WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: The Warriors 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:08.800 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.200 --> 0:00:15.880 Hey you welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:18.840 Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And if you look 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:21.560 at the various genres that we cover here on Weird 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.480 House Cinema, obviously there's a lot of science fiction, there's 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:27.360 a lot of horror, there's a lot of fantasy. But 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:32.240 obviously weird films don't necessarily need space aliens or wizards 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:36.600 or ghosts. Four of our previous selections reflect this. Three 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.880 of them released in the same year of nineteen sixty eight, Head, 0:00:41.159 --> 0:00:46.320 which you covered with Seth Danger, Diabolic and Black Lizard, 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:50.520 so a musical adventure and two stylized super criminal movies. 0:00:51.040 --> 0:00:54.480 A fourth nineteen sixty five Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, is 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.800 also a crime movie, basically in the exploitation genre, but 0:00:58.840 --> 0:01:01.560 it's also packed full of weirdness. And so we're back 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:05.520 with a fifth selection today that contains no true speculative element. 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.039 I mean, it's possibly set in the future, but if 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:12.720 so the very near future, it's you could make a 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:15.959 case that this is an alternate reality. There's a certain 0:01:16.000 --> 0:01:20.720 amount of surreal substance going on with this film. But overall, yeah, 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.040 no aliens, no wizards, no ghost It concerns criminals, and 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:27.280 it certainly stands tall as a weird cult movie. It's 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:30.360 Walter Hill's The Warriors from nineteen seventy nine. 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.039 I don't know how you're saying that it contains no 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:36.080 speculative element when it has street gangs that are in 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:38.400 baseball uniforms with face paint. 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.960 I mean that could happening. There's nothing in this film 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.880 that could not technically happen or have happened. But yeah, 0:01:46.959 --> 0:01:50.000 it makes all of these and it's not just visual 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.160 choices that are strained. It's not like they had just 0:01:54.240 --> 0:01:58.320 like a straightforward street crime plot and then just decided 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:01.640 to color up and gussie up the the costumes. Like 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:03.880 there is we'll get into. There are other aspects of 0:02:04.000 --> 0:02:05.880 The Warriors that make it stand out as well. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:09.600 That's true, But I think it is just straightforwardly fair 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:12.520 to say that this movie is set in an alternate universe. 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:18.320 The gangs of this movie are just much more theatrical 0:02:18.480 --> 0:02:22.239 and circus like than any gangs I'm aware of in reality, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:23.720 at least in the modern world. 0:02:24.040 --> 0:02:27.200 Yeah, and it, like I always feel like this movie 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:32.120 seems to occupy the same cinematic universe as the nineteen 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:34.880 seventy three adaptation of the musical god Spell. You know, 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.760 like it doesn't feel like it is it is actually 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:41.360 our reality. It's somewhere a little bit to the left, 0:02:41.360 --> 0:02:44.320 a little bit to the right spot in a goatee territory. 0:02:44.480 --> 0:02:46.440 Well, you know, another movie it kind of reminds me 0:02:46.480 --> 0:02:49.400 of in this regard is another Walter Hill movie, which 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.120 is Streets of Fire, a film set that has an 0:02:53.200 --> 0:02:58.200 urban setting. It has mostly like it doesn't really have 0:02:58.480 --> 0:03:02.880 magic or like science fiction technology in it, but still 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:05.480 it feels like a fantasy. It doesn't feel like the 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:08.959 real world. And the gangs in it and the heroes 0:03:09.000 --> 0:03:12.000 in it are all just kind of mythical in a way. 0:03:12.560 --> 0:03:16.000 Yeah, yeah, I know what you're talking about. Like, similar 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:18.600 things are often said about I don't know, Cornt McCarthy 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:20.760 comes to mind. You know, so many of most of 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:23.880 his books are not dealing with any kind of speculative elopment. 0:03:24.200 --> 0:03:27.400 They're like to the you know, the average eye, like 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.720 straightforward westerns, for example, But the way that he writes 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.000 them and the way that he approaches them, it ends 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.880 up taking on all of these often overt mythical connotations. 0:03:37.280 --> 0:03:39.200 So anyway, yeah, The Warriors. I was drawn to this 0:03:39.240 --> 0:03:41.760 one in part, I think because I was like, maybe 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:43.400 we need a palate cleanser. You know, we've been doing 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:47.680 a lot of fantasy, a lot of sci fi. It's like, 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:49.960 take it down a little bit. And also I realized 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:53.320 we hadn't covered a seventies of film in several weeks, 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:55.520 and like, okay, we need something from the nineteen seventies. 