A Gender Odyssey: The Warriors (1979)

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A Gender Odyssey: The Warriors (1979)

Breaking down the cult classic’s complexity of masc/femme identities


“I’ll shove that bat up your ass

and turn you into a popsicle”

— Ajax in ‘The Warriors’ (1979)


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I have watched the Warriors over & over again, and each time it seems like a totally different film. Sometimes it’s the worst written movie ever made, sometimes it’s the absolute greatest story, sometimes it’s an arthouse classic, and sometimes it’s an action epic. It’s one of my absolute favorite movies, and it’s got such a complicated history and story behind it, that it makes it almost impossible to nail a certain review on it. It is truly a mess of a film that’s full of problematic content—but it’s also completely fascinating and wildly entertaining.

Whatever your opinions are, there’s a ton going on to analyze, and it’s been highly influential as a cult classic with a really wide & varied fanbase. While it’s billed as a movie about an epic adventure through the gangs of New York, and included many actual gang members in it (and was immensely popular amongst them as an audience), I believe it’s more so about the teenage journey of “boyhood” to “manhood” through various tests and debates, as well as a look at interactions between different types of masculine and feminine identities. Fortunately it exists under the guise of an awesome fantasy action odyssey, which makes it a blast to watch. I’d like to break down many of the characters we encounter throughout the film to try and better understand the types of gender expressions we witness throughout it, and how these play together to show us masculinity’s role in shaping the messages throughout the journey from the South Bronx to Coney Island. As a quick background: the movie is based on Sol Yurick’s book of the same name, which is in turn actually based upon Xenophon’s The Anabasis. It’s directed by Walter Hill and was shot on location in New York City in 1979. The basic premise is that all the gangs send members to a big meeting with Cyrus in the Bronx, who wants to unify them to take over the city from the police, but he’s shot mid speech by The Rogues who then blame The Warriors, causing them to have to run for their lives all the way back to Coney Island. It’s really that simple—or is it?!

If you’ve never seen The Warriors I really can’t recommend it enough. It’s truly the crown jewel of the “Juvenile Delinquent” movies and a New York classic, as well as just a stellar film in the 70s “Sodom & Gomorrah” world of urban representations. I’ve included the trailer here, but you can also find a full free copy of it over at archive.org as well for rental from numerous streaming sites and in many library DVD collections. The way I describe this film to friends is like so: The Warriors accidentally achieves genius-level film quality because its lack of direction luckily caused it flourish. The movie we all ended up watching was so wildly made and edited that by its finish it had its own meaning in the process completely devoid from the original script. So TLDR: I love this movie. But why do I say this was such a crazy film?

A battle of gigantic proportions is looming in the neon underground of New York City. The armies of the night number 100,000, they outnumber the police 5 to 1, and tonight they're after the Warriors - a street gang blamed unfairly for a rival gang leader's death.

The production of this movie was a hot mess. They allegedly had actual problems with gangs when they appeared on locations and sprayed their “W” on things as well. The actors had to take their outfits off during meals and travel to avoid conflict. Gangs not invited to be in the movie at one point wrecked a bunch of gear on set. Actual graffiti artists tagged for backgrounds in the shots. Allegedly their trucks were protected by an actual gang at points and police mediators suggested they go along with it. Actual gang members were in the Cyrus scenes alongside lots of undercover cops. The shooting of this movie was insane with its hours, and was full of problems. Lots of it was improvised including the most famous “come out and play” line. Swan accidentally broke three of a stuntman’s ribs during the Baseball Furies scene. The stunt coordinator did Cyrus’ fall (btw Cyrus was supposed to be played by a real gang leader who never showed up, so they cast Roger Hill last minute). Extras were stealing the costumes so they had to make a raffle to win a TV if you turned yours back in (but then the guy who won literally got mugged within eyesight of the set as he walked off with it). In deleted scenes we even see that Ajax originally had a Scottish accent that got cut.

The release incited all sorts of vandalism and violence. It was popular with a lot of actual gang members (because a lof their friends were actually in the movie), and occasionally rivals would run into each other at theatres, causing conflicts. The studios actually pulled it from theatres at one point because the incidents had made this movie so controversial. Over time it found its way back and eventually became a cult classic.


