VIDEO
THE WARRIORS: ULTIMATE DIRECTOR’S CUT
Directed by Walter Hill
Paramount, 2005 (original 1979)
It’s shameless marketing, really. Earlier this fall, the director’s cut of the 1979 cult gang drama The Warriors was accompanied by a brand new Warriors video game. Can’t have one without the other, right? Ka-chinnng!
But then, it’s tough to care about such unabashed promotion when both products are such damn fine guilty pleasures.
If you received either The Warriors: Ultimate Director’s Cut (DVD) or The Warriors video game (PS2, Xbox) under the tree this year, consider yourself one lucky bopper. If not, it might be a good idea to set aside some of the loot you’ll get returning a few of those gifts (c’mon man, you’re not actually going to wear that sweater, are you?), and revisit the mean, neon underground of New York City.
Then, the only thing left is to set aside a few hours. Quite a few.
Labelling The Warriors re-release disc as the "ultimate" cut might actually be a little overweening; while this retooled offering of the original has enough nuggets to make diehard fans of the action flick giddy, there could’ve been more. But since The Warriors still holds up in both style and content, and this offers a cluster of goodies not seen on previous releases, it’s easy to forget about what’s not here and enjoy what is.
For the uninitiated few, the beautiful B-movie storyline goes like this – the Coney Island-based Warriors travel from Brooklyn to the Bronx for a summit that will bring together the major outfits from the five New York boroughs. Once gathered, the bangers tally 100,000, outnumbering the police five to one. It’s a statistic that has the charismatic leader of the Gramercy Riffs, named Cyrus (Roger Hill) wanting to unite all the gangs to march as one against the whole city. But the ambitious plan is thwarted when Luther (David Patrick Kelly), a psychotic member of the rival Rogues, shoots and kills Cyrus.
In the chaos that follows, Luther pins the murder on the Warriors, meaning our heroes (led by Michael Beck and James Remar) are forced to battle their way back to home turf, being chased through several territories of other gangs in the process, all of them out for blood. The late Lynn Thigpen provides the play-by-play as a late-night DJ who spins tunes that offer up clues as to what awaits the Warriors around each corner.
Director Walter Hill’s tweaks for this DVD are minimal, but evident. He’s on hand for the introduction to explain the tale’s connection to ancient Greek war. There are also comic book-style introductions to certain scenes, and even though the still animation morphs into live action may not be entirely necessary, it does add a clever flow to the proceedings. And while the extras boast little in the way of deleted scenes, the four featurettes spill some important beans for fans. (Why did Hill originally want an all-black gang? Where did Kelly get his inspiration for the legendary "Come out to playyyyy" chant?)
And speaking of play….
THE GAME
There have been some abysmal video games derived from movies and vice versa. Not so here. The Warriors is as deliciously dark and brutal as the film. But the really cool news for gamers – you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of the movie to enjoy playing this beauty. But man, it’s a rush if you are.
See, The Warriors doesn’t just use the timeline of the movie for its playground; it takes place a few months before that one fateful night in New York City, stuffing in a lot of back-story about the gang’s origins, how they earned their tough reputation, etc.
But let’s be honest…in a game like this, it’s all about the fighting – and The Warriors is a brawl-’em-up classic. There are dozens of ways to pound your opponents, all of them relatively straightforward. Oh, and bring a friend – a second player can enter the fray at any time. And if, during the clash, you and your buddy stray too far from one another, the game goes to split-screen mode. Very cool.
With some of the film’s sound bites, new dialogue from many of the original actors, as well as many of the unforgettable images from Hill’s motion picture, this is one wild homage to one wild film. |
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