‹ All movies

The Rewatchables ·

The Warriors

year 1979decade 70sdirector Walter Hillgenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Sean Fennessey
All 16 categories

Most Rewatchable Scene · 18:05

Cyrus's speech

The movie is described as six scenes that are fun to watch over and over with lagging in between; Cyrus's speech is amazing, including the little wooden platform built for him that fell apart when he bumped it, and his 'can you count, suckers?' to 900 juvenile delinquents.

The production could not afford 900 extras and used real gang members, whose cheering during the speech was genuine; Roger Hill's performance is called all-time, with three lines in the lexicon ('can you count, suckers', 'can you dig it', 'the future is ours if you can count'), and The Rock's late-nineties wrestling persona seemed like a Cyrus impersonation.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie · 1:02:13

"Warriors come out to play"

Candidates: 'I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle', 'Warriors come out to play', 'can you dig it' and 'the Warriors are good, real good, the best'; the popsicle line is one host's favorite, but the iconic quote that has lasted forty years is probably 'Warriors come out to play', and it comes down to that and 'can you dig it', which has been good too.

The film

The Warriors (1979)

Directed by Walter Hill · Drama

92 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Michael Beck "Swan", the second-in-command and interim War Chief of the Warriors
James Remar "Ajax", the vulgar mouthy enforcer of the Warriors
Deborah Van Valkenburgh "Mercy", girlfriend of the Orphans leader who accompanies the Warriors to Coney Island
Marcelino Sánchez "Rembrandt", the youngest member and Graffiti Artist of the Warriors
David Harris "Cochise", a member of the Warriors who sports Native American gear
Tom McKitterick "Cowboy", a member of the Warriors who wears a cowboy hat
Brian Tyler "Snow", an enforcer of the Warriors with a taste for music
Dorsey Wright Cleon, War Chieftain and leader of the Warriors
Terry Michos "Vermin", a member of the Warriors who is the known bearer of the group
David Patrick Kelly Luther, the psychotic leader of the Rogues who was responsible for Cyrus's assassination and who clicks empty bottles together to taunt The Warriors while repeating "Warriors - come out to play-ee-eh..."
Roger Hill Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs and host of the Van Cortlandt Summit
Edward Sewer Masai, second-in-command of the Gramercy Riffs who personally trains the gang members [ N 1 ]
Lynne Thigpen the D.J.
Thomas G. Waites "Fox", the Scout for the Warriors [ N 2 ]

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

12:40

Roger Ebert's review
In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:12:40Read transcript
  • Gene Sisko (as transcribed) gave the film one star, called a tough beat; Roger Ebert gave two out of four, which one host likes, writing that despite Hill's cinematic scale the film is implausible and the characters lack depth and spontaneity.
  • Ebert also wrote that whatever impression the ads give, this is not remotely intended as an action film but a set piece, a ballet of stylized male violence; one host agrees with the description but thinks holding it against the film is a weird criticism.
Share this discussion More Roger Ebert's review answers
18:05