Why a gender identities analysis?

The central conflict in this movie is between being a “boy” and acting like a “man.” That is the main conflict of the movie, not the journey itself. This movie is consistently written off as a stupid action film, but it is far more complex. The masculine debates we see are not simply between brains & brawn, or right & wrong, but between perceived maturity & immaturity, and the limits of both. Swan, the most “adult“ member, must learn to be softer and less stoic, while Ajax must learn to grow up and take more safe & moral actions (and is punished for failing to do so). “Justice” is in some ways served in this movie, but the narrative of it is only secondary to survival and maturation. In this process both masculinity and femme-ininity are shown to be useful survival tools, but it different ways. I would argue that the true “true man” is represented as a balance of all the character aspects we see throughout the movie, combined with the sense of humility in surviving the journey. In the end, The Warriors as a whole represent one ideal mature figure, even if individually they each fall short.

This is a good time to call attention to the sheer lack of clothes The Warriors wear. The majority of them are shirtless with their vests open, toned muscles showing. They also spend a good portion of the movie slick and wet after a storm, taking on an almost oiled-up sexualized appearance early on. These “boys” are just as much sex objects as the women throughout the film, although it’s unclear whom exactly they’re looking to impress. They want to impress women, although all the women they impress are actually just exploiting their hornyness to undermine them. So they end up really just showing off to their fellow “men,” appealing to the “brotherly love” no-homo/military-esque portrayals we see so often in these male-centered films. There’s hints of both the old-school 1950s barracks intimacy as well as precursors of the man-child 2000s bromances in here, if you look closely.

Alright now without further ado, I’ll do my best here to break down the characters by their relationships and contrasts, as opposed to simple categories of Warriors members, women, other gangs, etc. and try to paint a clearer picture of what going on in this crazy film:


Character Breakdown

 
Swan stops Mercy from fixing her hair as they stare at the Bee-Gees-Prom-esque teenagers sitting across from them. This is intended to say “don’t fix yourself for them” but really comes off to me more as “Your appearance and femme-inity can’t possib…

Swan stops Mercy from fixing her hair as they stare at the Bee-Gees-Prom-esque teenagers sitting across from them. This is intended to say “don’t fix yourself for them” but really comes off to me more as “Your appearance and femme-inity can’t possibly be personally important to you and internally empowering“

SWAN

Swan sneaks up on Baseball Fury and “wastes” him with his hot & sweaty muscles.

Swan sneaks up on Baseball Fury and “wastes” him with his hot & sweaty muscles.

The seemingly morally superior and stoic Warchief that almost draws comparisons to 50s military men. He is smart, sexy, strong, and emotionless (at least, at first)—and ends up becoming comparatively the ideal man by the end of the film when his emotional growth has panned out. Yet on his journey, he’s forced to grow in his capacity for empathy towards those who don’t follow his beliefs, and to soften emotionally in order to allow intimacy and friendship into his life (both his crew & Mercy).

While many characters act as boys and must become “men” Swan is portrayed more as acting like a “man” but really in nature being more of a boy. This is mainly exposed by his immature interactions with Mercy, who challenges his judgements. This is where we see his biggest insecurities in his own sexuality, which manifest as slut shaming towards Mercy. It’s sort of like being mean to your crush in grade school because you don’t know how to express your feelings, but way more awful in content. The worst offending line in this particular Subway tunnel scene is probably “why don’t you just tie a mattress to your back…” In the end he gives her a corsage left on the subway, which is kinda cute in a kid way, but really sures up his romantic & sexual immaturity. We also see this in his inability to feel joy with the crew when they escape their encounters, essentially telling them not to celebrate until they get home and not participating in the goofy roughhousing and joking. We don’t see him smile aside from the scene in Union Square when he is reunited with the crew, and when he and Mercy decide to leave together. By the end of the film, he appears to be the most adult in his decision to leave the entire gang life after stating so awesomely “Is this what we fought all night to get back to?”

