The Warriors: A Gritty, Urban (Cinematic) Street Gang

So I was just sitting here trying to think of a gritty, urban topic to talk about, when inspiration suddenly hit:  What's more gritty and urban than a street gang?  (Very little, if you want the honest truth.)

 

Most of us have had our image of gangs shaped by television and the movies, and Hollywood hasn't necessarily done a bad job.  Of course, when I mention cinematic gangs, I'm not thinking of finger-snapping, pirouetting cliques like the Jets and the Sharks in West Side Story.  No, I'm thinking of hardcore, in-your-face, belligerent street antics.  And no street crew ever fit the bill like The Warriors.

 

For those who don't know, allow me to provide a short synopsis: The Warriors (based on a book of the same name by Sol Yurick) is the story of a Coney Island gang that travels to the Bronx for a meeting of all the major New York gangs.  The meeting has been called by Cyrus, the charismatic leader of the Gramercy Riffs. 

 

 

The rules for the meeting are simple: each invited gang is to send nine unarmed representatives.  Once there, Cyrus tells them how - if all the gangs can stop wasting each other at every opportunity - they could rule the streets, because they outnumber the cops by a significant margin.  The idea seems to resonate with almost everyone, but Cyrus is shot and killed by Luther, leader of the Rogues (for, as he later explains "No reason...I just like doing stuff like that.")  The Warriors are wrongfully accused of the killing and spend the rest of the film fighting - literally - to get back to their home turf in one piece, which isn't easy since every gang in New York is after their heads for Cyrus' murder. 

 

I freely admit that I love this movie.  First of all, it's a great action film.  The Warriors have a number of violent, white-knuckle confrontations with other gangs while trekking (mostly on foot) back to Coney Island, and it's just a blast to watch them fearlessly taking on all comers. 

 

Next, the gangs have some incredibly cool names:  The Turnbull ACs, The Hi-Hats, The Baseball Furies, The Gramercy Riffs, etc.  (Of course, not all of the names are awesome.  For instance, The Punks, whom The Warriors face off against in the clip below, obviously could have benefited from some PR research on their group moniker.)

 

 

 

 

 

 Although it's pushing up on 40 years old, the film has handily withstood the test of time and still has cultural relevance.  The bottle-clinking scene near the end of the film (seen here) has been parodied/spoofed dozens of times, it seems.  And a lot of people might remember Shaquille O'Neal constantly saying "Can you dig it?" - whether at basketball games, music award shows, what have you. (You can see one such instance here.)  It's a straight rip from the Warriors:

 

 

 

(But hey, if someone as cool as Shaq uses a tagline from a film, then you know it has to be a good movie.)

 

All in all, it's a great movie and still fun to watch (which is why there's always talk of a remake circulating).  If you haven't ever seen it, you're missing a treat.