Most Rewatchable Scene

Cyrus's speech

Cyrus's speech

In the discussion (16)
Approx. transcript time · 00:18:05Read transcript
  • The movie is described as six scenes that are fun to watch over and over with lagging in between; Cyrus's speech is amazing, including the little wooden platform built for him that fell apart when he bumped it, and his 'can you count, suckers?' to 900 juvenile delinquents.
  • The production could not afford 900 extras and used real gang members, whose cheering during the speech was genuine; Roger Hill's performance is called all-time, with three lines in the lexicon ('can you count, suckers', 'can you dig it', 'the future is ours if you can count'), and The Rock's late-nineties wrestling persona seemed like a Cyrus impersonation.
  • The film had a renaissance around the video game some twenty-plus years later after being on cable for twenty straight years, a rap song sampled 'can you dig it', and like Scarface it was adopted by a later generation; the Craig Mack 'Flava in Ya Ear' video with Puffy saying 'come out and play' is cited, and Scarface's own arc from bust to cable classic is compared.
  • Other rewatchable moments: the run to the first train station after Cyrus is shot while the Turnbull ACs cruise around in a school bus with 25 guys and two-by-fours, and the Baseball Furies reveal, Ajax's 'what the fuck is that' as the camera cuts to four dudes in painted faces and baseball uniforms.
  • The sprint through Central Park, where they run about a mile and then stop to fight, prompts admiration for the cast's cardio; Michael Beck described on a making-of shooting all night, sleeping six hours and doing two hours in the gym, and this is called one of the most running movies ever, with running in about twelve scenes shot twenty or thirty times.
  • One host tells an airport story about a delayed flight in Oregon and a half-mile sprint to a gate that ended after a quarter mile, concluding the Furies would catch them fast.
  • An imagined SNL sketch has the gang asking the Furies to wait ninety seconds before fighting; the bathroom battle with the Punks, the roller-skate gang, was reportedly filmed for five days, only one guy had skates, and a tall 6'5 member compared to Miles Plumlee should have done more in the fight.
  • 'Warriors, come out to play' was reportedly ad-libbed by David Patrick Kelly with the three bottles, and the hosts wonder why the Golden State Warriors do not use it before games, though the Rogues are an evil gang the team may not want to ride for.
  • The ending, where Swan throws the knife into the Rogues' leader and 150 Riffs materialize in silence before 'You warriors are good. We are good. The best', is compared to the tri-lamps (as transcribed) showing up in Revenge of the Nerds; the Gramercy Riffs all know kung fu and have a number two ready to lead right after Cyrus dies.
  • A theory that Masai, with the mirrored sunglasses and looking born to lead the Riffs, may have had Cyrus killed while working with the Rogues, which would explain why the Riffs kill Luther at the end without asking questions because he knows they set it up.
  • Asked for the most rewatchable scene, the answer is the Cyrus speech, the favorite part and the scene seen most from the movie. — Sean Fennessey
  • The asker concedes they have to go with the Cyrus speech; the fight with the Lizzies is held for later and would not totally make the list.
  • Another host personally likes the Baseball Furies scene most, for the moment they stop running and ask if they lost them as the Furies come over the hill, with the first Fury called an assassin.
  • The Furies' loss is already picked at: a nine-man baseball gang that swings bats all day loses to three after the cowboy goes down; Ajax does the popsicle line and fights one at a time while the others stand around, which is called terrible planning, too much honor, and all gimmick, no substance, more Florida Marlins than Boston Red Sox.
  • The Furies' face paint, silence and cleats are questioned; they are read as bad athletes inspired by the 77-78 Yankees, somewhere near Union Square or 96th, and a corny white-guy frat gang from Murray Hill rather than Harlem or the Bronx; the Tyson-Douglas analogy is that everyone has a plan until they get hit, and maybe James Remar as Ajax is simply underrated as a badass.
  • Swan's play of cutting around a corner with two guys to double back and catch the out-of-shape Fury and take his bat is called amazing.
Share this discussion More Most Rewatchable Scene answers
32:21

What’s Aged the Best?

Cleon; the Warriors' vests; Central Park in seventies movies; Luther; Barry DeVorzen's soundtrack; the gang DJ; the s...

Cleon; the Warriors' vests; Central Park in seventies movies; Luther; Barry DeVorzen's soundtrack; the gang DJ; the seventies prom couple scene; 'You guys are real good. The best'; the world building; Cyrus

