WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema Rewind: The Warriors 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.720 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind it. This is 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:08.720 Rob Lamb. 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:11.400 And this is Joe McCormick. And today we're bringing you 0:00:11.480 --> 0:00:14.360 an older episode of Weird House Cinema. This one originally 0:00:14.360 --> 0:00:17.520 published on August twenty third, twenty twenty four. It's our 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:19.320 feature on the Warriors. 0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:21.319 Yeah, this one's a lot of fun. I mean, this 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:23.560 movie is a lot of fun. And I remember this 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.080 one being a blast to talk about. 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:34.520 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.080 Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:43.680 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.159 And if you look at the various genres that we 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.080 cover here on Weird House Cinema, obviously there's a lot 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.440 of science fiction. There's a lot of horror, there's a 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:56.080 lot of fantasy. But obviously weird films don't necessarily need 0:00:56.120 --> 0:01:01.240 space aliens or wizards or ghosts. Of our previous selections 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:04.040 reflect this. Three of them released in the same year 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:09.880 of nineteen sixty eight, Head, which you covered with Seth Danger, 0:01:10.000 --> 0:01:14.600 Diabolic and Black Lizard, so a musical adventure, and two 0:01:14.640 --> 0:01:18.919 stylized super criminal movies. A fourth nineteen sixty five faster. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:22.720 Pussycat Kill Kill is also a crime movie, basically in 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:26.160 the exploitation genre, but it's also packed full of weirdness. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.920 And so we're back with a fifth selection today that 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:33.720 contains no true speculative element. I mean, it's possibly set 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.319 in the future, but if so, the very near future, 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.440 it's you could make a case that this is an 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:44.319 alternate reality. There's a certain amount of surreal substance going 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:47.720 on with this film, but overall, yeah, no aliens, no wizards, 0:01:47.760 --> 0:01:51.160 no ghost It concerns criminals, and it certainly stands tall 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.600 as a weird cult movie. It's Walter Hill's The Warriors 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:56.120 from nineteen seventy nine. 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:58.760 I don't know how you're saying that it contains no 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.800 speculative element. And it has street gangs that are in 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:04.160 baseball uniforms with face paint. 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.680 I mean that could happen. There's nothing in this film 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:12.640 that could not technically happen or have happened. But yeah, 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:15.760 it makes all of these and it's not just visual 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.880 choices that are strained. It's not like they had just 0:02:19.960 --> 0:02:24.040 like a straightforward street crime plot and then just decided 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.760 to color up and gussie up the costumes there is 0:02:27.760 --> 0:02:30.280 we'll get into. There are other aspects of the warriors 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:31.600 that make it stand out as well. 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:35.320 That's true, But I think it is just straightforwardly fair 0:02:35.400 --> 0:02:38.240 to say that this movie is set in an alternate universe. 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:44.080 The gangs of this movie are just much more theatrical 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:47.959 and circus like than any gangs I'm aware of in reality, 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:49.440 at least in the modern world. 0:02:49.760 --> 0:02:53.360 Yeah, And like, I always feel like this movie seems 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:58.160 to occupy the same cinematic universe as the nineteen seventy 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.200 three adaptation of the musical god Spell, you know, like 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:04.480 it it doesn't feel like it is it is actually 0:03:04.680 --> 0:03:07.079 our reality. It's somewhere a little bit to the left, 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.080 a little bit to the right, Spock in a goatee territory. 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:12.160 Well, you know, another movie it kind of reminds me 0:03:12.240 --> 0:03:15.120 of in this regard is another Walter Hill movie, which 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:18.840 is Streets of Fire, a film set that has an 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:23.920 urban setting. It has mostly like it doesn't really have 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:28.640 magic or like science fiction technology in it, but still 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.200 it feels like a fantasy. It doesn't feel like the 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:34.720 real world, and the gangs in it and the heroes 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.720 in it are all just kind of mythical in a way. 