A cult classic of the 1970s, The Warriors offers a satirical spin on gang-life during the era. A contemporary Gangs of New York, the film centers on said Warriors, one of many posses meeting at a gangland conference in the Bronx to call a truce between 100 other groups in the city. The plan goes awry after someone shoots the leader of the conference, creating mass panic, with the Warriors being accused of the shooting. With every gang in the city, including the Baseball Furies and the Orphans, out to get the Warriors, the crew tries to navigate its way back home from the Bronx.
Accompanying the action-packed film is the director’s cut. Leading into the feature film, director Walter Hill justifies the inclusion of the cast and crew’s commentary. Maybe he should’ve explained why he only included commentary. Not to say that 45 minutes of how each scene of the film was made isn’t interesting – it’s just too static. It is interesting to hear how Hill visualized the fight scenes as an art form or why they wanted the film to move like a comic book.
The barrage of information, ranging from casting and producing, from cinematography to costume design, is either not covered enough or is beaten to death. The extras would have been more viewer-friendly had they been divided into categories, such as the sequencing of fights or costumes, since they opted to give each gang a different flavor. After all, additional amusement shouldn’t come from watching Cyrus shout, “Can you dig it,” in Spanish. m
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