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 00:32:21Read transcript
  • Cleon, the original warlord who is killed after the Rogue in the leopard-print headpiece blames the Warriors, has more scenes in the uncut version; he dies under a pile of elbows from 25 guys, flicks Luther off him with an amazing move, and a Cleon prequel about the rise of the Warriors is wished for; the jackets and shirtless vests also hold up.
  • A vest with no shirt is never a win unless you are a professional wrestler. — Sean Fennessey
  • Others disagree about the vest, one joking about wearing a leather vest with sunscreen and phone pockets to the beach before admitting it is not serious; the vest is the part connected to most because of the Orphans scene, where Mercy goads the Orphans into demanding the Warriors remove their colors, which recalls the cuts in Sons of Anarchy that you die before taking off.
  • Central Park in seventies movies is creepy, empty and dangerous; Luther, the leader of the Rogues, is an over-the-top villain going for it, loved for having no reason for anything he does beyond 'because we can', and one host's son loves how over the top he is.
  • Whether villains need motivation splits the room: one says explaining a villain is a waste of time, citing the Joker, and two disagree and need a reason; Luther was one of only two actors one host recognized, from Commando, with Remar recognized as Raiden from Mortal Kombat 2.
  • The actor who plays Luther was purposefully recast by Walter Hill as Luther in 48 Hours, turning on Eddie Murphy's crew, and has been on Twin Peaks and in Spike Lee movies; Walter Hill hit a zone with this film and 48 Hours in how an action movie moves with music.
  • Barry DeVorzen's weird-guitar soundtrack has aged well, but ending on a big Joe Walsh song creates cognitive dissonance after a black gang beats the Rogues; in the movie's defense there is no hip hop yet in 1979, though Sugarhill Gang existed, and a hard funk record or Across 110th Street would make more sense.
  • The Orphans scene is too long but the one Orphan asleep who missed the meeting is pitied; the gang DJ is a great device for spreading information in coded language before texting and Twitter.
  • The seventies prom couple scene is weirdly effective because the film is about guys with no hope fighting all night to get back to the Wonder Wheel, the action-movie version of the end of The Graduate, with the couple looking at Mercy's dirty feet and Swan stopping her from fixing her hair.
  • 'You guys are real good, the best' is a precursor to intentionally hokey, iconic moments like Carl Weathers and Schwarzenegger in Predator; the stilted dialogue is a purposeful comic-book, stentorian, Greek-tragedy theatricality, and nobody talks the way people actually talk. — Sean Fennessey
  • The world building has aged best for another host: an elaborate gang network with rules and systems that later films such as John Wick's assassin network build on, which is undeniably cool even for a viewer who does not get the Greek-tragedy part.
  • Cyrus has aged best: a charismatic figure offering hope whose plan makes no sense if you listen carefully, likened to how Trump got elected and to Obama's 2008 'yes we can', and his death four and a half minutes after meeting him is devastating. — Bill Simmons
Share this discussion More What’s Aged the Best? answers
42:57

What’s Aged the Worst?

Ajax's language and sexual assault (disputed); what is said to Mercy; Cleon's death; Fox's stunt double being thrown ...

Ajax's language and sexual assault (disputed); what is said to Mercy; Cleon's death; Fox's stunt double being thrown onto the tracks and never mentioned again

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:42:57Read transcript
  • Ajax is simultaneously a great character and badly aged for his language and being a sexual assaulter.
  • The counterargument is that a movie about gangs who stalk the streets needs a bad guy, and Ajax contrasts with Swan's King Arthur moral code; a bad guy in a 1979 New York gang is plausible, though some of his words are hard to hear now, and what is said to Mercy is not great.
  • Cleon dying has aged terribly and hurts every time; the stunt double thrown onto the tracks and the character never being mentioned again is one host's vote.
  • The story recited: Michael Beck as Swan and Thomas Waits (as transcribed) as Fox were to be the two stars, but Fox's actor feuded with Walter Hill, who killed the character off midway, rewrote the last 45 minutes, and used a crew member with the same hair as a stunt double, seen from behind with Mercy before a cop throws him into the train; nobody later asks what happened to Fox the way they ask about Ajax.
  • The actor told the story at a 2015 reunion where the cast rode the subway to Coney; another host disliked his face in the zoom-in and was glad he died.
  • The death should have established the stakes of the all-night journey and made the arrival a relief, but it is so quick and so hamstrung together that it has no emotional payoff.
  • Today a studio would recast as with Eric Stoltz and Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future rather than concoct a stunt death; it also creates a hole when Swan returns to an empty station with no ambulances or police after a man was thrown in front of a train.
  • Why the Warriors run from police is debated: they are a gang in colors where they should not be, and the fire, the assassination and the DJ keep police on alert; starting the fire five stops down is called a smart move by the other gangs, and Masai is said to have been pulling the strings like Masai Uhiri (as transcribed).
Share this discussion More What’s Aged the Worst? answers
49:03

Casting What-Ifs

The novel's characters were not white and Paramount refused an all-black cast; Tony Danza was to play Vermin before t...