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:41.120 Yeah, yeah, I know, I know what you're talking about. Like, 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:43.800 similar things are often said about I don't know, Court 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.400 McCarthy comes to mind. You know, so many of most 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:48.720 of his books are not dealing with any kind of 0:03:48.760 --> 0:03:52.920 speculative elopment. They're like to the you know, the average eye, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:56.080 like straightforward Westerns, for example, but the way that he 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.320 writes them and the way that he approaches them it 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:02.600 ends up taking on all of these often overt mythical connotations. 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:04.920 So anyway, yeah, The Warriors. I was drawn to this 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:07.520 one in part, I think because I was like, maybe 0:04:07.520 --> 0:04:09.120 we need a palate cleanser. You know, we've been doing 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:13.440 a lot of fantasy, a lot of sci fi. It's like, 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:15.720 take it down a little bit. And also I realized 0:04:15.760 --> 0:04:19.080 we hadn't covered a seventies of film in several weeks, 0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:21.279 and I'm like, okay, we need something from the nineteen seventies. 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:24.760 And then also, it's been rather hot recently. We were 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:26.760 kind of back into a cool spell now, but it's 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:28.600 been it's been kind of a hot summer of late, 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.840 and this is a movie that always screams summer in 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.760 the city. To me, it's just a very hot and 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:39.279 sweaty film. Most of the characters seem like they have 0:04:39.440 --> 0:04:43.560 just been sweating for days, that patina of sweat on 0:04:43.640 --> 0:04:47.080 them and most of the scenes. It's a grungey seventies 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:51.280 New York City film. And yeah, yeah, it's just as 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.000 part of the vibe. It's just this is a good 0:04:53.040 --> 0:04:54.440 summer movie. In my opinion. 0:04:54.720 --> 0:04:57.000 I was quite surprised to hear you describe it as 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:59.720 a cleanser in any way, because this film is de 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:00.920 I did lye dirty. 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:02.960 It needs a shower, it is. 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:06.200 Yeah. It is also interesting in that I was kind 0:05:06.200 --> 0:05:09.000 of looking for a quick breather from a lot of 0:05:09.000 --> 0:05:11.560 the alien related content that I've been picking for Weird 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:17.479 House and for other portions of the podcast stream, and 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:19.960 of course this one ends up having a number of 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:24.160 alien and aliens connections as well, which we'll get into now. 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:25.920 It's interesting. I was reading a little bit about the 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:29.160 production and the release so the Warriors of the movie 0:05:29.200 --> 0:05:31.480 about street gangs, and even though it deals with them 0:05:31.480 --> 0:05:34.800 in a manner that again feels very rather removed from reality, 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:37.480 it's worth noting that street gangs were an issue during 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:42.120 the filming and the release of the movie, so gangs 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.120 obviously have been a real issue around the world throughout 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:47.719 time and in urban and rural settings. So you know, 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.480 the film would seem to be removed enough from reality 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.760 to avoid controversy upon release, at least from our vantage point, 0:05:55.040 --> 0:05:57.599 because especially as the decades set in, I think it 0:05:57.640 --> 0:06:00.240 also takes on this additional air of otherness as we 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.520 have not only like the weirdness applied to the different 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:05.359 gangs in the way they're dressed, but also we're just 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:10.000 further and further from from the late nineteen seventies. But yeah, 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:11.839 at the time that they released it, apparently there were 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:15.760 various controversies. There were like gangs allegedly fighting in the theaters, 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.039 like the street gangs loved it. People who didn't like 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.360 the street gangs were very critical of the movie for 0:06:21.360 --> 0:06:23.360 for highlighting street gang violence. 0:06:24.000 --> 0:06:26.320 The Warriors is going to make people join gangs? 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:27.080 I don't know. 0:06:27.160 --> 0:06:29.360 I mean it was a real concern at the time. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.040 I was reading in the Psychotronic video. Guy Michael Weldon, 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:34.960 who I believe at the time he wrote this was 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:38.200 a New Yorker before he became a Georgian like me. 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:43.000 He has a record store in Augusta now Psychotronic Records, 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:46.479 so if anyone's on a road trip through Augusta, that's 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:49.400 an interesting place to stop. But anyway, he pointed out 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:51.719 that it got a lot of negative buzz on release 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.080 that he qualifies as like good negative buzz, so like ultimately, 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.120 you know, uplifted the film and I guess helped cement 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.680 its cult status. And he does point out that this 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.120 is not a film that is true to life regarding 0:07:05.279 --> 0:07:08.160 life in New York City, but he does point out 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:10.560 accurately that it makes use of a lot of great 0:07:10.600 --> 0:07:13.280 New York City locations. I mean, this is definitely a 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:18.120 movie filmed in New York and even if you're used 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:21.560 to today's New York City, you feel at home in 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:22.080 this film. