Just what is the fanboys’ beef with the director’s cut of The Warriors? Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic, an adaptation of novelist Sol Yurick’s grungy take on Xenophon’s Anabasis, was always about as close to street-gang realism as West Side Story, regardless of the incidents of urban violence that accompanied The Warriors’s original release. And, by our count, more main characters die violently in the musical.
In 2005, after Hill took the opportunity to insert a few Creepshow-esque comic-book linking segues to stress the film’s dystopic gothic fantasy, the same demographic that undoubtedly didn’t even think twice when purchasing the extended, extra-bloated Lord of the Rings bookshelf set suddenly scrounged up their ethical faculties to howl about the desecration of the “original work.” And it sounded fishy.
Our guess is simply that Hill’s vibrant, “sez you” actioneer strikes full-grown little boys right in the socket. They grew up with The Warriors, watched it with their own suburban posses at guys-only sleepovers (where the first guy to mistakenly use the phrase “slumber party” got headlocked), and processed the “I Heart New York”-era milieu as something of a lost world where you could walk through Central Park at night and own the place. Maybe even run into Tony Manero and his prom date on the subway, where you’d finally get the chance to stare his polyester-wearing, disco-dancing ass down and reclaim your masculinity.
But Hill’s re-edit, while keeping the reupholstered segues to a bare minimum, upsets that delicate balance. The film concerns a Coney Island gang that tries to escape the Bronx by night after they’re wrongly accused of killing the messianic head of the most influential New York gang, a man named Cyrus (Roger Hill) who intended to unite the city’s gangs and overthrow the police. The re-edit inverts the original’s propulsion from youth toward manhood and brings it all back to the realm of an adolescent’s reverie of a healthy street life without parents and where no one will call the police whenever you steal food from corner stands.
To understand the wrath of The Warriors’s core fan base, tell a fan of Batman Begins that you prefer the knowingly ridiculous zing-pow of the 1966 Adam West feature film and see how he (and I do mean he) reacts. In his attempt to undercut some of the original edit’s rakish, punk thrills, Hill’s instincts are entirely correct, even if they inadvertently deny the fact that Andrew Lazlo’s bold-hued cinematography already showcases vivid, tightly framed ersatz splash panels. Because Hill’s characters, with the exception of Ajax (James Remar) and his love for the epithet “faggot,” typically choose flight over fight. In other words, it’s a comic book that acts like most of its own readers probably would if they were thrown into the same situation.
Image/Sound
Arrow includes a 4K disc each for the 2005 director’s cut and the original theatrical cut, which has been officially unavailable for so long that it never even made it to HD. Both cuts look terrific on Arrow’s UHD discs, their transfers sourced from the original camera negatives and given additional color boost by Dolby Vision. This is one of the best-looking 4K releases of a 1970s film to date; detail is so crisp that you can see the faint purple blush of acne scarring and the growing redness around the characters’ eyes and nostrils from the intense effort of sprinting across the city. The nighttime exterior cinematography has never looked so clear on video, with the ample grain distribution showing that aggressive digital manipulation has been avoided.
The theatrical cut comes with the original mono audio as well as an old stereo mix and a new Atmos one, and all sound terrific. The mono track keeps the pounding synthesizer score and clamor of street fights from overwhelming the dialogue, but the biggest surprise is the delicate balance of the Atmos mix. Normally, a mono-to-surround conversion can stress the separation of elements until every noise sounds completely disconnected from the rest, but great care has been taken here to craft a more immersive soundtrack that still doesn’t try to make the source audio more bombastic than it was. The added channel depth brings out more of the bass-heavy thuds of the score while exposing a bit more ambient space that heightens the pervasive sense of dread that surrounds the Warriors as they race back to their turf.
Extras
The mere presence of the theatrical cut would make this an eminently recommendable release, but Arrow Video has typically gone all out in presenting an avalanche of extras that pay tribute to this cult classic. The theatrical cut comes with a new commentary by film critic Walter Chaw, who speaks effusively about everything from the film’s high-minded referentiality to literary classics like The Odyssey to the tactility of its Koch-era New York City setting.
The disc also comes with new interviews with the filmmakers. Walter Hill discusses the class-consciousness that he and co-writer David Shaber slipped into the film, as well as the race consciousness that they never intended but others saw reflected in the multi-ethnic cast. Editor Billy Weber details how he achieved the film’s propulsive rhythm, while costume designer Bobbie Mannix breaks down the mix of real and imaginative streetwear she incorporated into the gang outfits, and she also shows off sketches and reference photos in a separate gallery.
Elsewhere, filmmakers Lexi Alexander, Josh Olson, and Robert D. Kryzkowski gush about their love of The Warriors in a roundtable discussion, while film historian Neil Brand contributes an appreciation of Barry De Vorzon’s music score. Archival making-of documentaries and retrospectives get into the process of shooting the film on location and in unsafe areas of New York and the film’s controversial premiere amid accusations of inspiring violence. Finally, a hefty booklet contains a long essay by critic Dennis Cozzalio that examines the film from seemingly every conceivable angle, a wide-ranging interview with Hill from the 2000s, and excerpts from contemporary (and mostly hostile) reviews at the time of the film’s premiere.
Overall
Walter Hill’s cult classic receives an ultra-high-def release that finally puts the theatrical cut back into circulation with a flawless transfer, and alongside a host of new and archival extras.
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