The novel's characters were not white and Paramount refused an all-black cast; Tony Danza was to play Vermin before taking Taxi, so Terry Michos was cast

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:49:03Read transcript
  • In the book none of the characters were white, and Walter Hill has said Paramount did not want an all-black cast for commercial reasons; the hosts would like to see that movie.
  • Tony Danza was supposed to be Vermin, the slick Italian-American comic-relief guy, but took the sitcom Taxi; Terry Michos got the part and is now a news anchor in Wappinger Falls, New York.
Share this discussion More Casting What-Ifs answers
50:46

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Cyrus

Cyrus

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:46Read transcript
  • Cyrus has to be the heat check, on screen for about four minutes in one of the great heat checks ever; cases are also made for Ajax and Luther, narrowing to Cyrus and Luther.
  • The two are split across awards: Luther takes the Saul Rubinick (as transcribed) and Cyrus, who plays eight minutes and hits seven threes, gets Dion Waiters, with agreement.
Share this discussion More The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance answers
51:17

Half-Assed Internet Research

Rushed to beat The Wanderers; Fox was meant to end up with Mercy; the Dingoes subplot was cut after Beck and Van Bakk...

Rushed to beat The Wanderers; Fox was meant to end up with Mercy; the Dingoes subplot was cut after Beck and Van Bakkenberg's chemistry showed; the Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck became born again; Sunny Landon was hit by the bat; Mercy's stitches and broken wrist; production paid off gangs via an NYPD contact

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:51:17Read transcript
  • The movie was rushed to get ahead of another gang movie, The Wanderers, by Philip Kaufman of The Right Stuff, with Ken Wall (as transcribed) of Wise Guy; two hosts have never seen it, prompting a joke about being only 26.
  • Fox was originally to end up with Mercy; in the book and original script Swan was captured by a gay gang called the Dingoes, who had Dobermans, and escaped later, but Walter Hill saw the dailies, noticed Beck and Van Bakkenberg (as transcribed) had chemistry, and rewrote everything to drop the Dingoes; Dobermans are compared to Halle Berry's dogs in John Wick 3.
  • The Rogues drove a 1955 Cadillac hearse; Michael Beck partied too much during filming and became born again; Sunny Landon (as transcribed), later in Predator, was the cop Swan hits with the bat, and in one take Mercy was hit in the face and needed stitches.
  • Mercy broke her wrist running with the stunt double, which is why she wears the jacket for the rest of the movie, explaining the odd 'where'd you get that jacket' exchange; to film anywhere in the five boroughs production paid off whoever ran that turf, with an NYPD contact telling Marshall the producer which gang members needed paying.
Share this discussion More Half-Assed Internet Research answers
53:50

Apex Mountain

No affirmative selection

No affirmative selection

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:53:50Read transcript
  • The hedged blanket answer is probably everybody in the movie except James Remar, whose peak was 48 Hours or arguably Sex and the City, with Mortal Kombat 2 floated as a joke.
  • Lynn Thigpen's peak is Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, Sesame Street or Lean on Me; Terry Michos's might be his newscaster gig in Wappinger Falls.
  • Remar lived in one host's LA neighborhood; another interviewed him and found him the most straight-talking, hard-edged subject ever, swearing mid-sentence for no reason, recounting 'you got to remember when you're an actor, it's a lot of work'.
  • Mercedes Rue (as transcribed), the undercover cop, became somebody and was Oscar-nominated, the hosts think for The Fisher King, and played the mom in Big; she is hard to recognize here because she is so young.
Share this discussion More Apex Mountain answers
55:11

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

James Remar

James Remar

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:11Read transcript
  • Remar wins the Joey Pants Award because most people know who he is but not his name; one host did not know it.
Share this discussion More The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award answers
55:41

Is This Movie Better With…?

Michael K. Williams

Michael K. Williams

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:41Read transcript
  • Michael K. Williams would have been incredible in any gang, perhaps as the new leader of the Gramercy Riffs or as Cyrus, maybe in the remake.
Share this discussion More Is This Movie Better With…? answers
56:13

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Luther

Luther

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:13Read transcript
  • The overacting award clearly goes to Luther, who is going for it, with the convenience-store 'for one!' exchange cited.
  • During aged best, the hosts already know Luther will win the Saul Rubinick (as transcribed) award for going for it; during the heat check he is given it so Cyrus can take Dion Waiters.
Share this discussion More The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award answers
56:13

Picking Nits

The Orphans fold after one Molotov cocktail; no police after the Union Station death; the Lizzies' shooter misses eve...