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.040 I know what you mean. There is something about the 0:07:25.160 --> 0:07:28.560 use of New York locations in this movie. And I'm 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:30.520 not even in New Yorker myself. I've only been there 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:35.600 a few times. But something about it feels very familiar 0:07:35.840 --> 0:07:39.840 and cozy to see all these shots in and references 0:07:39.880 --> 0:07:43.559 to real places throughout New York, especially throughout the Bronx 0:07:43.640 --> 0:07:47.240 and Manhattan and then Coney Island at the beginning in 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:52.520 the end, that it feels really cozy and familiar, and 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.520 at the same time, the setting, like the plot context 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:00.960 in which we encounter these locations is not at all familiar. 0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:05.560 It's hostile territory where our main characters are in extreme danger, 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:08.800 but it just feels like it makes you want to 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:10.320 settle in with a cup of tea or something. 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:11.520 Do you know what I'm talking about? 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:14.560 Yeah, yeah, Yeah, it is weird how a film that 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.880 is you could, I guess roughly catalog in the sort 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.880 of the hell city world, you know, you know, sort 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:24.080 of like the post apocalyptic New York but without the apocalypse, 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:28.080 or more of like a slow apocalypse, and yet it 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:32.560 still feels like lovingly New York City in some strange way, 0:08:32.600 --> 0:08:36.040 even though most of the scenes are about you know, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:40.120 street gang members running from cops or karate kicking a cop, 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.880 or fighting each other as they flee in and out 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:45.120 of different subway stops. 0:08:45.400 --> 0:08:48.320 Yeah, if you're not familiar with the terminology we've used before, 0:08:48.360 --> 0:08:51.080 the hell city cliche in the movies is that it 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.160 was especially common in movies of say the seventies through 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:58.360 the nineties early nineties that would depict American cities, especially 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:02.680 New York City. You know, it would take the worst 0:09:02.760 --> 0:09:08.679 components of urban poverty or decay or something, and then 0:09:08.760 --> 0:09:11.600 take it to an almost fantasy level, so you would 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.480 have these cities depicted as places full of flaming garbage 0:09:14.520 --> 0:09:17.480 cans and trash blowing in the wind, and around every 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:19.240 corner where there was somebody with a knife. 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:21.840 Yeah. Escape from New York is in many ways like 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:26.040 the prime example of this in which Manhattan has been 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:29.880 depopulated of everything, but criminals and extra criminals have been 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.080 added to establish a penal colony. So this movie doesn't 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.120 inspire to that level of hell city. 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.040 New York does still feel like lived in in this movie. 0:09:38.280 --> 0:09:40.800 Yeah, like we have. It doesn't go to great pains 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:43.680 to establish this, but they did make sure that we 0:09:43.720 --> 0:09:46.680 have the various shots where we see bystanders who seem 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:51.000 to be just normal folk. There is enough texture to 0:09:51.120 --> 0:09:53.960 remind us that this is a place where normal people live. 0:09:55.400 --> 0:09:57.880 This is just what happens in the contested street environment, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:09:58.719 particularly at night. 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.080 Now, one thing that was new to me upon this 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.000 revisit of The Warriors, because I'd seen the movie years ago, 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:10.160 but I hadn't watched it in quite some time, so 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:13.000 I never noticed this before. But coming back to it. Now, 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:17.679 The Warriors is obviously based on a work of classical 0:10:17.760 --> 0:10:22.840 Greek literature, which is The Anibasis by Xenophon, and so 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.640 I looked it up. And this is not just a 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.000 cursory kind of illusion or you know, kind of a 0:10:29.040 --> 0:10:32.280 little bit of a match on the book on which 0:10:32.520 --> 0:10:35.760 The Warriors was based, called The Warriors by Saul Yurik 0:10:36.520 --> 0:10:41.560 was explicitly based on Xenophon, And apparently earlier cuts of 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:45.560 the movie and some versions of the screenplay just say 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.800 that this is the story told by Xenophon, but in 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.000 the modern day. So what's the deal with the Anabasis? 