'The Warriors: Ultimate Director's Cut'

article by DAVID KEHR here.

 

Walter Hill's 1979 film, an updating of Xenophon's "Anabasis," follows members of a Coney Island gang as they battle their way from the Bronx back to their home turf. The movie has become a canonical text for the hip-hop movement, is frequently quoted in lyrics and is faithfully imitated in stage demeanors. Its continuing notoriety has given Mr. Hill the chance to create a new version of "The Warriors" for its second DVD release, but rather than making any major alterations in this "Ultimate Director's Cut," Mr. Hill has contented himself with inserting some new transitions - frames that freeze into comic book images, with dialogue balloons and explanatory captions. The effect is to emphasize the film's stylized approach and to underline its connections to classical literature - in other words, to back off from the violent immediacy that was blamed for a handful of gang incidents in theaters during the film's first engagement.