The Success of Cult Hit: The Warriors (1979)

70’s and 80’s cinema was a wild period for Hollywood and film making overall. The abolishment of the Hays code in 1969 saw a massive change on the type of content films were allowed to depict with Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde and Mike Nichols' The Graduate being the two movies that kicked off a so called ‘New Wave’ for Hollywood which introduced a plethora of new directors and actors and produced films that would shock audiences and completely revolutionise the format of cinema. However one movie that is not given as much attention and while it was at the end of the so called ‘New Wave’ era the movie is a cult classic and still holds up as a must see movie in today's cinema. The movie that I am talking about is Walter Hill’s ‘The Warriors’ (1979)

The filming of The Warriors was what was so great about it, a reported $4 million budget the crew were willing to do whatever possible in order to make sure the production was shot and finished. The overall story of The Warriors is loosely based on the story of Anabasis. Which is a story about Greek mercenaries who were outnumbered and stuck behind Persian enemy lines and their story of having to fight in order to get back home. Producer Lawrence Gordon detailed in an interview “I was in the discount section of a bookstore. There was a book with no cover on it. I picked it up and I saw the one line concept of the book. Straight away I called up the publisher and asked for subsidiary rights. And I was able to option the book with my own funds as slim as they were”

The script was written by David Shaber and Walter Hill. Firstly Hill didn’t have much faith in the script ever getting made due to the picture not requiring any real star power in any of the roles and he didn’t believe any of the big studios would really be interested in anything like ‘The Warriors’. The way Walter Hill’s ‘The Warriors’ went into production was quite remarkable. After seemingly believing that no one would give the backing to make The Warriors. Walter Hill and Lawrence Gordon instead shifted their focus to a western that still hasn’t been produced called 'The Last Gun’ however just 8 weeks out from the first day of shooting. The financial backing pulled out of the movie leaving Hill and Gordon lost and unsure of their next steps. Seemingly a godsend Gordon managed to find a near impossible window to shoot The Warriors and Hill agreed and from seemingly nowhere The Warriors was in production.

The casting of The Warriors was an interesting topic with relatively unknown actors being cast with actor Michael Beck who played Swan being cast because Walter Hill saw him on an independent project shot in Israel. While actor James Remar walked in for his audition and impressed Walter Hill by delivering a massive performance and getting so worked up in his audition he pulled a massive conference table. Remar joked “The story I was told later was that he had to give me the job I pulled the table”

During the beginning of the shooting stage for The Warriors. Lawrence Gordon knew straight away that the production was not going to be easy in fact it was going to be god damn difficult as in one of the of the first shots scheduled for the production Lawrence Gordon saw a PA trying to get a scary looking large man out of the way out of the shot and after seeing the confrontation go on between the two Gordon said “This is not gonna be easy. This is gonna be tough. This is New York. Welcome to New York”

And it’s that message that epitomises the movie. Walter Hill wanted real locations not a set but real locations in New York such as Riverside Park, Queens and many other locations. And due to The Warriors needing to be shot at night this didn’t exactly insure the safety of the cast or crew with executive producer Frank Marshall having to have extensive meetings with the New York police department and their gang unit to determine what areas it was safe to shoot in and what areas were not safe.

The opening sequence of Cyrus' speech is perhaps the most iconic scene of the entire movie over 1000 people gathered around all in different vests and colours listening patiently and eagerly to the leader of The Riffs. And then when Cyrus says the iconic line “Can you dig? “ the entire crowd erupts. The opening sequence was shot in Riverside Park. The conclave was deemed as the big money sequence of the movie which was weird as most big sequences were saved for later on in the movie. Walter Hill stated “ I think it’s the sequence that cements the style of the movie. It not only states the problem of the movie. But as a matter of fact it rather falsely demonstrates one premise and then the outcome of the sequence really states the premise of the movie”

There were 1000 kids at the riverside squad riot and each one was a member of about 200 gangs. There were a lot of gangs. There was a challenge to get these kids to listen. It was a wild wild 4-5 nights.