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:55.120 The Anibassis is the story of a company of ten 0:10:55.200 --> 0:11:01.000 thousand Greek mercenaries who are travel out to fight a 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.600 war but become stranded in Mesopotamia. So they're fighting for 0:11:05.800 --> 0:11:10.360 a Persian prince, Cyrus, the younger. Cyrus tried to challenge 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.560 his brother Arctic Serxes the second for the throne of 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:17.960 the Achemenid Empire, but was killed in the campaign in 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:21.360 four oh one BCE, sort of leaving his armies adrift. 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:25.679 So the Anabasis narrates the ten thousand Greek warriors attempt 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:31.439 to travel back from this far distant hostile territory in Mesopotamia, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.559 back to friendly lands, back to Greek cities along the 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.200 sea in Asia Minor, and so they have to travel 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:44.000 through Mesopotamia through Armenia through Asia Minor, having many fascinating 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.760 and thrilling adventures along the way. And The Warriors follows 0:11:47.880 --> 0:11:51.000 this general shape by having the gang make a perilous 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:54.960 journey back to home territory through strange lands full of 0:11:55.000 --> 0:12:00.280 hostile armies and relentless pursuers. But there are also more 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:03.920 specific nods, like the fact that they are initially assembled 0:12:03.960 --> 0:12:06.719 in the park by a leader named Cyrus, the name 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:10.640 of the Prince. The Persian Prince, and other characters in 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.200 the movie also have the names of famous Greek heroes. 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:17.720 There are characters named Ajax and Cleon and so forth. 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:21.679 Another thing about The Warriors that feels very ancient Greek 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.400 to me is its alien morality. It's a very interesting 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.240 way to depict street gangs in storytelling. So the movie 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:34.040 is decidedly told from the gangs and the gang member's 0:12:34.160 --> 0:12:36.880 point of view. It is not from the point of 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.480 view of like an outsider interacting with the gang, or 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.959 with a kind of sermonizing tone that you might get 0:12:42.960 --> 0:12:46.080 in some seventies movies that deal with gangs as like, oh, 0:12:46.200 --> 0:12:48.640 this is a kind of social blight. Look at the 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:52.720 crime and the destruction. We are with the Warriors in 0:12:52.760 --> 0:12:54.920 the movie. We're on the ground level with them, and 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.600 we're seeing things from their point of view. So they 0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.240 are structurally the protagonists of the story. And yet the 0:13:01.240 --> 0:13:06.600 Warriors are really not good guys. Other than placing them 0:13:06.720 --> 0:13:09.679 in a very unfair predicament where they're framed for a 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.240 crime they didn't commit, there is little effort made to 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:17.320 make them morally palatable or sympathetic. So the Warriors are 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:20.680 not Robin Hood's band of merry men. They're not nice, 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.760 they're not helpful or chivalrous. For the most part, they 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:29.000 do not have a heart of gold. They are a tough, violent, 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:32.480 self interested criminal gang, and some of the guys in 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:35.520 the gang come off as overtly evil. For example, the 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:39.760 character Ajax is portrayed as someone who just totally violent 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:42.240 to the core, will commit rape or murder on a whim, 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:45.679 and the rest of the gang, though mostly not as 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:49.040 bad as Ajax, they're generally just threatening and rough with 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:49.920 innocent people. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.600 Yeah, even Rembrandt, the most innocent seeming member of the 0:13:53.640 --> 0:13:57.080 gang is just totally down to desecrate some tombstones. That's 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.240 his role in the gang. He's the artist. He's the 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:02.840 one that's supposed to, you know, throw up the tags 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:05.480 and all. And then you know, other members of the 0:14:05.520 --> 0:14:09.680 gang casfully use homophobic or racist terms at times. And 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:12.160 on one hand, you know, perhaps they're going for that 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.360 sort of hard late seventies realism and so forth. But 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:18.600 I think, certainly to contemporary viewers, this also serves to 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:23.080 remind us the yeah, these are loudmouthed, troubled youth. Yes, 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.880 some of the youth are thirty. They are not good guys. 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:27.920 But I think it falls in with the style of 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.360 characterization that was very popular in a lot of the 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:35.560 great movies of the seventies, which often focused not on like, 0:14:35.680 --> 0:14:39.560 you know, sweet lovable characters, but on characters that were 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:44.040 troubled and complex and interesting in the ways that they 0:14:44.120 --> 0:14:47.960 were very morally imperfect or flawed. And so the warriors 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:51.480 are they're not Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah. You know, 0:14:51.520 --> 0:14:54.520 they're dangerous people in a dangerous situation. 