Last night I
watched The Warriors, a movie that I
had fond memories of watching on cable TV as a teenager after it came out in
1979. Boy, have times changed!
I’m pretty sure
I didn’t think the movie was camp when I first saw it, even assuming I knew
what camp was at that tender age. Watching it almost 35 years later, it’s an
unintentional laugh fest on a par with Mommie
Dearest. Is this the same movie that struck fear into the heart of
suburbanites all over the country?
The first sign
that you’re not in 2013 is the subway system: trains covered in graffiti,
people using tokens, wooden turnstiles and an illegible subway map. Apparently,
there was even an amusement park in Union Square station. Who knew?
But what really
makes this a candidate for the Most Quotable Lines Since Scarface Screenwriting
Award is the ridiculously clunky dialogue. My personal favorite is when the
movie opens. All the gangs of New York are gathered at a park in the Bronx and
the Grand Poobah of All Things Gang-Related exhorts the crowd with the
following line: “Can you dig it? Can you dig it? CAN YOU DIG IT?!!!” I immediately
wanted to break into that line from the old soul classic “Can You Dig It”: “I
can digga digga digga, she can digga digga digga, we can digga digga digga
digga, Can you dig it, Can you dig it, baby?”
While the gang
members in this film exist in some kind of multi-ethnic paradise where all
races apparently get along, the characters aren’t always so PC. The word
“faggot” was used at least three times by my count, most often as a verb, as in
“go faggot” or “gone faggot.” They make it sound like sexual orientation is a
choice similar to deciding which restaurant to go to.
There’s another
homophobic moment when the gang encounters a group of young women who are
apparently lesbian. The call themselves the “Lizzies” and one of them has
crimped hair! But they still make out with men (before they try to kill them)!
I’m confused.
It’s fun to play
“where are they now” with a movie like this. Mercedes Ruehl, who would go on to
star on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “Brighton Beach Memoirs” trilogy, plays a
tough chick (an undercover cop?) who nabs one of the gang members by coming on
to him in a park and then handcuffing him to the park bench.
And, of course,
Michael Beck, the handsome lead, would go on to star in “Xanadu” the next year
with Olivia Newton-John. Just out of curiosity, I decided to look him up on
imdb.com. Let’s just say cute doesn’t age well.
There’s more fun
to be had with the gang costumes. It’s hard to imagine anyone being scared of a
gang of mimes, much less a gang of baseball players with face paint, a gang of pimps,
and what looks like a gang of Asian monks. I hope the costume designer was at
least nominated for an Oscar.
Another curious
feature of the film is that, in a city of eight million people, almost no one
seems to be on the street or the subway at the same time as any of the main
characters. Normally, this is a sure giveaway that a movie was filmed on a
sound stage. But I’m pretty sure this movie was filmed on location in New York
City. I even saw my block show up in one scene. (Look for a sign that says “All
State Glass.”)
All in all, good
times for everyone. Unless you’re a woman. Deborah Van Valkenburgh plays the
kind of female lead that actresses are still trying to overcome. The nicest
thing that can be said about her character is that she’s “not a slut.”
But at least
she’s not a “faggot.”
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