In the entire movie of The Warriors, there was only one set built and that was the men's bathroom on the BMT subway. With Walter Hill and his crew instead wanting to focus strongly on showing New York. The reason the Men's bathroom was built was because there was no men's bathroom's on the subway that would have allowed them to do what they wanted to in a safe and controlled manner. And looking at the iconic scene in the movie I don’t think the subway staff would be too pleased with the end result of the bathroom!

Perhaps one of the most intriguing and subtle but effective moments of the story was the encounter on the subway between Swan and Mercy and the prom couples that come in. It was a quick scene with only 4 setups but is one of the most important scenes of the movie. A wild contrast about people from two wildly different backgrounds. The prom couples looking at the Swan and Mercy covered in dirt. Swan’s bruised and bloodied face. Mercy’s tangled and messy hair. While the Prom couples are well kept stylish and modern. Both disapprove of each other for wildly different reasons. A small seemingly unimportant scene held so much value as it was almost like Mercy realised and was initiated as a full member of The Warriors.

If you talk about the movie ‘The Warriors’ you can’t but mention the iconic “Warriors come out to play” and almost more iconic is that it was almost entirely improvised. Director Walter Hill told David Patrick Kelly who plays Luther that the scene was too flat and it needed something more he wanted more of a sort of taunting. Walter then went back to his director's chair to think of something. That’s when a lightbulb turned on inside of Kelly’s head. Kelly lived in Downtown Manhattan and lived in a sketchy neighbourhood and lived next to someone who used to taunt and insult Kelly. He used to whine “Dave, Dave” that’s when Kelly got the idea to almost screech the line along with the constant banging together of the beer bottles.

While The Warriors is a great movie on it’s own it’s the soundtrack that is the cement that holds the house together. Composer Barry De Vorzon was put under huge time pressure. Hill wanted a soundtrack that complemented the fast and quick pace of the movie and thankfully De Vorzon managed to deliver on this task with his use of the synthesiser which was just being introduced at the time. This gave the soundtrack an eerie feeling. The soundtrack was the first soundtrack that was written with a rock and roll synthesiser approach. The opening with the eerie almost arcade like music presents a memorable opening sequence and truly let’s the audience know they are in for something special and unique.

Even with the huge problems and struggles during the production stage of the ‘‘The Warriors’ The opening weekend of ‘The Warriors’ had a big screening that was tied to a radio station. The screen was essentially filled with teenagers and it turned out to be a massive success. Walter Hill started to gain confidence in the movie and thought that he might have created something special. However the first reviews from Newspapers were not positive. However the reviews after the initial reviews from magazines were much more favourable after a positive opening weekend the movie was number one and the movie began to rise in popularity.

However two incidents immediately brought a stand still to the popularity of the movie. With two Californian youths killed in fights in two different theatres. While a Boston teenager was stabbed to death by a friend who had just watched the movie. Suddenly after the incidents word began to spread that if you go to see The Warriors there would be problems and somehow a riot would erupt while claims like these might have been fabricated by the press and rivals. Real gangs were attracted to the movie because of the subject matter and rival gangs would bump into each other and this would cause serious problems.

After several incidents Paramount had to pull promotional material from TV and Radio due to sporadic acts of violence and in some cases acts of violence that was fatal. However pulling the promotional material from TV and Radio didn’t slow or stop the success of the movie. However after mounting pressure and more incidents Paramount decided to pull the film completely. However after a while and once the controversy had subsided. Paramount instead started to focus on positive reviews in an attempt to shine light on the film. Overall The Warriors went on to make $22.5 million in the box office overall, a massive profit from the $4 Million it took make the film.

Overall through controversy, low budget and many long and dangerous nights The Warriors was completed and it is known as one of the most iconic films today. Unknown actors were shot into super stardom and there even went on to be a game adaptation made by Rockstar in 2005 which further explored and envisioned the gangs that were shown in the movie and further developed the world of The Warriors. Overall The game received many positive reviews. The Warriors was and is a cult classic and is still loved by movie lovers all around the world.

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