 

MERCY

With a name like this, she’s really set up from the start to be honestly a very weak character. Sadly, Mercy exists to be used by male characters and to make a comparison to the Lizzies, and doesn’t have much of a personal role otherwise. She leaves The Orphans in search of “real men” essentially only to be constantly berated by The Warriors. There isn’t much reason to be interested in Swan besides his looks, but she still follows him for the entire film. In the end, she convinces him to feel things, and he convinces her to follow him around more and shames her sexuality right out of her. Had Mercy been written slightly differently, I think she could have been much stronger & more sexually empowered. In her lines about the hopelessness of her life, she gets into some really profound concepts of just wanting to “feel something” before she dies. She wants to live and stir up action because it gives her life meaning. Sadly this doesn’t get explored too deeply, and I believe her writing purely serves to draw contrasts with other women in the film and to highlight the debate between purposeful action and pure anarchy.

The choice to have her expository “love” scene with Swan right next to the Lizzies’ base scene is crucial though, because it sets up a clearly comparison between this fairly subservient and systematically beaten-down femme identity directly next to highly dominant ones. We’ll return to this later.

Mercy essentially gains her “manhood” via being accepted into the gang when they allow her to literally enter the men’s bathroom at Union Square with them before fighting The Punks—the exchange being “wait a minute I can’t go in there, that’s a men’s room!” to which Vermin responds saying “are you kidding?” and pulling her in to prepare for battle.

Mercy getting grabbed/assaulted by Ajax before Swan & the crew make him let her go. She follows them looking for “action” after they walk away from The Orphans.

Mercy getting grabbed/assaulted by Ajax before Swan & the crew make him let her go. She follows them looking for “action” after they walk away from The Orphans.

Mercy bites an assailant while battling alongside The Warriors in the Union Square men’s bathroom.

Mercy bites an assailant while battling alongside The Warriors in the Union Square men’s bathroom.

 
Ajax, defeated, after being beaten by the police and cuffed to the bench by Chloe.

Ajax, defeated, after being beaten by the police and cuffed to the bench by Chloe.

AJAX

The Warriors utilizes “foils” a great deal to set its characters apart—the major foil relationship being between Swan and Ajax. He’s the “bad boy” with no moral compass, and the “heavy muscle” for the gang. He’s strong and evil, only wanting to rape and murder, and always looking to take power from Swan. He constantly talks of shoving objects up peoples’ anuses. He thinks Cleon was caught by the cops with a “nightstick up his ass,” and he threatens to shove the Baseball Furies’ bats up their asses thereby turning them into popsicles (given you suck & lick a popsicle, there’s really two different phallic interpretative levels going on here at once with the bat penetration). His obsession with announcing his heterosexuality is pretty evident in his excessively homophobic remarks such as: “what’s the matter, you goin’ faggot?” and “…yeah we’re acting like faggots,” as well as “…maybe all of you are just goin’ faggot.” All of which are used in scenarios in which other members of the gang either don’t want to fight or don’t want to sexually engage (and in some cases assault) women along their route. One fact about Ajax is certain:he loves putting things up people’s butts.

Swan is supposed to be the superior version of Ajax, as he has all the strength and fearlessness, but without nearly as much hubris and destructive lust. But I believe the true purpose of Ajax is to show us how a “man” who spends time speaking & acting so aggressively is truly more of a “boy” at heart. We see this visually when he is caught and arrested in his final scene—he appears as just a young teenager for a moment, with an innocent and lost look in his eyes, where we almost get a hint of pity for him.

 
Chloe breaks cover to arrest Ajax as he attempts to assault her in the park.

Chloe breaks cover to arrest Ajax as he attempts to assault her in the park.

CHLOE

Another strong female role / “deceiving” woman (depending on who watching) is Chloe, the undercover cop who waits in the park to trick assaulter like Ajax into being arrested using her sexuality. I say “trick” because she outsmarts him using the tools she has, but in reality this isn’t entrapment since Ajax certainly didn’t need to be violent in their interaction. She basically just gives Ajax an opportunity to assert his true brand of masculinity in full, which happens to be horrendous, and then immediately strips it away to reveal just a scared, angry, powerless boy. The lines she uses to gode him in are simply “…oh look at all those muscles, I bet the chicks love those muscles…why don’t you show how you play…”


 
Rembrandt turning to see the Lizzies lock the door before they slice him with a switchblade.

