CinemaBun #1: The Warriors (1979)

—JL Smyser

“Warriors! Come out and play!”

Spoiler warning. This is not necessarily a review for or against, more so a basic retrospective analysis.

What an odd but fascinating, genre-breaking, and slightly Odyssean story. It isn’t ahead of its time or behind the times, but rather it is a movie that feels exactly like the time it came out of. There is a strange blend of 70s subcultures that are at times at odds with each other but also working in tandem. From disco to baseball, urban hip-hop to feminist hippies, there is a little piece of so many things that shouldn’t fit together. And that’s what makes it interesting. But what makes the story a bit bumpy is also, unfortunately, a product of its time.

It seems to use this outdated ideology of “senseless violence” regarding youth, gangs, and these various subcultures. The whole set of events with our main cast, the titular Warriors gang, is kicked off because a rival gang killed Cyrus (a figure with narrative threads to the Black Panthers or Malcom X) as he was trying to unite the gangs against the cops. This at face value is a very interesting concept that in our modern era has the potential to say something about police brutality, gang violence, and the assassination of political figures. However, at the very end, the story’s main antagonist who killed Cyrus, Luther, told the Warriors that he “just likes to do stuff like that.” He’s in it for the chaos that it produces. That feels like a dead end when there are so many threads left dangling.

For example, when Cyrus is making his speech, and while Luther is preparing his assassination, the whole place is already being surrounded by police. My immediate thought was that Luther was assisting the cops for some reason that would be made clear later. Perhaps this can be implied if that’s how you want to see it, but I think it would be better if it was explicitly shown as part of the plot. Luther should not be the last villain of the story. Like I’m a crazed detective, I say, “It goes all the way to the top!” Someone in a higher position of authority to rival that of Cyrus.

Violence like that shown in The Warriors is never senseless or simple. I mean, sure it may not make sense to victims, but there is sense to be made about why gang violence and police violence and assassination exist. Violence is built up. Institutional and foundational. Structured and systemic. The cops basically acting as another gang with the same amount of pull as the actual gangs feels like untapped energy. It feels inspired by real world events but leaves the depth of those events unexplored.

There are plenty of books out there about these topics, if you are interested. One memoir that was very influential for me from a young age was something I read in an English class in high school. Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh. I actually didn’t realize it until now that this book had such an impact on me. It was an enlightening view into the world of a real-life gang and dismantles many preconceptions a reader may have. However, fair warning, since it was written nearly twenty years ago, it could possibly be a dated work. I’ll need to consider a reread.

But despite this criticism, I still did enjoy it because of the aesthetic and the weirdness of it. At one point, somewhere between the first train delay and the last, it felt like a (somewhat) modern Odyssey. A crew trying to get home but getting stopped by every manner of distraction, including a lotus island/siren equivalent from the all-female gang.

I can see it being remade today with a modern lens. Although I’d place it in a 90s setting if given the chance. Or perhaps a sequel given the Mad Max: Fury Road kind of treatment where the dystopian features are taken up a few notches. Welp, I’m off to check out Lin Manuel Miranda’s conceptual Warriors album to see if it comes close to any of this that I’ve talked about here.