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:59.040 And then also, it's been rather hot recently. We were 0:03:59.080 --> 0:04:01.040 kind of back into a cool spell now, but it's 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:02.880 been it's been kind of a hot summer of late, 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:06.120 and this is a movie that always screams summer in 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:09.000 the city. To me, it's just a very hot and 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:13.560 sweaty film. Most of the characters seem like they have 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:18.080 just been sweating for days, that patina of sweat on them, 0:04:18.120 --> 0:04:21.520 and most of the scenes. It's a grungy seventies New 0:04:21.600 --> 0:04:25.880 York City film. And yeah, yeah, it's just part of 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:28.039 the vibe. It's just this is a good summer movie 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:28.719 in my opinion. 0:04:29.000 --> 0:04:31.280 I was quite surprised to hear you describe it as 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.200 a cleanser in any way, because this film is decidedly dirty. 0:04:35.240 --> 0:04:37.240 It needs a shower, it is. 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.440 Yeah. It is also interesting in that I was kind 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.279 of looking for a quick breather from a lot of 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.840 the alien related content that I've been picking for Weird 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:51.760 House and for other portions of the podcast stream, and 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.240 of course this one ends up having a number of 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.400 alien and aliens connections as well, which we'll get into now. 0:04:58.400 --> 0:05:00.160 It's interesting. I was reading a little bit about the 0:05:00.720 --> 0:05:03.440 production and the release so the Warriors of the movie 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:05.760 about street gangs, and even though it deals with them 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.039 in a manner that again feels very rather removed from reality, 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:11.760 it's worth noting that street gangs were an issue during 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:16.359 the filming and the release of the movie, so gangs 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:18.400 obviously have been a real issue around the world throughout 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.000 time and in urban and rural settings. So you know, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:24.719 the film would seem to be removed enough from reality 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.000 to avoid controversy upon release, at least from you know, 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.080 our vantage point, because, especially as the decades set in, 0:05:31.400 --> 0:05:33.599 I think it also takes on this additional air of 0:05:33.640 --> 0:05:37.280 otherness because we have not only like the weirdness applied 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.039 to the different gangs in the way they're dressed, but 0:05:39.040 --> 0:05:41.400 also we're just further and further from from the late 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:45.479 nineteen seventies. But yeah, at the time that they released it, 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:48.919 apparently there were various controversies. There were like gangs allegedly 0:05:48.960 --> 0:05:51.160 fighting in the theaters, like the street gangs loved that. 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:53.760 People who didn't like the street gangs were very critical 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.600 of the movie for for highlighting street gang violence. 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.600 The Warriors is going to make people join gangs? 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.080 I don't know, I mean, it was a real concern 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.240 at the time. I was reading in the Psychotronic video. 0:06:06.320 --> 0:06:08.599 Guy Michael Weldon, who I believe at the time he 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.599 wrote this was a New Yorker before he became a 0:06:11.600 --> 0:06:16.000 Georgian like me. He has a record store in Augusta 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:18.839 now Psychotronic Records, So if anyone's on a road trip 0:06:19.000 --> 0:06:23.160 through Augusta, uh, that's an interesting place to stop. But anyway, 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:25.080 he pointed out that it got a lot of negative 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.359 buzz on release that he qualifies as like good negative buzz, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.280 so like, ultimately, you know, uplifted the film and I 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:35.440 guess helped cement its cult status. And he does point 0:06:35.480 --> 0:06:37.440 out that this is not a film that is true 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.599 to life regarding life in New York City. But he 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.240 does point out accurately that it makes use of a 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:46.560 lot of great New York City locations. I mean, this 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:49.760 is definitely a movie filmed in New York. Uh and 0:06:50.120 --> 0:06:55.120 and even if you're used to today's New York City, you 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:56.320 feel at home in this film. 0:06:56.760 --> 0:06:59.320 I know what you mean. There is something about the 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.840 use of New York locations in this movie. And I'm 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.640 not even in New York for myself. I've only been 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:08.480 there a few times. But something about it feels very 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.440 familiar and cozy to see all these shots in and 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:17.520 references to real places throughout New York, especially throughout the 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.400 Bronx and Manhattan and then Coney Island at the beginning 0:07:21.440 --> 0:07:26.040 in the end, that it feels really cozy and familiar. 