I’m a huge fan of “old” movies (I’m talking black and white films), but the ‘70s is my absolute favorite decade of cinema.
It’s just got everything that I love about movies: Grit, attitude, style, and that music. God, do I love that music. Some of my favorite ‘70s movies of all time are the ones where Martin Scorsese collaborated with Robert De Niro, like New York, New York, Mean Streets, and one of my favorite movies of all time, Taxi Driver. But, no movie, in my mind anyway, encapsulates everything I love about ‘70s cinema than Walter Hill’s The Warriors. Here’s why I feel that The Warriors is the quintessential ‘70s movie. Can you dig it?
The Plot Of New York Being A Gritty And Dangerous Place Feels Like A Time Capsule
Growing up in the ‘80s, New York always seemed like a really dangerous place to me as a child. I think some of this may have stemmed from the incident involving the Central Park 5, which was dramatized in the Netflix series, When They See Us. I’d also watch flicks like the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, and I’ll never forget that opening sequence where people were openly stealing.
New York kind of terrified me as a child, if I’m being completely honest. But nowadays, New York seems downright tame. I take my children there all the time now for crying out loud. That said, whenever I rewatch The Warriors, it brings me back to my youth when I was frightened to take the train into the city to see a Mets game, or go to Macy’s Tap-O-Mania.
The plot itself concerns rival gangs on the hunt for the titular Warriors, who are framed for the murder of the most powerful gang leader in the city, Cyrus. The rest of the movie is really one big chase movie, as The Warriors fight to make it back to their homebase in Coney Island. But, along the way, they fight a number of bizarre gangs, including a roller skating gang in Union Square, and my favorite of all, The Baseball Furies at 96th Street Station.
The weird thing though, is that now, as an adult, I’ll go to these places in real life, and find them all clean and nice. They’re lacking the grime that the movie portrays, which is why I love watching this flick. It represents a New York that I once vaguely remember as a child that now seems to be long gone.
The Fashion Style Is Also Decidedly ‘70s
One thing that kind of bothers me about modern movies that take place in the ‘70s, like Almost Famous, or, to a slightly lesser extent, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, is that they kind of lean too much into the decade when it comes to the clothing.
And yes, while fashion is often an immediate way to harken back to a specific era, it doesn’t always feel natural. What I mean is, I can look at the young stars of a show like Stranger Things, and I can tell that it’s a series set in the ‘80s, but it still doesn’t actually look like the ‘80s that I remember. If anything, it looks more like a series that is trying to recapture the ‘80s. If that makes any sense.
But it’s way different actually watching a film from that era. For example, take a look at a character like Cleon, played by Dorsey Wright. He has on this head garb that probably looked badass in the ‘70s, but it kind of looks ridiculous now. That said, it still feels like it’s from the ‘70s because that’s what they probably thought looked cool back then. It’s not a manufactured cool. It’s cool from a different time period.
Nowadays, a roller skating gang is laughable, but back then, it was probably awesome. And it feels awesome here. They don’t play it for a joke or anything, and it fits naturally in the world of the film.
The matching red vests of The Warriors themselves, which look super “tuff” as Ponyboy from The Outsiders might say, is also super ‘70s. It’s these things and more that make The Warriors feel like a prime candidate for a movie to show anybody who might be interested in getting into ‘70s cinema. It’s as ‘70s as it gets.
The Grainy, Grindhouse Film Quality Is Distinctly ‘70s
You know what movie I loved? Grindhouse (By the way, how crazy is it that we’re finally getting the Eli Roth Thanksgiving movie that was teased in one of its fake trailers?). Though I definitely preferred Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror to Tarantino’s Death Proof (which is a number of people’s –including mine — least favorite Tarantino movie), the one thing that was sorely missing from both of those films was the grainy film quality that is present in most ‘70s movies.
Now, I’m a film nerd, but I’m not a FILM NERD. What I mean is, I love watching movies, but I don’t have any idea of what kind of actual film they were using back then that makes ‘70s movies look so distinctly grainy. Anybody who’s watched a movie from the ‘70s, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, knows what I’m talking about.
Movies from that era just look raw, and gritty. They sort of look like movies from the ‘60s, but not quite. ‘80s films look a little cleaner today, and even might look semi-modern in 4K. But ‘70s movies always look like ‘70s movies, and I love them for that.
The Warriors is no exception. A lot of it goes back to the fashion, but it’s also how the movie uses color. It doesn’t hurt that the film mostly takes place in the night time, so it has to rely on subway and street lights.
This takes even more color away from the overall aesthetic, which again, really gives it that ‘70s vibe. And it definitely is a vibe. Some people love ‘80s cinema for that slick look it tends to bring to the table, but give me the ‘70s, rough-and-tumble vibe any day of the week. I love that stuff.
The Slang And Lingo Sound Super ‘70s
Another thing I kind of despise from shows or movies that take place in the ‘70s (but are from a modern era) is the overreliance of slang and lingo from that time period. Thankfully, movies and shows don’t overdo it like I used to remember them doing back when I was a kid.
I’m talking characters saying things like “Far out,” and “Groovy, man,” or doing that silly disco dance from Saturday Night Fever (you know the one I’m talking about.). None of that rings authentic, and it almost always turns into parody.
But, when the woman on the radio station in The Warriors purrs, “For all you boppers out there in the big city…” or when Cyrus proclaims, “Caaaan you diiiig iiiiit?” I buy it. Whenever The Warriors speak to each other, I feel it.
The same could be said about most movies from the ‘70s, but The Warriors especially makes a point of having the characters speak with dialogue that is meant to sound like it comes from a diverse group of individuals who are all in it together (in the ‘70s). And for that, I adore it. The Warriors is just a joy to listen to.
The Movie Came Out In 1979, Closing Out An Era
Here’s something a lot of people might not know. Back in 1979, there were actually two movies about rival gangs that came out with similar-sounding names. One was, of course, The Warriors, but the other was called The Wanderers. But, while The Warriors took place in the present day (back then), The Wanderers was set back in 1963.
The reason why I bring this up is because you couldn’t get two movies that feel any more different. While The Wanderers tries to take you back to a simpler time (though still quite scary), The Warriors fit the time period of the era it came out. Even more interesting though was that The Warriors really feels like it’s closing out the ‘70s, as the ‘80s were right around the corner.
Sure, lots of early ‘80s movies still contain some of the vestiges of the ‘70s, but I don’t think there’s any clearer vision of that than with The Warriors, which feels distinctly ‘70s, even though it was still on the cusp of the very next decade.
In that way, The Warriors feels really special to me, and when I think about my favorite decade of cinema, I always think of The Warriors as being the last truly remarkable film that FEELS like that era (in look, feel, music, etc). Really, there is no more quintessential ‘70s movie to me than The Warriors, no matter how many other films I see from that decade.
But, what do you think? Do you also view The Warriors as the quintessential 1970s movie? For more news on all things cinema, be sure to swing around here often!