When it comes to an author despising a screen adaptation of their work, Stephen King’s remarks about The Shining being “a maddening, perverse, and disappointing film,” are almost complimentary, at least if you compare them to Sol Yurick’s take on The Warriors.
The novelist never came to terms with the film’s status as a cult classic. And he’s said that while the skeleton of the movie was intact, the revolutionary content was missing, director Walter Hill had no idea how street kids talk, and that it was “trashy” (though beautifully filmed).
And with respect to the Pied Piper of the Bronx, gang leader Cyrus…well…Yurick didn’t DIG him at all either, saying “the actor was awful.”
One of the most remarkable aspects of The Warriors is the gulf between the high-minded intentions of the author- Sol Yurick’s book drew from Anabasis by Zenophon, a pupil of Socrates with the eponymous gangsters as Greek mercenaries – and the finished product. The Warriors is an often corny, but unrelenting and adrenaline-fueled chase from one end of the New York subway system to the other.
Cyrus, the Bronx gang wrangler, boasts strength in numbers, and that there are somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40,000 affiliated or unaffiliated gangsters, but that “there ain’t but 20,000 police in the whole town.”
When Cyrus is gunned down, rivals finger The Warriors, who’ve gotta then bop their way back to Coney Island and escape the thousands who now see red.
Instead of splitting for cabs, the boys ride the rails. For native New Yorkers, the idea of a chase happening on the subway can only exist in the realm of fiction as they are constantly grousing about MTA delays. Nonetheless the dark and seedy tunnels provide an excellent action backdrop – after all, the “cut and cover” technique used to build the system, means it is very loud indeed, and the screeching of the subways is a great aural accompaniment to sleazy graffiti-filled subterranean visuals.
Walter Hill keeps the action tight and tense like he did with Southern Comfort (the excellent hicksploitation that Vinegar Syndrome is putting out this year) .
The music is absolutely cracking too (Barry De Vorzon, Martha and the Vandellas and Joe Walsh, hello)
One of the best action films of all time, The Warriors is worth a revisit every few years.
**** (out of 5)
Really Awful Movies 
Yeah, this is a film that really has to be taken on the basis of when it was produced. This is right in the sweet spot between the heaviness and gritty sensibility of the new wave of 1970s independent visionaries and the formulaic 1980s excesses. But it manages to capture the explanation vibe that was so prevalent in the 70s while making something that hangs together well like the eponymous group of falsely accused gang members and their iconic leather vests.
Although I haven’t read the source material, I have heard that the movie was based on actual events that occurred in the South Bronx during that area’s most dangerous days of gang culture. If you dig ‘The Warriors’ you might wanna check out a documentary titled ‘Rubble Kings’. The film details the gangs of the Bronx during the 70s. This is the stuff that inspired ‘The Warriors’ and actually turned out to be the beginnings of Hip Hop culture.
Alright. Thanks for the article. I learned some things about this classic genre jewel.
Hotep 𓋹
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Interesting, I didn’t know anything about book and how the film differs. I’m a big fan of The Warriors. It’s got this raw energy throughout that carries you on the gang’s chaotic – and, like you say, tense, journey. I love the New York subway system setting. Such a great – and characterful – urban backdrop. I think I’ll be digging it out for another watch after reading this.
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