0:07:26.720 --> 0:07:31.080 And at the same time, the setting, like the plot 0:07:31.200 --> 0:07:33.920 context in which we encounter these locations, is not at 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.520 all cozy and familiar. It's hostile territory where our main 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.120 characters are in extreme danger. But it just feels like 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:43.760 it makes you want to settle in with a cup 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:45.800 of tea or something. Do you know what I'm talking about? 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:48.840 Yeah, yeah, yeah, it is weird how a film that 0:07:48.960 --> 0:07:52.160 is You could I guess roughly catalog in the sort 0:07:52.200 --> 0:07:55.120 of the hell city world, you know, you know, sort 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.559 of the like the post apocalyptic New York but without 0:07:57.560 --> 0:08:01.880 the apocalypse, or more of like a low apocalypse, and 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.960 yet it still feels like lovingly New York City in 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:08.720 some strange way, even though most of the scenes are 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.840 about you know, street gang members running from cops or 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.080 karate kicking a cop, or fighting each other as they 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:19.400 flee in and out of different subway stops. 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:22.559 Yeah, if you're not familiar with the terminology we've used before, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:25.360 the hell city cliche in the movies is that it 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.440 was especially common in movies of say the seventies through 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:32.559 the nineties early nineties, that would depict American cities, especially 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:36.000 New York City, as you know, it would take the 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:42.720 worst components of urban poverty or decay or something and 0:08:42.760 --> 0:08:45.640 then take it to an almost fantasy level. So you 0:08:45.679 --> 0:08:48.240 would have these cities depicted as places full of flaming 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.440 garbage cans and trash blowing in the wind and around 0:08:51.480 --> 0:08:53.560 every corner where there was somebody with a knife. 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:56.080 Yeah. Escape from New York is in many ways like 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.319 the prime example of this, in which Manhattan had been 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:04.120 depopulated of everything but criminals and extra criminals have been 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:07.360 added to establish a penal colony. So this movie doesn't 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:09.360 inspire to that level of hell City. 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:12.080 New York does still feel like lived in in this. 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:14.640 Movie, yeah, like we have. It doesn't go to great 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.800 pains to establish this, but they did make sure that 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:20.559 we have the various shots where we see bystanders who 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:25.160 seem to be just normal folk. There is enough texture 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:27.600 to remind us that this is a place where normal 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:31.360 people live. This is just what happens in the contested 0:09:31.400 --> 0:09:33.000 street environment, particularly at night. 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.040 Now, something that was new to me upon this revisit 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.320 of The Warriors, because I'd seen the movie years ago, 0:09:41.240 --> 0:09:44.400 but I hadn't watched it in quite some time, so 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.319 I never noticed this before. But coming back to it now, 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.959 The Warriors is obviously based on a work of classical 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:57.120 Greek literature, which is the Anibosis by Xenophon, And so 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.760 I looked it up. And this is not just a 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.240 cursory kind of illusion or you know, kind of a 0:10:03.280 --> 0:10:06.520 little bit of a match on the book on which 0:10:06.760 --> 0:10:10.040 The Warriors was based, called The Warriors by Saul Yurik, 0:10:10.760 --> 0:10:15.840 was explicitly based on Xenophon and apparently earlier cuts of 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.800 the movie and some versions of the screenplay just say 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.040 that this is the story told by Xenophon, but in 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:26.240 the modern day, So what's the deal with the Anabasis? 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:29.400 The Anibasis is the story of a company of ten 0:10:29.480 --> 0:10:35.560 thousand Greek mercenaries who travel out to fight a war 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:40.240 but becomes stranded in Mesopotamia. So they're fighting for a 0:10:40.440 --> 0:10:44.800 Persian prince, Cyrus, the younger Cyrus tried to challenge his 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.960 brother Arctic Serxes the second for the throne of the 0:10:48.000 --> 0:10:52.480 Achemenid Empire, but was killed in the campaign in four 0:10:52.480 --> 0:10:55.840 oh one BCE, sort of leaving his armies adrift. So 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.280 the Anabasis narrates the ten thousand Greek warriors attempt to 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:05.679 travel back from this far distant hostile territory in Mesopotamia 0:11:06.160 --> 0:11:08.800 back to friendly lands, back to Greek cities along the 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.480 sea and Asia Minor, And so they have to travel 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:18.240 through Mesopotamia, through Armenia through Asia Minor, having many fascinating 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:22.080 and thrilling adventures along the way. And the Warriors follows 0:11:22.160 --> 0:11:25.280 this general shape by having the gang make a perilous 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:29.240 journey back to home territory through strange lands full of 0:11:29.280 --> 0:11:34.480 hostile armies and relentless pursuers. But there are also more 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.160 specific nods, like the fact that they are initially assembled 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:41.000 in the park by a leader named Cyrus, the name 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.920 of the Prince. The Persian prince and other characters in 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:48.439 the movie also have the names of famous Greek heroes. 