Film threat (8/13/99)
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The Warriors. [Walter Hill, 1979. From the novel by Sol Yurick.]
The original
Escape from New York: the charismatic Cyrus, a gangleader with Napoleonic ambitions, calls a nocturnal meeting in the heart of Manhattan to which come delegations from hundreds of gangs under flag of truce. In a spellbinding oration filled with revolutionary rhetoric, he proposes that they all unite to rule the metropolis. The gathered masses are inspired by his argument, but just as it seems they may be prepared to mount Cyrus upon a white horse and march on City Hall, a rival in the audience pulls a gun out and whacks him. In the ensuing pandemonium, as the police bust in and the crowd scatters, the murderer points the finger at the leader of the Warriors, a gang from Coney Island. The frame sticks, and within moments the tom-toms have spread the word to everyone: pursued by cops and gangs alike the Warriors now have the whole night long to fight their way across the city and return to their home turf. Notwithstanding a train derailment, a firefight with Molotov cocktails, a punchout with some dudes in Yankee uniforms who call themselves the Baseball Furies, a chase through the subways, a near-seduction by a Siren-gang of gangster-girls, a beautifully-choreographed fight in a Union Station men’s room, and a final faceoff with their pursuers on the beach at Coney Island itself, they succeed and survive; though the triumph, obviously, is qualified. [Looking down upon the rollercoaster we all remember from
Annie Hall, their leader asks: “We fought all night to get back to
this?”] — All this of course is supposed to have transpired in that romantic golden age of gang warfare [cf.
West Side Story] before everyone started packing an AK-47. — A powerful narrative developed from a simple, elegant premise, very nearly attaining the cinematic perfection of a continuous chase. A great motion picture.
____________Stonedhenge (8/11/99)
