Gang psychology in THE WARRIORS (1979) film analysis by Rob Ager 

“Hoe avenue peace meeting” 🤔

Cheers. I'll check it out.

Information is the strongest tool. They definitely are a strong gang because they pay attention to their surroundings, unlike some gangs who are just about partying, lol

Gangs in Chicago had "party sweaters" lol it sounds silly but they had them

I can't speak first-hand on street gangs, but, where I live, people did, and still do, wear "Colors." Colors are usually a denim vest with a patch sewn onto the back that signifies the person is a member of a chapter of a local motorcycle club. People wear them to this day.

They did in New York. My friend was a Ching a Ling in the 80’s.

@@sconni666 They did in Australia as well....

My dad was a gang member in NYC in the fifties. His gang wore jackets with the gang name on back on the members name on front. They wanted EVERYONE to know who they were.

David Patrick Kelly, great actor. I always enjoy seeing him popping up in tv shows and movies such as Commando or John Wick.

@@truefilm6991Dreamscape 😎

"FOR WHAT"

Thanks for that. From what I've seen in my time such flamboyant dress is tytpically an expression of musical taste and general ideology. Not saying it didn't happen in NY like that at the time, but in discussing this film with others I've very often heard people say they think the film is ridiculous on account of the costumes. The clown gang at the start and the Furies are extremely theatrical, and gangs walking the streets with weapons ... was it really like that in NY back then? I'd be surprised. I suppose I'm talking about the film from a more modern pov. Here in liverpool there's a brutal gang culture, but its hidden from public view. They don't advertize themselves to the police or their enemies, so I do wonder how much of the NY scene was theatrical display as opposed to serious crime.

@@collativelearning The only group that was exaggerated was The Furies … I agree with you on that , even as a kid I was like “what the heck?” … but everything else and all the other gangs were on point. Osiris was based on Afrika Bambaataa and The Black Spades who ended up becoming The Zulu Nation

@@DONTOURAGETVbambataa should be in prison

Before that, it referred to men who were passed around in prisons for…well, yknow…it would have been the ultimate insult. Early punk rockers hated the term for that reason.

Since the 50s at least, in West Side Story (1961) the gang members call each other 'punk' in plenty of scenes, the term is widely used in these 1950s juvenile delinquent movies.

Right, and it didn't really become a major part of the American lexicon to describe punk-rock music until the early1980s. In the 1970s, outside of niche music scenes in New York and L.A., punk would just have meant juvenile delinquent to the public.

Sure, but why would they call themselves the punks if it's an insult?

Language is an interesting thing for its adaptation.

Am not much of a fan of that one. It's ok, but I'm much more likely to make some vids on Hard Times, The Driver and 48 Hrs.

@@collativelearning 48 hours would be great, love the whole vibe of that movie.

The Driver would be excellent

Agreed

Who else do you follow that comparable to Rob?

​@alexsvoboda4994 Honestly most movie reviews are synopsis of the movie Rob is the only one I know that directly unpacks and uncovers subtext

​@@alexsvoboda4994 Check out Mike Hill.

@@alexsvoboda4994 Noah Caldwell Gervais, though he does video games and travel logs. Check him out!

Could be. Personally I think it's part of the overall gender conflict element, which includes Swan's initial distrust of Mercy. Maybe both are worked in there.

In the 60's/70's in America; from National Bikers to hoods in the LA Watts ghettos; it's all about IDENTITY. Yes, gangs have always advertised themselves like a military, graffiti marks are like flags. These days gangs can't advertise themselves so much due to the greater ability in surveillance law enforcement agencies have.

Plus they're very representative of a comic book element, illustrators making each group representative of their specific identity.

Yeah

Ooh-la-laaah...

Friends description "Arnold is gonna drop the guy from the Warriors." Another friend says "the guy from the Warriors!" And starts laughing out loud. Lmao :3

@@PauloHernandezXDhe’s also the guy that gets his gf taken from him at the beginning of 48 Hours 😲

Theatrical youth displays or seriously violent gangs? The latter would have a massive tactical advantage.

Saw The Wanderers. Didn't think that much of the film, but it seemed more realistic than The Warriors. I also don't think of those as serious gangs, more like local teen fads. Serious gangs out to commit serious crimes, by their nature, cannot make themselves constantly public like that. They have to avoid being targeted by cops and rival gangs comitted to violence. But The Warriors presents these theatrics as if they were properly organized criminals in their twenties or even thirties. And hence the argument of "unrealistic" and "cheesy" has been thrown at the film so much.

@@collativelearning yeah ,I see your point, but i think you'd have to make an exception with all the 1% biker gangs though. They make a point of flying their colors most times and even most law enforcement agencies would classify them as serious organized crime. I think maybe you should give the wanderers a second evaluation. Cheers been watching yours stuff for a decade.

Someone needs to do a docu on the gangs that the Wanderers was based around.. the Ducky Boys were real no doubt but how much of their image was exaggerated is the question …?

@@brianmeen2158 according to longtime coworker/friend who grew up on Arthur Avenue all the gangs existed, The Fordham Baldies were notorious, Duckie boy not so much. The writer of the screenplay and novel was Richard Price who grew up in the same neighborhood.

Yeah but I think Americans even more often associate it with the subculture - as in the way someone dresses or what music they listen to. If you dress even a little alt someone here will associate you with being punk or emo, not in a bad way ofc.

Sure I'm aware of that. I just found it funny and it's not clear if the gan call themselves "the punks" as opposed to an insult from others.

@@cutiemangothe term "punk" existed before the music/fashion trend. Punk has/had/does get used as a terminology to lowlifes. And in early 20th century American prisons a "punk" was a term for a disrespected man.