The Orphans fold after one Molotov cocktail; no police after the Union Station death; the Lizzies' shooter misses everyone; the Turnbull ACs drive past instead of running them over; where Luther's bullet went; Luther's reaction to a knife in the hand; nobody could hear Cyrus; the Orphans' dirty faces; cops arrive too fast for the whistle; Ajax's hormones; nobody has a car; where are the other Warriors; the Warriors are not the best

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:56:13Read transcript
  • The Molotov cocktail routs the Orphans, showing why they are a bottom-tier gang not invited to the party; the lack of police or ambulances after a Warrior dies at Union Station (as transcribed) is repeated.
  • The Lizzies have the Warriors in a confined room, fire about nineteen shots and miss everybody; the gangs are terrible with missed opportunities, and the Turnbull ACs should have run them over instead of driving past.
  • When Swan's knife hits Luther as he fires, there are three people behind him and nobody is hit, raising where the bullet went, like a magic JFK bullet; Luther reacts to a knife in the hand as if dying, and the Rogues freeze rather than use their numbers, perhaps because nobody liked him; he is a bad leader picked for his chin.
  • Nobody could hear Cyrus outdoors to 900 gang members without a baso profundo or Sonos beams; the Orphans' dirty faces and jersey-style shirts raise whether they are actual orphans.
  • The cops arrive in a minute and a half after the undercover cop handcuffs Ajax and blows her whistle; Ajax misplayed a race home by letting his hormones take over.
  • A Texan perspective: nobody in the gang has one friend with a car or makes one phone call; the nine delegates per gang suggests Terry Rozier and Jalen Brown (as transcribed) style tension over minutes, and the tenth guy might have had a car.
  • Where are the other Warriors, since Cyrus's math implies a hundred members per gang; nobody is waiting at Coney and nobody calls for backup, and other gangs never go to Coney Island to finish them, compared to what Michael Corleone did between 1946 and 1951.
  • The Warriors are not the best when several of them die, though they did fight 28 miles from the Bronx to Coney Island; the Riffs are clearly the best, and the Furies with nine guys made a complete strategy error.
  • Earlier, the subway stops seem mostly correct but the jump from 96th and Broadway to Central Park and the unknown timing of the summit and the arrival at Coney Island are flagged for picking nits.
  • During the scene discussion, how the Furies lose a nine-against-three fight with bats is raised and parked for picking nits.
  • Another nitpick during the gang rundown: the Rogues pass the gun down the line instead of having it ready, which is read as dramatic effect or as Luther deciding on a whim while Cyrus spoke.
Share this discussion More Picking Nits answers
1:02:13

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"Warriors come out to play"; "Can You Dig It"

"Warriors come out to play"; "Can You Dig It"

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:13Read transcript
  • Candidates: 'I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a popsicle', 'Warriors come out to play', 'can you dig it' and 'the Warriors are good, real good, the best'; the popsicle line is one host's favorite, but the iconic quote that has lasted forty years is probably 'Warriors come out to play', and it comes down to that and 'can you dig it', which has been good too.
  • The popsicle line was first offered as best quote, and one host's son's favorite, before the nits resumed.
Share this discussion More The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie answers
1:02:59

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

A TV series introducing a different gang each episode, set before cell phones

A TV series introducing a different gang each episode, set before cell phones

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:02:59Read transcript
  • In 2016 Hulu and Paramount Television started developing a series with writers, and nothing came of it; the idea has been sitting there a lifetime and the hosts want to at least see the attempt.
  • The hurdle is that the movie looks different with cell phones and Uber solves it quickly, so set it before cell phones, such as 1995, or in a blackout or something more post-apocalyptic, since the original seems set slightly in the future.
  • A series could introduce a new gang each episode; the DJ loses her job in a remake since DJs lack that power now, replaced by a podcaster or someone live on Periscope; with 500 TV shows the idea could work.
Share this discussion More Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake answers
1:05:02

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Which gangs were not invited? Would a coded gang radio station have worked in 1979? How long did Swan and Mercy stay ...

Which gangs were not invited? Would a coded gang radio station have worked in 1979? How long did Swan and Mercy stay together? What happened to Ajax? Did the Riffs kill Luther?

