Review of The Warriors (1979) by The R — 21 Jan 2011

Walter Hill's "The Warriors" is a film that goes for style over substance, and if that's your cup of tea, you might enjoy it. It is very minimalistic on a narrative level. The film follows the Warriors gang as they try to flee back to their home territory after they are framed for the murder of a powerful gang leader, while trying not to get taken out by rival gangs.

We get very basic, almost mythical archetypes instead of full-fledged three-dimensional characters. The film isn't particularly gripping and mostly just functional on a narrative level, but it is very strong, and at times brilliant, on a visual level.

The cinematography creates a comic book aesthetic, with bright neon colours set against solid blacks and browns. The comic-style transitions (in the director's cut) are alternately effective and distracting.

The violence, which is filmed in a mixture of slow-motion and real time, is balletic and stylized as opposed to realistic. What Hill is trying to do is create a modern day myth, with a deliberately sparse pseudo-mythological narrative and comic book visuals (as comics are, in a sense, the mythology of today), and the results are certainly captivating.

"The Warriors" is, above all else, an exercise in style.