The Warriors - Hill, 1979

The Warriors was a very influential movie for a lot of people I grew up with, giving us the catch-phrases: "Can you dig it!" and "Warriors - come out to plaaaaay." And Walter Hill is great at combining action with artistic styling. I seem to remember some fights and protests at certain theaters when this film came out, so it clearly made a big impact and is something of a cult film today.

I resaw this as the "Ultimate Director's Cut" and the only differences I can remember from the theater version is a bunch of added comic book animation interludes between the scenes. That didn't do much for me. In fact, I think the film was better without those. I was hoping that Hill would reconsider the awful ending scene on the beach, where David Patrick Kelly's gang stands idly by when their leader has a knife thrown at him and his gun taken away. Then about 200 guys mysteriously show up out of nowhere.

I originally gave this film a 5 and would give it at least a 6 without that ending, but I'm sticking to the first impression.