Review of The Warriors (1979) by Kevin D — 24 Jun 2010

The Warriors is one of the coolest movies ever made. Its look is both poetic and stylish. Director Walter Hill fused a comic book (almost literally) look and feel into the film that felt awesome and authentic. The movie also sports a cool and retro soundtrack. When the music starts blasting in this picture, it's hard to not feel involved.

This movie is also a chase movie/action thriller from start to finish, so something is always happening in this film. The plot of this movie is pretty simple: all of the major gangs of New York (no relation to the 2002 Scorsese masterpiece Gangs of New York) are called into the center of town where a major gang figure is calling a meeting. He had a peaceful message for the gangs and wanted the city to unite and be cleaned up.

Everybody liked that message except for this guy that looked like Sean Penn. The Sean Penn look alike shot the speaker and blamed the assassination on his gang's rival, The Warriors. That resulted in the entire city (both the gangs and the police) hunting down the Warriors.

If I had one complaint about this movie, it would be that the characters were one dimensional, but that's a small flaw in such a well-made and entertaining thrill ride. This movie never relents and it partially serves as a metaphor for ancient warriors. But mostly, it's a fun and cool cult film that is supreme entertainment.

I'll end the review with the movie's best quote, "Warriors come out and play-ay.".