root harder for it to succeed than those bigger-budgeted films with more ‘socially-acceptable protagonists’”

xoxo thanks dr s