The Warriors

Originally released on the big screen in 1979, this fast paced film received unwarranted criticism for promoting street-gang membership and glamorising the lifestyle. This criticism was unfounded and did nothing more than give the film additional exposure, eventually giving it a cult status. Directed by Walter Hill, and said by some to be his best work, this look at gang lifestyle has an outstanding ensemble of young actors that are suited perfectly to their roles. The star of the show on screen is Michael Beck as Swan, the "war chief" of the Warriors. Sadly for Michael, his next role of note was alongside Olivia Newton John in Xanadu, a real stinker by anyone's standards. Perhaps Beck was trying to avoid being typecast with this move, but the end result was a bad career choice.

"Warriors, come out to play!"

A truce is called for all New York City street-gangs so that a delegation of nine members of each gang can attend a meeting in the Bronx. The purpose of the meeting is for Cyrus, the president of the biggest gang in the city, to show these delegates how they can join forces to take control of the city, giving them an army of at least 60,000 soldiers. When Cyrus is murdered, all hell breaks loose and the truce is called off. The Warriors are wrongly accused but are unaware and unarmed. What ensues is the trials they face in their quest to make it back to Coney Island. All that stands between them and home are 20,000 police and every other gang in the city.

The Warriors guarantees all fans of this genre satisfaction. From the opening sequence to the conclusion, the film is non-stop, with some incredible fight scenes and chases. Bringing it all together is an outstanding soundtrack, worthy of a listen in its own right. Songs of note are those from Joe Walsh.

The transfer is exceptionally good and is presented in 1.78:1 widescreen and is also 16x9 enhanced. I would suggest this transfer has been done from a very good source. Film artefacts are constant throughout, however they are only minor white flecks plus a bit of that “aged� look. This only adds to the feel of the late seventies and is generally unnoticeable.

The majority of the film was shot at night, so taking this into account I was surprised at how clear and vivid the colours are, especially in the close ups of the actors where the depth of colour and texture are first class. A very impressive accomplishment considering the majority of scenes are low lit. The various levels of blacks are very good and generally noiseless. Aliasing can be quite annoying at times but is not constant. There is quite a bit of grain, mostly at the start of the film, but this is understandable considering its age and there definitely was not as much as I had expected. Shadowing is very good and there is no layer change.

The audio options are simply different languages. These are English, Spanish, French or Italian. From what I saw of these, they were acceptable but in some scenes sound was noticeably added on with the vocals being too loud, much like the old Terence Hill and Bud Spencer films. The big disappointment is that the sound is in Dolby Digital mono, which takes a little away from the full effect. The subwoofer is not used. There is a lot of background hissing, mainly on the indoor scenes.

The only real extra is a theatrical trailer in 1.78:1 widescreen, which is very poor, both in visual and sound quality. There is also a scene selection with fourteen scene jumps to choose from, however this is hardly an extra nowadays, is it?

I must admit this movie is one of my favourites and I didn’t hesitate to replace my video copy with the DVD. Having said that however, I would not necessarily recommend people rush out to buy this DVD just to replace a video copy in expectation of improved picture and sound quality. Although they are better, the difference is not excessive.

As far as the actual movie goes, it will definitely not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for movie fans who enjoy a good action film with an “edge of your seat� plot, then I can’t recommend this enough. Considering this was made in the late seventies, and reeks of bad clothes and haircuts at times and a little too many catch phrases, The Warriors certainly has stood the test of time.