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:02Read transcript
  • Which gangs were too weak to be invited was already covered; whether a DJ communicating in code to gangs would have worked in 1979 or whether the police would have simply listened is asked, with the defense that it is underground and nobody talks.
  • The DJ is the most clever part of the movie for solving how to reach everyone at once, and the shot of Lynn Thinkpen's (as transcribed) mouth against pink-red light dropping the needle is slick.
  • How long Swan and Mercy stayed together: maybe a week, tops, since Coney is far, and he needed to see her after a shower.
  • Ajax is probably dead within three years, going to jail and then shot in an armed robbery; the alternative where he grows up to be the rich guy from Sex and the City is enjoyed.
  • Later, whether the Riffs killed Luther at the end is called an unanswerable question; one host thinks they killed him slowly over many days in that dark cement parking garage compound.
Share this discussion More Probably Unanswerable Questions answers
1:17:59

Who Won the Movie?

Walter Hill; Luther; New York

Walter Hill; Luther; New York

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:59Read transcript
  • Walter Hill, the director, is one pick for creating the prototype for the action movies that followed; another host did not know his name until this podcast.
  • Swan is praised as a sweetheart taking care of his people, smart and willing to turn it up when challenged by the Orphans, but another host does not think he won the movie.
  • Luther clearly won for one host as the one character everybody knows, whose 'Warriors' prompts the next four words; a case is made for Cyrus and for Dwayne The Rock Johnson for ripping off Cyrus's bit on WWE.
  • New York is another vote: cinematographer Andrew Laszlo's story about fearing rain led to an early rain sequence and wetting the streets every night, giving the neon a post-rain shimmer that makes the city a dingy crystal palace, seen across more of the city than Serpico or Dog Day Afternoon.
  • The wet-street trick was also a Miami Vice season one signature that many have since copied, and The Warriors may have started it.
Podcast choices
Speaker not identified
Walter Hill
Speaker not identified
Luther
Speaker not identified
New York
Share this discussion More Who Won the Movie? answers

