The Warriors (The Ultimate Director's Cut)

One of Walter Hill's best received and most controversial films gets a new look here in the "Director's Cut." The biggest difference is the comic book transitions in which scenes freeze to comic book form before moving on. The concept feels a little gimmicky and does distract early on, but once you're used to it, it accentuates some cool moments that make you smile.

The Warriors came out admist a lot of controversy. During the first week of release, some knuckleheads back east decided to start shooting each other in a screening, creating the type of buzz you don't see anymore. People were warned not to go see it. Well, the movie never lived up to that hype. It's a fairly conventional action-thriller. What it did live up to was entertainment value. Even decades after its release, there are still iconic moments that register in everything from pop culture references to songs. Yes, the film is dated. Some of the actors and dialogue are weak (surprisingly from Hill). But the thematic story still holds true. The action is still entertaining. And the bad guy, clinking his bottles to the tune of "War-r-r-r-riors...come out to pl-la-ay!!!" will always have a special place in my heart.

HD transfer gives the film a freshness not seen in some time. Extras are pretty scant, but at the price, this is a no-brainer to add to the library.

I still think this movie is a classic, but allowing the director to change his vision 20-some years down the line resulted in a movie that is less than the original. The comic book scene transitions are jarring and yank you right out of the movie. Maybe this really is the movie he intended to make originally. I'm sure that if I'd seen this movie back then I would still have been impressed, but having seen the original cut I'm less than fond of the Ultimate Director's Cut. Luckily I still have my memories (and original DVD).

That said, the picture quality of this disc is obviously head-and-shoulders above that early DVD. I'm just afraid that the only time it'll be taken out of the cabinet and shown is when I want to rant about the disservice that was done to the movie by releasing this cut. Maybe "sometime in the future" there will be a HD release of the original.

The Blu Ray HD is pefect! Everything looks like you are on the scene. HD gives you the closet thing to a time machine! Very few movies actuall LOOK old in HD.

The bad part is, this "director's cut" sucks! They claim it was how he originally wanted it to be, but if that were true, he could have done it! There were no technology restrictions back then! All he did was butcher this film in an attempt to try an modernize it and make it look 'cool' for the young people of today while completely forgetting about those who grew up with the film!

This comic book transistions BS is a distraction while watching. It makes it look silly. I know the film on a whole (the gangs) look silly now, but you can deal with that on it's own without them trying to make it look as if they made it look silly on purpose. Also, many songs in the film run a lot longer and overlap dialog that was previously there! This is also distracting and takes away some of the suspense. They even totally edited out the end 'walk on the beach scene' and replaced it with a static comic strip! That alone ruined this 'cut.' That scene said alot. It represented the end, the end as in the Warriors are presumably going home and the end of the movie. It is also the memorable scene I recall of cabel all those years ago. These cuts were almost as bad as the Star Wars DVD's!

What they should do is to in clude the original intro which truly sets up the story. Forget that it took place in the daylight! They should alos include all deleted scens to give in some length and GET RID OF THE COMIC BOOK BS!

The sound is horrible! That is, the Dolby Digital. The center channel(dialog) disappears and the channels get crossed. You end up not being able to watch it in surround sound! I hope it is not my amp, but I have not had a problem up to this point. This sound is hard to deal with. If the channels were correct, it would be fine. I await the "director's orignal cut!"

Bret Fetzer hits the nail in his review: the comic book transitions added by Walter Hill seems to overkill the movie. That's the only reason I rated it whith four stars instead of five.
The warriors is not a masterpice, but triumphs over its limitations. The premise is timeless: a group of (literally) warriors is unjustly acused of a murder and forced to fight its way back home against overwhelming forces. Some details of the film are cheesy, but it has style, and the over-the-top costumes and makeup plays ultimately in its favor, not bounding it to any particular period.
This HD DVD edition is very good. The transfer is flowless, with excelente constrast and wonderful colors. There are four interesting featurettes on the movie. What impresed me most was the interviews with cinematographer Andrew Laszlo. He details all the problems they faced shooting by night in locations, and one just wonders at his skill and artistic sense (the problem of the unpredictably summer rain in New York turns an ally at the end, because it was the perfect excuse to spread water over the pavement and thus reflect street ligths and make even richer the colors on the frame).
I fully recommend this movie in HD DVD (though I not find the director's cut 100% satisfactory, but maybe it's just a matter of personal preference).

