The Warriors

The Warriors is a 1979 American action thriller film directed by Walter Hill. Based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel of the same name, the film was theatrically released in the United States on 9 February 1979 by Paramount Pictures. Set in a dystopian near-future New York State in 1979, the film centers on a fictitious New York City street gang who must travel , from the north end of the Bronx to their home turf in Coney Island in southern Brooklyn, after they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader. After reports of vandalism and violence, Paramount Pictures temporarily halted their advertising campaign and released theater owners from their obligation to show the film. Despite its initially negative reception, The Warriors has since become a cult film and has been reappraised by film critics. The film has spawned several spinoffs, including video games and a comic book series. In his book about the film, author Sean Egan summarized its appeal: "Whereas the milieu of The Warriors was one normally only depicted in motion pictures as an examination of a social problem, this movie portrayed life from the street gang's point of view. It was an obvious but revolutionary approach that struck a chord with the urban working class, especially its adolescent subset."<ref>Egan, Sean. Can You Dig It: The Phenomenon of The Warriors. BearManor Media, 2021, p. 2.</ref> Plot Cyrus, leader of the Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in New York City, requests that each of the city's gangs send nine unarmed delegates to Van Cortlandt Park for a midnight summit. The Warriors, a gang from Coney Island, attend the summit with nine delegates: "Warlord" leader Cleon, "War Chief" second-in-command Swan, the scout Fox, the graffiti artist Rembrandt, soldiers Snow, Cowboy, Cochise, and Vermin, and quick-tempered enforcer Ajax. Cyrus proposes to the assembled crowd a citywide truce and alliance that would allow the gangs to control the city together, since they collectively outnumber the police by three to one.