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.360 I like that you mentioned like nineteen fifties style street 0:14:59.240 --> 0:15:04.760 gangs films and social problem works of previous decades, because yeah, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:08.520 there's not a sense in this at all that there 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.280 is another way for these characters. We don't really know 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.880 anything about what their lives might consist, of, what their 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:17.400 home lives are like, Like this is just like this 0:15:17.440 --> 0:15:19.440 is who they are. What else could they possibly be? 0:15:19.960 --> 0:15:22.560 And in fact, one thing I was struck by in 0:15:22.600 --> 0:15:25.640 this rewatch is that really, all the gang members there's 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:30.800 not a sense that they have homes or belongings of 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:33.600 any kind. There's no sense that the warriors themselves have 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.360 anything in their pockets, like if they have pockets on 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.000 those those tight fitting pants that most of them are wearing. 0:15:40.040 --> 0:15:44.280 You know, it's like their only possession is their identity 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.040 as a warrior, and there's nothing else for them in 0:15:47.080 --> 0:15:48.000 the world at all. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:51.240 All they have is the perception they can create in 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:54.040 others that they are tough and they shouldn't be messed with. 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.000 Yeah, they don't even have weapons. They didn't be part 0:15:57.000 --> 0:15:59.560 of it is plotting like where they've gone. It's kind 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:01.320 of like, I guess a weapon free zone or supposed 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.400 to be. Nobody else seems to obey this rule, but 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:07.720 like they didn't even come like strapped or whatever, so 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:10.520 so they have to improvise their weapons and or use 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.600 their fists and their kicks along the way, which you 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.640 know ultimately makes it a scrappier movie too. 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:18.680 Another thing I was noting is a similarity with Xenophon 0:16:19.000 --> 0:16:22.200 is of course, Xenophon is a journey from deep within 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.680 the Persian Empire down to Mesopotamia back up to they're 0:16:25.680 --> 0:16:28.400 trying to reach the sea, the Greek friendly or Greek 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.560 colony cities along the coast, and the journey of the 0:16:32.560 --> 0:16:34.920 warriors is much the same. They're starting up in the 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:37.640 Bronx and they're ending they end up back by the sea. 0:16:37.720 --> 0:16:40.800 The return home is the return to the coastline at 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:41.640 Coney Island. 0:16:42.600 --> 0:16:45.560 Yeah yeah, Like, isn't it like a rallying cry in 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:47.480 the original work, like the Sea of the Sea, like 0:16:47.520 --> 0:16:47.920 the Sea? 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:49.400 Yeah exactly, yes. 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:51.840 All right, Well, my elevator pitch for this one is 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:54.920 just street crime, but make it weird, and I think 0:16:54.960 --> 0:16:58.840 they succeeded in making it weird. Occasionally I'll hear talk 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:01.000 of how they're looking to do a remake of this 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:02.840 or do a TV series of it, And at one 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.080 point I forget who was involved with. They were like, Yeah, 0:17:05.119 --> 0:17:07.680 this time though, we're gonna make all the street gangs 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:11.359 super realistic. And I'm and I'm just instantly like like no, Like, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.080 that's not what makes the Warriors special. I can't imagine 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:17.600 anyone wants that from the Warriors. If anything, make it weirder. 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:19.879 I want to see gangs based on I don't know 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.080 any s Jason Vorhez, you know things like that. 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.399 Okay, in this one, we got a gang dressed up 0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:29.560 like baseball players. What if instead we get a gang 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:31.760 that are all dressed up like baseball mascots? 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.280 There you go, there, you go, Well, what would be. 0:17:34.240 --> 0:17:36.119 The best mascot? I know it's not baseball, but you 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:37.880 could have a whole gang of gritty is. You could 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:39.159 have a whole gang of wiffs. 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.720 Yeah, gritty gang would work. I mean anything like, you know, 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:46.280 we could Witch of the East. Everybody's stressed like the 0:17:46.280 --> 0:17:47.960 wicked Witch of the East. I mean, you name it. 0:17:48.000 --> 0:17:53.000 As long as it's like uniform and and strange, it works. 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:55.280 Like not all the gangs and the Warriors are that strange, 0:17:55.320 --> 0:17:58.320 but enough of them are that it pushes the pushes 0:17:58.400 --> 0:18:01.479 us through the barrier into the salt dimension. All right, 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:09.960 let's go ahead and listen to a little trailer audio. 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:15.160 These are the armies of the night. 