Rembrandt turning to see the Lizzies lock the door before they slice him with a switchblade.

REMBRANDT

As the youngest member of the gang, he’s the softest and assigned to be the “tagger” hitting walls with the Warriors “W” (although we see he’s really slow & bad at this from his tag scene), and is obviously named after the famous artist. The gay one/soft-boy, to be frank. He’s soft, small, non-muscular, vest buttoned up, wearing an ascot with well-groomed hair. He’s infantilized and doesn’t have any interest women, is the emotional member, and can’t fight well. He uses his spraypaint can as his weapon mainly, ends up sitting out a lot of the fighting, and makes quite a fuss over being sliced by one of the Lizzies. That being said his suspicion of the Lizzies is correct, and he’s critical in saving Vermin & Cochise’s lives with his lack of sexual interest in the women.

I personally find Rembrandt’s reactions to the Lizzies so fascinating, because the acting is just so awesome (although not saying the rest of his acting is awesome in this movie). He’s not just trepidatious about the Lizzies’ motives, he’s clearly also both scared and mesmerized by the sheer queerness of the space. It’s like an alternative reality to the cis-hetero world of The Warriors, and he clearly is floored by exposure to it. Maybe i’m projecting, but I don’t think so. Especially because accounts from friends & those who worked with him spoke of his femme-identity & queerness. Tragically he died of AIDs at age 28 in the early years of the epidemic.

 
Cochise & Vermin both nearly being killed mid-make-out by The Lizzies.

Cochise & Vermin both nearly being killed mid-make-out by The Lizzies.

COCHISE & VERMIN

As another set of foils, we have Rembrandt compared to this duo of sort of compound characters given their storyline as close friends. They are different, but they both act as sort of comical teen boys who are into sex, women, and general goofiness. Vermin even proclaims that he has “the big one.” They fall right for the Lizzies’ trap, and provide most of the comedy for the group dialogue. Vermin’s role (as we learn from the deleted intro scene) is that of the “Bear” which honestly plays into two connotations in my eyes. A) he’s hairy and bigger than the rest like a “Bear” in the gay vernacular, and B) his accent in the movie is that of the classic “New York Brooklyn Jew” which sort of reminds me of the Bear Jew (that’s a stretch though, and doesn’t even make sense on a timeline, but maybe I’m on to something here historically?). He also carries “the tokens and the bread.”

 
Two members of The Lizzies dancing together in the queer zenith of the film.

Two members of The Lizzies dancing together in the queer zenith of the film.

THE LIZZIES

Yes, one letter away from “Lezzies.” This scene is my favorite in the entire movie. It’s a lesbian gang who uses their sexuality to lure in the dumb boy Warriors and try to kill them like the Sirens of the Odyssey. The women dancing together as Rembrandt watches is so unbelievably queer and awesome. I don’t think it’s a stretch to call the Lizzies (specifically their leader, Star) the foils to Mercy in their comparatively autonomous existence. These women are complex and fascinating. Their appearances are not monotone—there are high femmes & butches alike with long hair, short hair, colorful clothes, plaid & denim clothes—just a huge range of difference. The dance we get to watch is beautifully vague in its connotations. It’s somehow all at once natural and performative, sexual and plutonic, intimate and cold. There’s just something about the nature of this scene that Rembrandt capture so well in his abject confusion and fear of the unknown. And then right after we get to watch them all try to kill The Warriors which is just badass. Unlike so many characters from this era, their power is not necessarily claimed through masculinity, but through femme-sexuality combined with violence. In movies like Streets of Fire (1984), for example, McCoy (who’s given the butch lesbian vibe) claims a spot of respect as a woman by rejecting all sexuality and embracing masculinity. The Lezzies are a unique group in these films.

 
Fox performs a graceful hop & skip to scout ten feet ahead along the elevated subway lines.

Fox performs a graceful hop & skip to scout ten feet ahead along the elevated subway lines.

