Terry's Reviews
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The Warriors – Ultimate Director’s Cut Paramount Home Entertainment – 2005 Directed by Walter Hill Screenplay by David Shaber and Walter Hill Based on the Novel by Sol Yurick Starring |
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| A charismatic leader
speaking out for all the gangs in New York is murdered. Sucker punched with a bullet!
Immediately all the gangs unite determined to get whoever was responsible for this
cowardly act. A straight-laced group called The Warriors is blamed and must run like hell
through the bowels of the boroughs of New York City to try and stay alive. Over the course
of one whole night, THE WARRIORS have to take on all comers who are out for blood. The
question becomes can they make it home to Coney Island alive. Walter Hill has been good but never better. Hill choreographs a landslide of pretty much non-stop action maximizing the unforgettable locations scattered around New York City and getting top notch performances from all his cast. There’s not a weak actor in the entire film. Better than that, Hill cast a giant range of personalities that will stay with you for as long as you can remember. Paramount Home Entertainment deserves kudos for the supplements created. There is an introduction by Director Walter Hill and 4 Outstanding Featurettes. The Beginning – Walter Hill explains the genesis that brought him aboard the project. He said the idea of this story came from a Greek war story of which he took to. Producer Lawrence Gordon recounts how he went about putting together this project and the people involved. It’s nice to hearing a big time producer with such a detailed memory. Battleground – Michael Beck, James Remar recall the process they experienced while making THE WARRIORS. Beck had a routine where he worked at night, then got up during the day, worked out at the gym and then was ready to film again by the evening. In The Way Home Michael Beck and Executive Producer Frank Marshall state the “Baseball Fury” were their favorite gang in the movie. Costume Designer Bobbie Mannix designed them in different colored baseball uniforms and painted their faces to look scary. DP Andrew Laszlo recounts that when there was no lights in the Central Park location used for Baseball Fury fight scene, he bought cheap drugstore lip lights and hung them in the trees to illuminate the scene. Marshall says that Walter Hill designed the fights in the movie to be more of a ballet, to make them less violent than reality. Walter Hill admits The Warriors were not his favorite gang in the movie; it was The Lizzies, the all girl gang. Actor David Patrick Kelly who played the unforgettable villain “Luther” recalled at the end Walter Hill felt the moment where he calls out the Warriors was not working. He asked Kelly to come up with something taunting. Kelly states that he lived in downtown Manhattan in kind of a scary neighborhood. There was a guy next door with kind of a shady background, he used to taunt and make fun of him by softly saying, “David. David. David.” It was scary. I knew he could use this in combination with rattle the midget sized beer bottles they sold at Coney Island at the time. The Phenomenon David Patrick Kelly recalls that actress Lynn Thigpen who played the Radio DJ was shocked when seeing that only her mouth was shot when seeing the rough cut. Later she confessed that she didn’t know they were making a classic. Frank Marshall recalls that they were making this movie they were going on “pure gut instinct." Music Composer Barry De Vorzon says he believe THE WARRIORS was the first picture to use a rock-n-roll synthesizer approach. It was all rock-n-roll except for the end titles where his friend Joe Walsh & The Eagles recorded a song after the fact. Producer Lawrence Gordon admits he didn’t have much faith that the movie would work because he felt they had made a cartoon that people would not take seriously. He was way off base. It was no great surprise that the quality of the featurettes after seeing they were Written, Directed and Produced by Laurent Bouzereau. This man has to be the best in the business at putting these together for DVD. THE WARRIORS is truly a film landmark. There is no other film like it. It’s as powerful now as when it was first released in 1979. If you haven’t seen it, you’re seriously missing out on one of the finest action films made in the past 30 years. |
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