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:28.160 Where you dig itre you dig the Furies, the Boppers, 0:18:30.600 --> 0:18:40.199 the High Hats, the Lizzies, the turnbul A Ses, the 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:41.880 Gramercy Riffs. 0:18:45.240 --> 0:18:48.640 And these are the Warriors. We know about the Warriors. 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.040 They're a heavy outfit. They're from Coney Island Warriors. You 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:54.480 guys are the big dudes. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:55.000 Huh. 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:56.720 Now they're in the Bronx. 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:00.560 We're going back twenty seven miles behind enemy lines. 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:02.320 It's the only choice we get. 0:19:02.320 --> 0:19:08.679 Between them and safety. Stand twenty thousand cups and one 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:10.720 hundred thousand sworn enemies. 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:14.200 I want them all. I want all the Warriors. 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:40.119 They've got one way out, They've got one chance, They've 0:19:40.160 --> 0:19:43.080 got one night the Warriors. 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:54.360 Okay, So if you are looking to jump out and 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:57.720 watch or rewatch the Warriors for yourself before proceeding with 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.719 the rest of this episode, uh yeah, ahead and do it. 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.560 This movie is widely available again. Its cult status has 0:20:03.560 --> 0:20:06.960 been assured for many, many years. So there have been 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.639 a number of nice editions that have come out, including 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:20.520 the Arrow limited Blu Ray, which looks really nice. All right, 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.639 let's get into the people who made this film, starting 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:27.840 at the top. The director also screenplay credit is Walter 0:20:27.960 --> 0:20:31.720 Hill born nineteen forty two, a writer, director, and producer 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.760 with writing credits going back to nineteen seventy two, with 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:37.960 a couple of films that include the excellent Sam Peckinpack 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:42.720 crime thriller The Getaway starring Steve McQueen. He began directing 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:46.960 as well with nineteen seventy five's Hard Time starring Charles Bronson, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:50.240 and in nineteen seventy nine he got into producing with 0:20:50.280 --> 0:20:53.520 a little sci fi horror film called Alien, and he's 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.399 remained a producer on every Alien film since, including the 0:20:57.440 --> 0:21:00.680 most recent Alien Romulus as part of Brandywine Productions. 0:21:00.920 --> 0:21:03.480 Now, Rob you might have read about this more recently 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:05.439 than me, so correct me if I'm wrong about the 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:09.600 process here. But from what I recall, the original script 0:21:09.640 --> 0:21:13.760 for Alien was by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:18.199 by Ronald Shusett or shuss It, and that was the 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.040 first script by Obannon I think was pitched at a 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:23.399 more B movie level. It was sort of supposed to 0:21:23.440 --> 0:21:27.960 be a smart but lower budget, scrappy movie made made 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.520 by somebody in the Roger Korman Camp. But then somehow 0:21:31.600 --> 0:21:35.120 Walter Hill and David Geiler got their hands on it 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.280 and did and they sort of had more ambitions for it. 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.920 They were like, this is an interesting idea. We could 0:21:40.920 --> 0:21:44.240 make this into a bigger budget, more artful kind of movie, 0:21:44.320 --> 0:21:46.119 and so they took a pass at the script. Is 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:47.159 that how you understand it? 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:52.800 Yeah? Yeah, that's my understanding. So you know, Hill and Geler, 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:55.880 David Giler, who lived forty three through twenty twenty, they 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:58.639 did what I think is ultimately an uncredited rewrite on 0:21:58.680 --> 0:22:01.479 the script, but you can find their rewrite on the script. 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:04.560 You shared it with me prior to our recording, and 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:06.960 we were both kind of looking through it and checking 0:22:07.000 --> 0:22:09.880 out what their particular take on it was and how 0:22:09.880 --> 0:22:10.439 it was written. 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:12.120 We can come back to that in a minute, because 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:15.640 I do want to talk about Walter Hill's screenwriting style now. 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.000 Outside of the Alien franchise, they also produced the Tales 0:22:19.000 --> 0:22:22.919 from the Crypt TV series Demon Knight, the Tales from 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:25.479 the Crypt movie that we previously covered on Weird House Cinema, 0:22:25.520 --> 0:22:29.800 and HBO's Deadwood. Walter Hill also scripted and directed three 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.920 different episodes of Tales from the Crypt, including the disturbingly 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:37.840 memorable Cutting Cards episode starring Lance Henrickson and Kevin Teege. 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:42.240 His other directing credits include nineteen eighty one Southern Comfort, 0:22:42.520 --> 0:22:45.240 eighty two's forty eight Hours, eighty four Streets of Fire, 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.600 which we already mentioned, eighty five's Brewsters Millions, eighty eight's 0:22:48.640 --> 0:22:52.760