What are the Warriors? –Ben

As a movie, “The Warriors” can come across as very antiquated, especially with the acting, dialogue, and even setting. Yet, this is not how one should approach watching and enjoying this film. The film should be seen as art and a product of a decade, this one being the 1970s. It reveals how women were treated, how outcasts (gangs, in this case) were shunned by those in “the center”, and how absolute power could corrupt absolutely. The movie depicts how eager gangs crave the recognition of killing the warriors but ultimately come up short.  Why are the Warriors gang ever so important to us New Yorkers? The characters individually do not add much in terms of development, but they do add to the story of New York City as a piece of art. The mosaic of this city is very dense, jam packed with stories, fictitious like this one or real ones that parallel elements from this film. What is the story of the Warriors though? I think they are meant to be icons and symbols of some sort rather than physical human beings. The gang exudes many qualities that people think New Yorkers to have, hard nosed, loyal, speak with their actions–and fists, and undaunted by hardship, to a fault.

The film does something that I did not enjoy, however. While all the scenes were shot in New York City, a lot of memorable and iconic locations were not shown. With many scenes shot either at night or in a desolate subway station, not much of NYC is shown. I believe this is because all that urban imagery would detract the viewers from the piece of the NYC puzzle that this movie is supposed to be. This film nor characters are not supposed to be influenced by the physical NYC in any way but are themselves  supposed to add a bevy of elements to that mosaic. The movie is a stand alone piece with subtle parts of New York thrown in there, such as the subway, Coney Island, and Van Cortlandt Park, but those aspects are not part of the foreground of the film. They are just “there”, resting, like NYC always is. They do play an integral part of the dynamic relationship between the viewer and the film, but this is different for a person from New York versus one from anywhere else. Myself, when I saw the 96th street subway station, my mind started remembering memories from when I got off there many times. I noticed the differences between the station then and the station now, and even the subtle differences the film made about what trains stop there. An individual from out of town would never notice, nor care for these subtle nuances, thus having a very different experience watching the film.