FOX

The “scout” and intelligence gatherer for The Warriors. There is both so much & so little to say about this terribly-written character. He’s sort of the brains of the group, but he doesn’t really do anything intelligent besides lie to the Orphans to make them think he respects them. Swan really acts as the smart one, Fox just sort of exists as a nerd who dies. He’s also easily the least physically featured character, even less so than Rembrandt, as he not only has his vest buttoned up but also has a shirt on underneath and wears large cross necklace. His character doesn’t make sense for a reason though:

Fox was originally supposed to end up with Mercy but he and the director argued and Swan’s chemistry was better so he killed him off and she ends up with Swan and Fox is uncredited in the movie. That would have been a very different movie tho. In this script Swan is kidnapped by the Dingos (Cochise killed by Furies, Vermin by Lizzies but the director liked Vermin’s acting so he kept him in) who are basically sadomasochistic bodybuilders with Doberman Pinschers (with a gay vibe).

 

SULLY

Sully turning to face Mercy after her brutal chicken impression emasculates him.

Sully turning to face Mercy after her brutal chicken impression emasculates him.

Clip from the 1979 film The Warriors in which Swan (Michael Beck), Cleon (Dorsey Wright), Snow (Brian Tyler), Ajax (James Remar), Cowboy (Tom McKitterick), Rembrandt (Marcelino Sánchez), Vermin (Terry Michos) and Fox (Thomas G. Waites) enter diplomatic negotiations with the leader of minor gang The Orphans (Paul Greco) and first meet Mercy (Deborah Van Valkenburgh).

As the leader of The Orphans, this violence-averse pragmatist feels small for not being invited to the city-wide gang-gathering. Fox manages to falsely stoke his ego enough to defuse the situation after he shows him a newspaper article about one of their “raids.” But unfortunately he’s pushed to assert his masculinity after Mercy challenges his manhood by doing a very convincing impersonation of a chicken. She coerces him into stirring up conflict with The Warriors, ending in the crew blowing up a car with a molotov cocktail and scaring off The Orphans. Sully struggles with finding accepted identity in a manhood that does not include violence and posturing in a world where he is expected to at all times.

This instance of femme intervention can be compared to Ajax and Chloe’s scene in the park. In this case, Mercy interjects and and manipulates the Orphans to cause more conflict (seemingly just to entertain herself, which makes her akin to Luther, who we’ll discuss shortly). Chloe also interjects to cause more conflict, in that case in order to stir up a criminal act in order to make an arrest. The Lizzies do the same in waiting for The Warriors to show up in Union Square. Yet the main difference with Mercy’s situation here is that she doesn’t quite seem to have a goal—she doesn’t seem to care about protecting her neighborhood, she just wants “some action.”

 

CYRUS & MASAI

Masai (seemingly named for the ethnic African identity) commands The Riffs in their base. His glittery outfit and big shades make for a gorgeous spectacle.

Masai (seemingly named for the ethnic African identity) commands The Riffs in their base. His glittery outfit and big shades make for a gorgeous spectacle.

Cyrus addresses the meeting in his beautifully shiny robes before his assassination.

Cyrus addresses the meeting in his beautifully shiny robes before his assassination.

Leader (Warlord) & second in command (Warchief) of the Gramercy Riffs, respectively. Cyrus is the ultimate male figure, is described as a “president,” and he’s the unifying liberator of the lower classes. He has the most powerful gang in the city, and chooses to unite with everyone to bring them all up instead of conquering them. He and Masai are associated with discipline and skill as the Kung Fu gang who assembles in neat & militant rows. Masai is the ultimate bringer of “law” to the story when he cracks down on Luther and the Rogues, essentially replacing the police. He is stoic and emotionless, but honorable to the core in his pursuit of “justice,” which in the end actually brought by some random guy who snitches on The Rogues.

The assassination weapon passes between nine other people before it reaches Luther.

The assassination weapon passes between nine other people before it reaches Luther.

