Warriors vs. Wanderers
I was born in 1969 and a group of high school friends & I were amazed by The Warriors. We were too young to see it in the theaters but frequently rented it and several of us have it these days on DVD. I have seen the movie probably 12-15 times.
Not until reading some of the posts on The Warriors movie page had I ever even heard of The Wanderers. Little did I know that there was race in 1979 between two studios to release their respective "gang" movies the soonest. I read up on the Wanderers and was very skeptical but, since I keep an open mind until I view a film, I decided to take a look. I watched the movie tonight and it is not even close. I don't need to watch The Wanderers 10 more times to fully form an opinion on it. And, truthfully, the two films are so entirely different that I think it's odd how so many posts have tried to compare the two. So why am I? Because if two studious felt they had films that were similar enough to race to release them and so many movie fans find them comparable, I wanted to throw my own comparison out there.
The Wanderers scores points for superior character development but not much else. I've read that it has such a great soundtrack but completely disagree. I am not a fan of nearly any of that era's music and found the opening song so painful to listen to that I muted my TV. The song "Shout" is a classic, no argument there and the title song is decent but the rest are pure and utter garbage. I've also read frequently that the acting is far superior in The Wanderers. Uh, no, not really. I frequently felt like I was watching an SNL skit when you can see the cast trying to control its laughter. Too many times I felt like the actors were not even believing in what they were saying. The transition editing was often poor and there were way too many developments that were not believable and sometimes downright idiotic- Clinton suddenly being chummy with Richie, rival gangs throwing out derogatory phrases and fighting in class (and a teacher asking for such a situation), Nina being spotted right after Richie mistakes a different gal as her, the bigger sized gang suddenly taking off from the football field, how it suddently went from daylight to night while the guys followed Nina's car, the bald gang being tricked into joining the Marines, etc. Come on, how cheesy. I gave the film a 6 and think that's a generous grade.
The Warriors scores points for a far superior script- very cool idea to have to fight your way back to Coney; more interesting characters- the baseball furries, the Lizzy's, the Riffs and, of course, the Warriors themselves- such as Cowboy, Swan, Cleon and Cochise; a lexicon that is still often quoted today; great fight sequences; an overall eerie feeling throughout the film; great justice at the end and a much better soundtrack- title song, furries "run" song, Joe Walsh's In The City, You Better Run, etc. The idea of a gang summit going out of control (after Cyrus is shot), the Warriors being falsely accused and, therefore, having to "bop" their way back to their home turf is a brilliant storyline. And the "gang realism" is so superior compared The Wanderers' gangs that are sometimes friendly/joking with each other, play football for money, etc. All in all The Warriors wins on nearly all fronts and is a vastly superior film. I give it a solid 9.