0:11:48.480 --> 0:11:52.000 There are characters named Ajax and Cleon and so forth. 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.960 Another thing about the Warriors that feels very ancient Greek 0:11:56.000 --> 0:12:00.240 to me is its alien morality. It's a very very 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.120 interesting way to depict street gangs in storytelling. So the 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.920 movie is decidedly told from the gangs and the gang 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.080 member's point of view. It is not from the point 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.080 of view of like an outsider interacting with the gang, 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.040 or with a kind of sermonizing tone that you might 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.400 get in some seventies movies that deal with gangs. It's like, oh, 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:22.920 this is a kind of social blight. Look at the 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:27.000 crime and the destruction. We are with the Warriors in 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:29.200 the movie. We're on the ground level with them, and 0:12:29.240 --> 0:12:31.840 we're seeing things from their point of view. So they 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.480 are structurally the protagonists of the story. And yet the 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:40.840 Warriors are really not good guys. Other than placing them 0:12:41.000 --> 0:12:43.960 in a very unfair predicament where they're framed for a 0:12:43.960 --> 0:12:47.520 crime they didn't commit. There is little effort made to 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.600 make them morally palatable or sympathetic. So the Warriors are 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.920 not Robin Hood's band of merry men. They're not nice, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.040 they're not helpful or chivalrous. For the most part, they 0:12:59.040 --> 0:13:03.280 do not have a heart of gold. They are a tough, violent, 0:13:03.440 --> 0:13:06.760 self interested criminal gang, and some of the guys in 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.800 the gang come off as overtly evil. For example, the 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.040 character Ajax is portrayed as someone who just totally violent 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.000 to the core, will commit rape or murder on a whim. 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.920 And the rest of the gang, though mostly not as 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:23.320 bad as Ajax, they're generally just threatening and rough with 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:24.200 innocent people. 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:28.240 Yeah, even Rembrandt, the most innocent seeming member of the gang, 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.319 is just totally down to desecrate some tombstones, Like that's 0:13:31.360 --> 0:13:33.560 his role in the gang. He's the artist. He's the 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:37.120 one that's supposed to, you know, throw up the tags 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:39.760 and all. And then you know, other members of the 0:13:39.800 --> 0:13:43.960 gang casually use homophobic or racist terms at times. And 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:46.440 on one hand, you know, perhaps they're going for that 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:49.600 sort of hard late seventies realism and so forth. But 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:52.839 I think, certainly to contemporary viewers, this also serves to 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:57.319 remind us the yeah, these are loud mouthed, troubled youth. Yes, 0:13:57.440 --> 0:14:00.120 some of the youth are thirty. They are not good guy. 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:02.200 But I think it falls in with the style of 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.640 characterization that was very popular in a lot of the 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:09.840 great movies of the seventies, which often focused not on like, 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:13.839 you know, sweet lovable characters, but on characters that were 0:14:14.200 --> 0:14:18.360 troubled and complex and interesting in the ways that they 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:22.200 were very morally imperfect or flawed. And so the warriors 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.720 are They're not Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah. You know, 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:28.760 they're dangerous people in a dangerous situation. 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:32.640 I like that you mentioned like nineteen fifties style street 0:14:34.160 --> 0:14:39.040 gang films and social problem works of previous decades, because yeah, 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.800 there's not a sense in this at all that there 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.520 is another way for these characters. We don't really know 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:49.160 anything about what their lives might consist, of, what their 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:51.680 home lives are like, like this is just like this 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:53.720 is who they are. What else could they possibly be? 