The Warriors by Sol Yurick Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Warriors
Book Review: A Recommended Classic in Action Drama
Summary: 4 Stars
(I) First saw this movie in 1978 when it was first released. At first take it was boring , but action improved by the second half of the movie. In this film, a representative gang of 7 men, known as the Warriors, based in Coney Island, finds themselves blamed for a crime they did not commit and forced to find their way home across forbidding gang territories. The crime was the execution of a leader named Cyrus- a man determined to use his gang influence to unite all New York City gangs. The crime was committed by a vengeful rival, determined to pin the crime on the Warriors. For the majority of the movie, The Warriors fight their way through territorial New York, sometimes losing a man in the process until the final three made it back home to Coney Island. Once there, a final showdown proved that the Warriors were a gang to be reckoned with.
This Ultimate Director's Cut was better than the original shown in the theatres and also includes uplifting background music, incl. a song by Joe Walsh, 'In The City' which sets the tone for the whole movie. It is a somewhat violently-themed movie, so recommended as rated R.
(Help with review from Jamsinn27)*
Book Review: A gift
Summary: 5 Stars
My niece had her brother over for the weekend and he had mentioned how much he loved this book. My sister asked me to check at Amazon.com to see if I could find it. He was really happy when it arrived!Book Review: A must for fans of the film
Summary: 5 Stars
Fans of the film will be shocked to learn that the Warriors were originally an all black gang. This is a must read, especially for the lengthy and informative introduction by the author.Book Review: A real, instead of surreal, depiction of gang life
Summary: 3 Stars
I was very excited to find this out of print book because I, like many others, love the movie, which is about a small Coney Island based gang falsely accused of killing a messiah-like leader named Cyrus, who intends to unite all the gangs. In the movie, the Warriors struggle to get back from the Bronx to home turf while being chased by various bizarre gangs (some of which are unforgettable) who are seeking revenge. Other than Ajax, the members in the Warriors seem fairly decent and unthreatening.
The movie is based very loosely on the book, and certain scenes are roughly parallel. However, Sol Yurick's goal is to portray the violence and banality of gang-life. The principles (here called the "Coney Island Dominators") commit acts of shocking violence, including gang rape of a young woman, who, in the movie, is unscathed, and ends up as Swan's girlfriend. At the end of the book, there is no dramatic scene on the beach where the truth is learned, but rather, the author spotlights one of the gang-members who is unable to satisfy his insatiable hunger, which I assume is a metaphor for an empty, meaningless life.
In sum, I recommend this book, but don't expect to read a script for the movie, which, to be honest, I enjoyed quite a bit more.
Book Review: Belongs with Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel is actually quite good. In the beginning it feels a bit campy and maybe reads like an uninformed idyll. I couldn't imagine today's gangs coming together in a park and I have doubts as to whether or not street gangs of the sixties could even entertain the notion. I guess the mechanism used is a bit clumsy but it does get the story going and create the parrallels between a "modern" day street-gang and the isolated greek warriors of The Anabasis, which inspired this novel.
Once we get away from the structure of the novel and into the moment to moment exchanges betweeen the characters and their environment, it all becomes rather real. There is something incredible about the way the story moves from covering the collective "group" perspective into filtering through and following the individual remnants that leaves both Catcher in the Rye (with its singular perspective) and Lord of the Flies (with its various group perspectives) feeling a little flat.
By the time the main character, Hinton is strolling through the Times Square arcades, he is every bit as well realized as Mr. Caulfield and the environment is as vivid as any ever penned.
Yurick like Salinger, knows his subject, and although at first glance some of the behavior may seem foreign and far-fetched, it is really a matter of being reminded of both how young these "Warriors" actually are, and like the Geek soldiers that they imitate, how the blood on their hands does little to diminish their actual innocene. It is really a process of realizing how fast we mature and the devastating effect of maturity on our imagination.
I highly recommend the book but be warned, if your expecting the baseball furies to pop out at the park with bats-a-swinging, you may be a bit dissapointed, although shot on location in New York, Hollywood definitely has its influence.
There are moments where the movie does appear to reflect the novel, and these moments only set you up for great surprises when the watered-down movie takes the easy way out, the novel trudges forward; bold and unashamed.