Review of The Wanderers (1973) by Sherry L — 12 Jun 2012
A really good American Graffiti-ish movie with some great music from the early 1960s and contains just the right nostalgic feeling and warmth.
We get introduced to the gang culture of Bronx in the early 1960s, where you practically must belong to a "gang" if you are teenager, live in Bronx and have a certain background. There are "The Wanderers" (teens who adores Dion and are of italian ancestry), there are "The Duck Boys" (irish) "The Wongs" (chinese, all named Wong), "The Baldies" (skinheads), "The Pharaos" (jewish), "The Executionists", (from Poland), "The Pips" and "The Cavalieres" and "BBs" (afro-americans).
But like the main title suggests, it's The Wanderers the movie is about!
In the beginning of the movie we are shown how The Wanderers are into a fight with The Baldies and an unknown, very sturdy guy; Perry, out of nowhere stumbles in and save The Wanderers' asses. After that he is immediately recruited to The Wanderers and gets to know the others; Richie (Ken Wahl), Joey (John Friedrich) and Turkey and Buddy among others.
They are all great Dion-fans and their biggest interests are parties, girls and fancy cars.
We also get to know each character a little bit, their problems and worries. One of them is forced to marry a girl he isn't sure he love, because he accidentally made her pregnant, and one guy is very worried about his alcoholic mother who can't take care of herself, while another has a very abusive father.
Like I said, this movie is packed with songs by Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Dion & The Bellmonts, Del Shannon, Shirells, ect. Very good choices I must say, not just randomly picked.
Some historical events are "mentioned" as well in the movie, like the assassination of JFK and the army recruitments. Unlike most movies which portrays this time era, there is very very little that witness that it's actually made several decades after (look at Cry-Baby and compare!).
If you like movies that portrays this era, don't hesitate to watch it!
This review of The Wanderers (1973) was written by Sherry L on 12 Jun 2012.
The Wanderers has generally received positive reviews.
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