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:56.840 And in fact, one thing I was struck by in 0:14:56.880 --> 0:14:59.800 this rewatch is that really all the gang members there's 0:14:59.840 --> 0:15:05.000 no of sense that they have like homes or belongings 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:07.640 of any kind. There's no sense that the warriors themselves 0:15:07.800 --> 0:15:11.520 have anything in their pockets, like if they have pockets 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:13.920 on those those tight fitting pants that most of them 0:15:13.920 --> 0:15:17.040 are wearing. You know, it's like they their only possession 0:15:17.520 --> 0:15:20.760 is their identity as a warrior, and there's nothing else 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.240 for them in the world at all. 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.480 All they have is the perception they can create in 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.280 others that they are tough and they shouldn't be messed with. 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:31.280 Yeah, they don't even have weapons. They didn't be part 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.880 of it is plotting like where they've gone. It's kind 0:15:33.880 --> 0:15:35.600 of like, I guess a weapon free zone or supposed 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:37.680 to be. Nobody else seems to obey this rule. But 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.080 they didn't even come like strapped or whatever. So so 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.000 they have to improvise their weapons and or use their 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:47.880 fists and their kicks along the way, which you know, 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:49.880 ultimately makes it a scrappier movie too. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:52.920 Another thing I was noting is a similarity with Xenophon 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:56.480 is of course, Xenophon is a journey from deep within 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:59.760 the Persian Empire down to Mesopotamia back up to their 0:15:59.840 --> 0:16:02.680 trying to reach the sea the Greek friendly or Greek 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.800 colony cities along the coast, and the journey of the 0:16:06.840 --> 0:16:09.200 Warriors is much the same. They're starting up in the 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.920 Bronx and they're ending they end up back by the sea. 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:15.120 The return home is the return to the coastline at 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:15.920 Coney Island. 0:16:16.880 --> 0:16:19.840 Yeah yeah, Like, isn't it like a rallying cry in 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.720 the original work, like the Sea of the Sea, like 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:22.160 the Sea? 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:24.560 Yeah exactly, yes, all right, Well. 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:26.920 My elevator pitch for this one is just street crime, 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.120 but make it weird, and I think they succeeded in 0:16:30.200 --> 0:16:33.720 making it weird. Occasionally I'll hear talk of how they're 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:35.760 looking to do a remake of this or do a 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:37.840 TV series of it, And at one point, I forget 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:40.080 who was involved with they were like, yeah, this time though, 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.280 we're gonna make all the street gangs super realistic. And 0:16:43.000 --> 0:16:46.400 I'm just instantly like like no, Like, that's not what 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:49.240 makes the Warriors special. I can't imagine anyone wants that 0:16:49.400 --> 0:16:52.240 from the Warriors. If anything, make it weirder. I want 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.200 to see gangs based on I don't know any s 0:16:55.320 --> 0:16:57.160 Jason Vorhez, you know, things like. 0:16:57.080 --> 0:17:00.520 That, Okay, and this one we got a gang dressed 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.520 up like baseball players. What if instead we get a 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.040 gang that are all dressed up like baseball mascots? 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:07.640 There you go, there you go. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:09.680 Well, what would be the best mascot? I know it's 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.800 not baseball, but you could have a whole gang of gritty's. 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:13.960 You could have a whole gang of Yeah. 0:17:13.800 --> 0:17:18.000 Gritty gang would work. I mean anything like, uh, you know, 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.560 we could Witch of the East. Everybody's dressed like the 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.240 wicked Witch of the East. I mean, you name it. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:27.280 As long as it's like uniform and and strange, it works. 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:29.560 Like not all the gangs and the Warriors are that strange, 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:32.560 but enough of them are that it pushes the pushes 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.720 us through the barrier into the sulternate dimension. All right, 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.680 let's go ahead and listen to a little trailer audio. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:50.920 These are the armies of the night. Can you do that? 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:10.879 The Furies, the Bombers, the high Hats, the Lizzies, the 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:21.440 turnbull Aces, the Gramercy Rifts. And these are the Warriors. 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.680 We know about the Warriors. They're a heavy outfit. They're 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:29.240 from Corney Island. Warriors, you guys are the big dudes. Huh. 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:30.960 Now they're in the Bronx. 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:34.800 We're going back twenty seven miles behind enemy lines. 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.640 It's the only choice we get. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.760 Between them in safety stand twenty thousand cops. 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.240 And one hundred thousand sworn enemies. I want them all. 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:56.840 I want all the Warriors. 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:14.399 They've got one way out, They've got one chance, They've 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:17.320 got one night the Warriors. 