More from the conversation

The episode marks the film's 40th anniversary on February 9; one host calls it a top-seven or top-eight action movie while another doubts it is an action movie at all, offering thriller or gang movie; two theories follow: Walter Hill thinks of it as a comic book movie without superpowers, and it is West Side Story without musical numbers, a balletic, stylized portrait of gangs that is gritty yet ridiculous, with baseball players in face paint and mimes.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:23Read transcript
Watching it as an adult for the first time, it lands in a personal top 250 of action movies; you had to see it as a kid to feel for it now, since the baseball bat fight shows the actors counting their turns, and it prompted an apology for making a spouse watch Bloodsport and Kickboxer, with Bloodsport ranked above it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:25Read transcript
Context for the skepticism: seventies action meant Dirty Harry and Enter the Dragon, Mad Max came out the same year with similarly janky choreography, Escape from New York is similar, and the film is graded on a curve like watching Dr. J highlights next to Giannis; it and Mad Max kick off an era of world building when action was Westerns, cop movies, kung fu and blaxploitation.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:58Read transcript
The film is based on Saul Uric's (as transcribed) 1965 novel; the premise is a gang summit of nine delegates from a hundred gangs, no guns, hearing Cyrus, a forerunner of The Rock and Barack Obama in the Jimmy Carter era, until the assassination with the Willem Dafoe-style arms-spread fall and the 28-mile subway trip home framed for the murder.
Approx. transcript time · 00:05:58Read transcript
Release facts recited: about 670 theaters, few advance screenings or commercials, $3.5 million the first week, then vandalism, theater fights and three deaths at three locations, including one in Boston that made a nine-year-old desperate to see it; real gangs reportedly treated it like Rocky III, cheering the fights.
Approx. transcript time · 00:07:26Read transcript
Theaters that cheer: Rocky II and III, 48 Hours in a mostly black theater in Stanford, Connecticut (as transcribed) during the cowboy-bar scene, Avengers and Star Wars opening nights in Los Angeles as organized events, and Creed, where one theater cried instead.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:26Read transcript
By six weeks it had grossed about $16 million with critics behind it; Pauline Kael called it a real movie maker's movie, like visual rock, and its style, costumes, colors and near-dialogue-free scenes set a template later seen in Miami Vice; it belongs to the 1972-79 run of New York-as-character movies alongside Woody Allen, Death Wish, Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico.
Approx. transcript time · 00:09:50Read transcript
The subway map mostly tracks, with Hoyt Skrmerhorn (as transcribed) in Brooklyn shot repeatedly, but stations and turnstiles look unrecognizable now, so direction is hard to follow.
Approx. transcript time · 00:11:23Read transcript
Judged by degree of difficulty and originality against its time, shooting all night on location with real gang members was creative and hard; Walter Hill's up-and-down career includes 48 Hours, The Driver with Ryan O'Neill (as transcribed), a near-silent getaway film that split critics and became a cult film, Geronimo, Wild Bill and Streets of Fire, a street gang musical; one host loves one-sentence-plot movies.
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:15Read transcript
Action movies changed from The Warriors through Die Hard in 88 and Lethal Weapon 2 in 89; First Blood in 82 is really a Vietnam movie before Rambo became an American steroids character, the transition out of New Hollywood into muscular eighties action; producer Lawrence Gordon, who worked for Roger Corman and went on to Die Hard and Point Break with Joel Silver, is a patron saint of the show and partnered with Hill early.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:45Read transcript
Seventies New York had lost its mind: the 1976 police strike, the blackout, Son of Sam and Summer of Sam, The Bronx Is Burning; a gang leader proposing to run the city was unrealistic but not impossible in 1979, and Cyrus's math jumping from 20,000 to 60,000 soldiers is made up but persuasive in the moment, leaving open the National Guard and what happens to the money.
Approx. transcript time · 00:16:29Read transcript
One host interviewed James Remar and found him the most straight-talking subject ever, recounting his 'here's the fucking thing, Sean, you got to remember when you're an actor, it's a lot of work', with F-bombs mid-sentence for no reason, hard-edged but nice and presumably from New York.
Approx. transcript time · 00:54:39Read transcript
Debra Van Valkenburg (as transcribed) should have had a better career: she was the smart, sassy brunette sister on Too Close for Comfort, the Ted Knight sitcom, opposite a blonde bimbo sister in the Suzanne Somers and Lonnie Anderson (as transcribed) mold, and then that was it.
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:22Read transcript
The gang rundown, drawn from the book and internet lists: Gramercy Riffs; Rogues from Hell's Kitchen; Turnbull ACs around the Bronx; Orphans unplaced; Baseball Furies at 96th and Broadway, nowhere near Union Square, fitting the uppity rich-kid reading; Lizzies near Union Square; Punks from the Bowery; Boppers and Hurricanes from Harlem; Hi-Hats and Electric Eliminators from Soho; Saracens and Jones Street Boys from Bensonhurst; Satan's Mothers in Brooklyn; Moon Runners and Van Cortlandt Rangers in the Bronx; Gladiators paying their tokens; Boyle Avenue Runners from Queens; Savage Huns of Chinatown, possibly cut; 21 in all.
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:22Read transcript
Asked whether they were ever in a gang, one host describes a childhood pretend Bloods gang whose members learned the hand sign from somebody's cousin until they saw real Bloods at the mall; at the close the skeptic finds the film more influential than great, saying you need the hooks in you as a kid, the real neighborhood gang was the Northside Rowdies, the pretend Bloods membership later helped a teacher connect with students, and the sign-off thanks Sean and Shay.
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:58Read transcript
Coney Island is really far from the Ringer's Brooklyn Heights office, about two and a half hours by unreliable trains to the old Village Voice music festival; the Texan host finds the New York talk meaningless when everything in Houston is 30 minutes and 25 miles away, and New York is called poorly designed and in need of three more bridges.
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:55Read transcript
Which gang to join: the Saracens for Matt Saracen, the Gladiators for paying respectfully, the Punks only as the roller-skate lead; the Turnbull ACs look like progressive skinheads with a bus; the Van Cortlandt Rangers have the best name, the VCRs, though one host prefers the Electric Eliminators.
Approx. transcript time · 01:14:34Read transcript
Hell's Kitchen in 2018 is nice and expensive, home to some Ringer staffers and famously Matt Murdock; the Riffs, lined up military style, read as precursors to Public Enemy's S1Ws, post-Black Panthers; there was no Mexican gang; Gramercy is now very Tony with Gramercy Tavern and a gated park.
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:07Read transcript