The Riffs, in addition to the D.J. (who we’ll talk about later), essentially run the underground as powerful, decidedly black, leaders. They’re represented as a “legitimate” organization trying to not only survive but better their lives and the lives of their community. While the director has never spoken about this, I think it seems like an intentional choice to make his killer a white man who does it just because he simply enjoys “…doin’ things like that.” This movie turns into an odyssey about The Warriors, but for just a moment, it seems to be a larger commentary on American class relations and reflective of violent late 60s-era political assassinations by seemingly aimless terrorists. We see this being explored in movies like Taxi Driver (1976), so I don’t think it’s a stretch to discuss this in relation to the film. It captures the feeling of confusion and lack of accountability during the killings of Malcolm X & MLK, when we see shots like the gun being passed through a bunch of hands before Luther shoots (right as the cops conveniently show up), and through all the unexplained phone calls Luther then makes throughout the movie. We wonder, why? And when he tells us: no reason. We don’t know if we believe him.

One thing to note: the nods to 70s blaxploitation films in these characters in undeniable. The glamorous fashion, the kung-fu caricatures, the vocal delivery, the big shades—it very reminiscent of the Superfly (1972) and Shaft (1971). Cyrus honestly looks a great deal like Priest from Superfly who also actually trains in a dojo at one point in the film, and speaks a similar message in “beating the system.”

 

LUTHER

Luther crying out as Swan defeats him with a knife and gets ketchup all over his shirt.

Luther crying out as Swan defeats him with a knife and gets ketchup all over his shirt.

The leader of The Rogues (and Cyrus’ killer) is sort of a chaotic masculine with no moral compass, no goals, and a Napoleon Complex. To quote Alfred from The Dark Knight “Some men just want to watch the world burn.” Why is he doing all this? “Because I’m having a good time!” he answers. He talks on the phone to someone throughout the film, but we never find out who. Could it be the police? The DJ? Another gang? What was his motive? We’ll never know. He’s a masculine character that uses scheming and anarchy to achieve power instead of physical prowess or sexuality. He uses a gun instead of a knife because he knows he can’t win fights (only he and the Lizzies have guns in this entire movie), and intimidates by driving around a hearse.

Luther’s a very small and infantilized person, but he causes a big commotion. His boyish nature is easily felt in the most famous line from the movie (which was ad-libbed, by the way) “Warriors, come out to play” which he repeats over & over in an increasingly playfully creepy high-pitched voice. When he loses to The Warriors in the end, he utilizes his classic whiney-child voice to try and save himself.

A few other things of note on Luther: his leadership style is directly compared with that of The Warriors and The Riffs, as we see him berate his crew and hit them in violent ways. This is in stark contrast to the sort of playful hitting we see amongst the boyish Warriors, and the strict disciplined lack of it from The Riffs. It’s also impossible to overlook the comical appearance of The Rogues—they look like they all decided to cosplay as the leather-daddy cop from the Village People (another gay-ish group of villains in a movie—what a shocker). Also on that same point, they’re literally a gang who’s outfits look like cop costumes. I really think they were working with the actual cops (pure speculation), so I’ll make a statement: Cyrus is Malcolm X/Fred Hampton and The Rogues are the FBI (there, I said it).

The infamous scene from The Warriors

The Warriors movie clips: http://j.mp/1BcPWWi BUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/u6u7iZ Don't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6pr CLIP DESCRIPTION: The Warriors confront the Rogues on the beach, and after Swan (Michael Beck) takes down Luther (Michael Patrick Kelly), the Gramercy Riffs show up to finish the job.

 

Some smaller roles of note

 
The Warriors taking the bats of the defeated Baseball Furies.

The Warriors taking the bats of the defeated Baseball Furies.

THE BASEBALL FURIES (but mostly their bats)

The main proving moment for Ajax is when he decides to fight them. He may do it to protect cowboy who is running out of breath. Meanwhile swan uses his smarts again to get them “from behind.” The strained gang bonds by fighting together and claiming the furies’ bats, which appear as fairly obviously phallic objects. They defeat the makeup-smothered furies and claim their manhoods as prizes.

I would like to note that in the Italian quasi-knockoff 1990 Bronx Warriors (1982) the Furies are replaced by a group of tap-dancing gang members who fight with dance-canes. Pretty effeminizing. Nobody takes the canes at the end though because their just terrible weapons.