I wasn't talking about military stuff, just basic six-shooters. The Lizzeis have them in the film, but no other gang does.

I disagree. The Lizzies gang in the movie have more handguns than all the other gangs in the film put together. The Riffs are the biggest gang in the city, directing all the other gangs ... huge manpower ... and none of them are able to find a gun when tooling up to hunt the warriors? Even the cops in this film don't have guns.

The CIA etc. flooded America with stimulant drugs and high powered guns in order to cause chaos as a pretext for mass incarceration, police militarization, gun control, etc.

Good point. I'm not sure about some of the gangs we see in the film though. The gang seen at the start dressed like clowns, the baseball furies, the guys with the shiny pink waste jackets. Some of them appear a over theatrical compared to the real gangs in those photos, esp in that some just prowl the street obviously tooled up for violence. I wonder how much of that costume stuff was just for show back then, like advertizing one's taste in music? When you think about it ... it's pretty stupid for a gang to make all its members so obvious like that. Easy targets for a rival gang who keep their identities hidden. The latter gang would have a huge advantage. Just look at The Masons and other upmarket "gangs". They have their dress codes and symbols, but most of it is hidden in the streets. To my knowledge, today gangs don't wear their name hardly at all, in code yes, but not obvious. So whenever I introduce someone to this film they often point to that erlementas "unrealistic". The film is based on the novel by Sol Yurick, written in 1965, so I'm not so sure of his inspirations. Hill made a lot of changes though.

Yeah the no weapons thing is a key point in the film, but those gangs do tool up for the hunt after Cyrus is shot. They could have grabbed their guns.

It's all tribalism. Identity. And things like graffiti are like flags/advertisements for gangs.

Can you count suckers?

Sure some certainly do, but in the movie they ALL do.

I found a copy of that game as a kid, but it was so scratched up it was unplayable :( lol

@@PauloHernandezXD I've gone back to Splinter Cell instead.

Heard good things about that.

Rewatched 48 Hrs recently, perfectly efficient movie with great acting all round. Eddie Murphy's very best role too (and it was only his first movie at the young age of 21!)

@@moviearchaeologist9655 To be honest, there are far better 80s crime thrillers, like Thief and To Live & Die in LA. IMO 48hrs is special because of chemistry, the buddy cop thing. And I agree, very best Murphy role.

Standing outside a train station for hours at night, swinging baseball bats and wearing gang make up ... that would turn a cop's eye.

@@collativelearningnot really mate. You have to actually do something. Especially if you’re dressed up like a baseball player.

I don't think of The Warriors as "quintessentially American". As you mentioned Walter Hill was making a lot of references to greek mythology in it, so it's universal in its themes. In both the US and UK, there are internal cultural and class differences the film is relevant to. I'm from Liverpool which is culturally near enough the opposite of London and, arguably, a lot more like New York in terms of its roughness, straight talk, and street violence. Liverpool tends to be looked on in UK as one of the lowest slums. So teens in this city loved The Warriors :)

@@collativelearning thank you for the context and reply

And have access to electricity and jukeboxes etc?

"The state is a gang writ large." -- Murray Rothbard

I'm actually quite fond of Buddhism. My daughter and I go to meditation classes on sunday mornings. I got a lot from the Art of Happiness book too. But ... there is some BS built into it. Having no desires is literally impossible. When non-violent buddhists get targeted they sometimes seek refuge in countries that have a military that can and will protect them, which is BS. There has been a fare amount of reporting on conflicts between Buddhists and Muslims too. And there's a history of violent buddhism that you can easily look up.

@collativelearning Being desireless basically means to be without want. Being filled with desire is basically contentment. But if this doesn't make sense or is contradictory to you, it's on the user's end. And to that end I use "work with" a lot rather than "use" "make" "force" etc. Stillness of mind is a real thing and so is getting the sucker back on track. You're basically correct as seeing every group as a gang, as what was revealed to me was every group is a cult. Some structured better than others.

I was until I saw the trailer.

@@collativelearning I know, quite vague in terms of plot. Does seem stylish though, and perhaps that is the point.

lol, remakes have nothing on the originals, it's a waste of time watching them, let alone making them

No movie connects with everyone. Personally I'd put the Warriors in my top 30 movies of all time. Maybe even my top 20.

Learning about the Greek history it's based onmade it more interesting to me. Xenophons Anabasis is an amazing story.

Totally agree. The cartoony version is unwatchable for me, totally ruins the movie. Fortunately I managed to get a HD version of the theatrical cut. Need to do a vid on The Driver. Amazing that movie flopped.

Yeah that was always a surrealist moment. Least scary looking gang in the film. Even the Orphans would give them a kicking.

Oooh, def not for me. The Wanerers is fun though.

It would have to be a combo study of the book and film. Take some time to do that one, but maybe one day. Have read the book.

Ah but the Lizzies have no problem acquiring them and surely the massive Riffs gang can find a few.

No, longlegs was pathetic. You actually liked that? ;)

@@collativelearning I actually did. But thank you so much for steering me away from alien Romulus. Dodged a bullet on that one. Cheers

That's a very low effort summary. Doesn't get into any of the intricacies of it how the film does that. Like reading a headline, but not the article.

Do you mean the song In The City during the closing credits?

@@aliensounddigital8729 Joe Walsh rules at least his guitar playing

@@collativelearning No the guy in the car telling the warriors to come out. Was never a fan of the singing. I think it should've been edited out or some other music inserted.

@@aliensounddigital8729 It was meant to be funny. Apparently, the actor David Patrick Kelly based it on a real drunk guy he saw on the streets as a kid

@@moviearchaeologist9655 Failed then.

They do worhip themselves in a curch, essentially.