0:19:25.520 --> 0:19:28.640 Okay, So if you are looking to jump out and 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.960 watch or rewatch The Warriors for yourself before proceeding with 0:19:32.000 --> 0:19:34.959 the rest of this episode, yeah, go ahead and do it. 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:37.800 This movie is widely available again. Its cult status has 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.280 been assured for many, many years. So there have been 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:43.879 a number of nice editions that have come out, including 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:54.720 the Arrow limited Blu Ray, which looks really nice. All right, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:57.919 let's get into the people who made this film, starting 0:19:57.920 --> 0:20:02.440 at the top. The director screenplay credit is Walter Hill 0:20:02.520 --> 0:20:06.239 born nineteen forty two a writer, director, and producer with 0:20:06.560 --> 0:20:09.159 writing credits going back to nineteen seventy two, with a 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:12.560 couple of films that include the excellent Sam Peckinpack crime 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:17.320 thriller The Getaway starring Steve McQueen. He began directing as 0:20:17.359 --> 0:20:21.200 well with nineteen seventy five's Hard Time starring Charles Bronson, 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.480 and in nineteen seventy nine he got into producing with 0:20:24.520 --> 0:20:27.800 a little sci fi horror film called Alien, and he's 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:31.679 remained a producer on every Alien film since, including the 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:35.000 most recent Alien Romulus as part of Brandywine Productions. 0:20:35.200 --> 0:20:37.720 Now, Rob, you might have read about this more recently 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:39.720 than me, so correct me if I'm wrong about the 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:43.880 process here. But from what I recall, the original script 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.040 for Alien was by Dan O'Bannon, based on a story 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:52.480 by Ronald Schussett or shuss It, and that was the 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.320 first script by O'Bannon I think was pitched at a 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:57.639 more B movie level. It was sort of supposed to 0:20:57.680 --> 0:21:02.200 be a smart but lower budget, scrappy movie made made 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.800 by somebody in the Roger Korman camp. But then somehow 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.400 Walter Hill and David Geiler got their hands on it 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.560 and did and they sort of had more ambitions for it. 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:15.160 They were like, this is an interesting idea. We could 0:21:15.200 --> 0:21:18.480 make this into a bigger budget, more artful kind of movie, 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:20.359 and so they took a pass at the script. Is 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:21.399 that how you understand it? 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.880 Yeah, yeah, that's my understanding. So you know, Hill and 0:21:26.720 --> 0:21:29.639 Guyler David Giler who lived forty three through twenty twenty. 0:21:29.960 --> 0:21:32.840 They did what I think is ultimately an uncredited rewrite 0:21:32.840 --> 0:21:35.280 on the script, but you can find their rewrite on 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:38.720 the script. You shared it with me prior to our recording, 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:40.720 and we were both kind of looking through it and 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.840 checking out like what their particular take on it was 0:21:43.880 --> 0:21:44.719 and how it was written. 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:46.360 We can come back to that in a minute, because 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:49.920 I do want to talk about Walter Hill's screenwriting style now. 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:53.280 Outside of the Alien franchise, they also produced the Tales 0:21:53.280 --> 0:21:57.159 from the Crypt TV series Demon Knight, the Tales from 0:21:57.200 --> 0:21:59.720 the Crypt movie that we previously covered on Weird House Cinema, 0:21:59.760 --> 0:22:04.040 and HBO's Deadwood. Walter Hill also scripted and directed three 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:07.200 different episodes of Tales from the Crypt, including the disturbingly 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:12.320 memorable Cutting Cards episode starring Lance Henrickson and Kevin Teege. 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.480 His other directing credits include nineteen eighty one Southern Comfort, 0:22:16.800 --> 0:22:19.520 eighty two's forty eight Hours, eighty four Streets of Fire, 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:22.879 which we already mentioned, eighty five's Brewsters Millions, eighty eight's 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:27.040 Red Heat, ninety two Trespass, and his most recent directorial 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.399 effort was a twenty twenty two Western title Dead for 0:22:30.440 --> 0:22:31.240 a Dollar. 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.720 Oh my god, Walter Hill did Red Heat. I didn't 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:37.320 know that's the one with Schwarzenegger, right, or he plays 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:39.240 a Soviet cop mm hmm. 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:42.439 Yeah. I vaguely remember seeing this one back when I 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:42.920 was a kid. 0:22:43.240 --> 0:22:45.400 I've never seen the whole movie, but I've seen clips 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:50.159 on YouTube. There is one where Schwarzenegger infamously like pours 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.320 several pounds of cocaine out of someone's artificial leg. 0:22:54.720 --> 0:22:58.720 Yep Arnold and James Belushi quite a screenpairing. 0:22:58.920 --> 0:23:01.720 Wow, I can imagine the chemistry. I'll have to watch 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.560 that one someday. But yeah, I wanted to come back 0:23:05.600 --> 0:23:09.679 to Walter Hill's screenwriting style because occasionally I look up 0:23:09.720 --> 0:23:13.840