The Warriors -- Ultimate Director's Cut: Review

Apparently a lot of fans of The Warriors are up in arms over this DVD, which purports to be an "ultimate director's cut," even though it contains no new footage, as far as I can tell. Instead, animated, comic book-style transitions (and an animated intro, voiced by director Walter Hill, which likens the film's heroes to the army in Xenophon's Anabasis) have been placed between certain scenes. And an opening scene -- not in the original theatrical release but generally shown on cable TV -- in which Cleon discusses the upcoming meeting in the Bronx isn't included. So it's a complete debacle, right? Who died and made Walter Hill George Lucas?

Thing is, most of the "new" additions work (and as a brief aside, for as much flak as Lucas has caught from fanboys over his tampering with the original Star Wars trilogy, his "director's cut" of THX 1138 actually enhances the film -- though nobody ever seems to mention that fact. Because he's Satan, apparently. But the THX "director's cut" proves he isn't completely out of sound ideas; he just needs to quit tampering with perfection). Apart from the "holy shit! The Baseball Furies!" caption in one, I liked the comic book transitions. Does it enhance the film? Maybe. Maybe for those who have never seen it, it does. For me, it didn't take anything away from the original; and the transfer on this disc is a gazillion times better than the horrible bare-bones version that was originally released on DVD (though I wish the new DVD had kept the original poster art). Also, the aforementioned opening scene often shown on cable TV is completely unnecessary, and was likely added to broadcast TV to bulk up the film's length (it's only 93 minutes). Starting the film in daylight is unsound, and I can appreciate why Hill didn't want to open the picture that way.

If fanboys want to bitch, they should bitch about unexplicable things from the original, such as:

- why don't the warriors just hotwire a car (or 2) and drive back to Coney Island? I mean, that isn't too unethical for them, is it? They're a gang, right?

- Fox gets killed and he's barely an afterthought. In fact, I'm pretty sure Swan doesn't even know he's dead.

- Luther kills Cyrus for no reason whatsoever, only because he felt like it. And a fellow gang member is surprised at this revelation, even though he and the other Rogues took turns passing the gun down the line to him. Wouldn't this question have come up earlier? Did the other Rogues not know Luther was going to attempt to assassinate Cyrus? I generally eschew remakes, but when The Warriors is remade (and you know it will be), you can bet your sweet ass the writers will devise a solid motive for whoever offs Cyrus. In Luther's case, him being insane just doesn't cut it -- partly because of the lack of character developement, and partly due to David Patrick Kelly's acting range. I'm sure he's a fine actor, but Kelly is neither imposing nor mean enough (throwing candy wrappers at a shopgirl just doesn't cut it) to pull off the requisite nuances of a true lunatic.

Look, there's a reason The Warriors is considered a cult film. It has great atmosphere and a great premise, but it's a considerably flawed film. There are a ton of "what the fuck?" moments; moments I'm sure anyone adapting the film will either jettison, rectify, or expand upon (instead of being arrested, Ajax will play Sawyer to Swan's Jack Shephard, for one). If whichever studio owns Citizen Kane decided it'd be neat to re-release it on DVD, this time with CGI and a score by Blink 182, you can bet I'd be against it 100%. But the Warriors is no Citizen Kane, my friend. It's beautiful and ugly, sublime at times and totally inept at others. And the sparse make-up Hill and Co. have added (mostly in preparation for, I imagine, Rockstar Games's video game adaptation) does nothing to change that.

The Warriors is still a great, if not classic, film. Now can you dig that, sucka?