I was only 9 when The Warriors came out in theaters in 1979, so it took me to my mid-teens before I finally caught up to the cult classic urban action flick. It was one of those impactful movies, like A Clockwork Orange and Blue Velvet, which hit me hard once I saw it.

Now I’m not going to say The Warriors is cinematic art like those aforementioned fringe films, each speaking of psychosomatic sexual tension and violence. Yet any teenager coming to The Warriors at the right time of his or her life is wont to have a game-changing experience in attitude. Teenagers are pull of piss and vinegar, full of themselves, carrying supercilious airs like they’ve already figured out the world and their parents were wrong about more than half of what they’d preached. The Warriors puts you in your self-righteous adolescent place.

Directed by Walter Hill, based on the 1965 novel by Sol Yurick and stuffed with a dirty funk and rock soundtrack I love and play often (including the gritty shuffle-stomp of Barry De Vorzon’s movie theme and Joe Walsh of The Eagles’ modest hit, “In the City”). The premise of the film was a de facto warning against gang culture, lost in translation between the gangsta huckstering eras of Dr. Dre and 21 Savage. A well-meaning gang leader, Cyrus, with the power to unite all of New York City’s (at the time this was made in economic despair, culling the unwanted tag “The Rotten Apple”) street packs under one tribe is assassinated then mistakenly pinned upon our focus horde, The Warriors.

Turf means nothing at this point, as The Warriors, homebased at Coney Island, must fight their way home from Van Cortlandt Park through New York’s subterranean and top-level hellholes from 96th Street to Union Square and beyond from rival gangs looking to bash them to pieces. It’s a savage, goony brawl to the finish against comic-reminiscent adversaries like The Gramercy Riffs (who have propagated a bounty upon The Warriors), The Turnbull ACs and The Orphans. The most famous gangs here being the all-female “Lizzies” and the pinstriped, face-painted, bat-wielding “Baseball Furies.” Michael Beck as Swan and James Remar as Ajax are The Warriors’ face men, and they’re not always in the right, which makes The Warriors that much more compelling. You’re inexplicably cheering for street trash, even with their ugly faults and sometimes piggish conduct, even as the aggrieved characters in this film. The final showdown against The Rogues gang who’ve set The Warriors up, is a memorable, bottle clinking denouement that works your nerves and sets in to the sun washed we-made-it-thank-God ending.

Upon its inaugural weekend release, The Warriors inadvertently incited reports of street violence, vandalism and three murders, two in California, one in Boston. The film and radio ads were ripped from the airwaves and extra security was hired across numerous American theaters. I hear some of today’s generation praise The Warriors but most of them consider it soft soap and cheesy in comparison to today’s spirit of nihilism in filmmaking. There were reports of theaters so crowded for The Warriors in ’79 people were lying on the floors to watch it.

Make no doubt about it; The Warriors is tame by today’s standards, yet it was a very dangerous film of its time, and it still has the capability of stirring insurrection to the right audience. A board game called Warriors: Come Out to Play surfaced as recently as 2022 by Funko. Dynamite Comics ran a four-issue miniseries dedicated to the film back in 2013. John Wick 4 has a blatant homage to the DJ in this film calling underground thugs to action, including a remake of “Nowhere to Run,” already covered by Arnold McCuller here. In other words, The Warriors has mucho holding power all these years later.

Walter Hill himself said of his film, “I think the reason why there were some violent incidents is really very simple: The movie was very popular with the street gangs, especially young men, a lot of whom had very strong feelings about each other. And suddenly they all went to the movies together! They looked across the aisle and there were the guys they didn’t like, so there were a lot of incidents. And also, the movie itself is rambunctious—I would certainly say that.”

–Ray Van Horn, Jr.