I'm shocked that a film that was made in 1979 still looks brand new today. High Definition certainly does this film justice. But also, so many films these days rely heavily on special effects, and The Warriors doesn't. Yes, it involves a lot of running, but it's very simplistic, and that makes it stand out from films today.

Can you imagine if some idiot director came along, and decided it was high time for this to have a remake? I reckon it would awful.

I knew nothing about The Warriors before watching it, and was gripped from the beginning. I loved the fact that in this director's cut, the new intro is included (bit of history for you guys out there) and the comic book effects (outlines at the beginning & end of scenes - sorry, I don't know the technical term for it) are excellent, and add a certain something to the movie.

Basically the movie is all about a group of gangs. I'm sorry, let me rephrase that - a BIG group of gangs, one of which gets accused of killing the big main man, who wanted to unite all the gangs. So all the other gangs are trying to get their revenge, and chase the main gang (funnily enough, called The Warriors) back to their turf. Where they can't touch them. There's probably well over 100 gangs in this, from all five points from New York, and each has their own 'turf'. Go into a rival's turf and you would expect not to walk another step. It's like in Scotland these days, you're not allowed to wear football strips into certain pubs. Honestly. Some of the gangs are featured in the film and some are not. My favourite was the Baseball Furies, mainly cos they scared me so much! All the gangs listed are: Alleycats, Amsterdam All-Stars, Baseball Furies, Black Hands, Blackjacks, Big Trains, Boppers, Boyle Avenue Runners, Charlemagnes, Colt 45's, Dealers, Delaney Rovers, Dingos, E Street Shufflers, Easy Aces, Electric Eliminators, Eighth Avenue Apaches, Fastballs, Fifth Street Bombers, Filmores, Firetasters, Five Points, Gerrards, Gladiators, Go Hards, Gun Hill Dancers, Gramercy Riffs, High Hats, High Rollers, Homeboys, Hoplites, Howitzers, Huks, Hurricanes, Imps, Jesters, Jones Street Boys, Judas Bunch, Jupiters, Knockdowns, Knuckles, Lizzies, Locos, Magicians, Meatpackers, Moonrunners, Napoleons, Nickel Steaks, Nightriders, Ninth Avenue Razors, Orphans, Panzers, Phillies, Plainsmen, Punks, Queen's Bridge Mutilators, Real Boys, Red Hook Shooters, Roadmasters, Rogues, Romans, Runaways, Saracens, Saratogas, Savage Huns, Shanghai Sultans, Southern Cross, Speedwagons, Stevedores, Stilletos, Stonebreakers, Terriers, Turks, Turnbull AC's, Van Cortlandt Rangers, Warriors, Whispers, Xenophones, Xylophones, Yo-Yo's, Youngbloods, Zodiacs, and finally, the Zulus.

My main quibble about this movie is how none of the stars went on to bigger & better things. Michael Beck (Swan) particularly. At first he reminded me of someone, but I've figured out that to me, he looks like a mixture of Peter Green, young Keanu Reeves & Johnny Depp. It's the whole chiselled cheekbones and strong jawline. Hubba hubba. I'm a sucker for those. He could have done so well in the movie world, but he just seemed to disappear without a trace, according to his IMDB profile.

The other good thing about The Warriors, is the amount of running the actors have to do. Read here VERY FIT!!! And the actual Warriors seem to be mostly topless apart from a waistcoat. Guess the other reviewers didn't pick up on that. It must have been exhausting to film.

I would definitely recommend The Warriors as it seems to be a small cult classic, according to some reviewers. It's worthwhile picking up, and enjoying some simplistic film making.