For a long, long time I'd only experienced Walter Hill movies from 48 Hrs onwards, including Red Heat, Extreme Prejudice and Trespass, and had neglected the handful of films that had put Hill in the limelight to begin with. Besides, 48 Hrs is a classic so his earlier work was in no position to best that, was it?
Er, wrong. Hill's classic 1979 gang movie The Warriors is my favorite Walter Hill movie. To be quite honest I think the reason I love it so much is it's resemblances to a John Carpenter movie; the synth soundtrack, the sleek but gritty photography, the Hawksian male ensemble, character being expressed through actions not words and a Western plot reworked for contemporary times (1979). Everybody's suitably macho, especially a young James Remar as the fiery Ajax, and Deborah Van Valkenburgh is a welcome slutty addition to an all male cast.
The film has a slightly hyper-real quality to it as embodied in the quirky getup the gangs wear such as the iconic Baseball Furies (which is probably down to Hill's insistence this be taken as a comic book movie...a bad idea when you see that played out in the inferior Directors Cut). A great little movie that makes an effort to put it's style right up there at the forefront along with storytelling.
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