 
The D.J. gives updates to the many gangs out looking for The Warriors throughout the film.

The D.J. gives updates to the many gangs out looking for The Warriors throughout the film.

D.J.

The narrator, chorus, and general driver of the entire story is a D.J. in control of the airwaves. Interestingly this role is played by a woman, unlike in movies like Do The Right Thing (1989) in which the narration/public chorus is driven by a man. She has no apparent affiliation and acts as the true shot-caller in the story. She’s a highly underexplored character despite having some of the most powerful influence over the gangs in the city. Originally, there were more shots of her full face, but they chose to only stick with shots like this in order to portrayed the “disembodied” voice concept. Visually, it’s pretty enthralling.



 

CLEON

Cleon breaking out some moves on The Rogues before The Riffs end his short career.

Cleon breaking out some moves on The Rogues before The Riffs end his short career.

The stoic leader of The Warriors who’s succeeded by Swan. We learn almost nothing about him besides that he’s disciplined and a strong fighter. The deleted opening scenes of him where he had a larger role were replaced by the intro credit scenes and don’t relay much new information. He exists to be the ideal masculine mentor who dies, causing the rest of the gang to have to question what makes a “real man.” His name, by the way, comes from the Athenian general from the Peloponnesian war, clearly in a not to the story’s ancient Greek origins in The Anabasis.

 
Cowboy and Snowball as they convince Swan to let them go back to try and help Ajax.

Cowboy and Snowball as they convince Swan to let them go back to try and help Ajax.

COWBOY & SNOW(BALL)

The two members of The Warriors we get very little info on, but sort of act as a pair. One wears a cowboy hat, doesn’t show much skin, and is not a strong fighter, the other kicks ass and is very attractive. They both refuse to leave Ajax behind, which shows their loyalty and general empathy despite their lifestyles. This acts also works to show Swan’s humbling in learning to understand that he may have been wrong to give up on Ajax. That being said, it’s not exactly featured, as his entire reaction is just “okay” before just having them go get him. The issue with these characters is simply that we don’t get enough information about them to actually understand who they are. Maybe their scenes were cut? I suspect in the original script where Swan is abducted by the “gay gang” these two would have rescued him. Still, it could be argued that they represent a softer masculine identity. “Snow” is referred to as “heavy muscle” like Ajax, but maintains none of the sexually violent & confrontational qualities. Cowboy is nice, I guess. They just never are really challenged besides their fight scenes, and tend to side subordinately with Swan on all fronts, so it’s hard to analyze them.

 
The Bee-Gees-prom-esque group encounters Swan & Mercy on the subway.

The Bee-Gees-prom-esque group encounters Swan & Mercy on the subway.

THE “BEE GEES” SUBWAY PROM CREW

They are shown as the “upper class city folk” being effeminate in their outfits, less than the dirty and more masculine Mercy & Swan. This crew could easily be headed to the disco in Bay Ridge from Saturday Night Fever (1977). America was navigating the new masculinities appearing in culture in the late 1970s, and this is a very clear clash of competing sexual-glam versus muscle-tough masculine identities. Here we also see an extension of the age old commentary of the fancy-dressed femme-man going all the way back to revolutionary-era America and “posh” English upper-class style.

 

Some Final Thoughts

There is a lot going on in this movie. Part of this is due to some pretty crazy writing, and a lot of it is due to the sheer amount of improv, production issues, and re-writes that occured mid-shoot. What the reasons are for the sheer amount of things going on, this movie is amazing in my book. There are so many ways to break it down, so many types of masculinities, and so many different femme identities deployed in many different ways. I won’t rehash my opening remarks here, although I’d be happy to spew more on the boys to men and masc/femme debates for days—instead, I hope you go and watch this movie over & over and let me know what you find. Specifically, I’d love to hear more analysis on the racial representations in this film, which is another massive topic—so someone please do this and I will read it intently! Now in closing: please enjoy the ending theme as written & performed by The Eagles (no clue how they paid for the rights to this) and pretend you’re on the shore at Coney Island looking out on the beautiful & polluted coast of New York City.

Max Schaffer