The Warriors is a 1979 film directed by Walter Hill and based on Sol Yurick's 1965 novel of the same name. This novel was, in turn, based on Xenophon’s Anabasis. The story centres on a New York City gang who must return to their home turf after they are framed for the murder of a respected gang leader. It was released in the United States on February 9, 1979.
After reports of vandalism and violence, Paramount temporarily halted their advertising campaign and released theatre owners from their obligation to show the film. Despite its initially negative reception, The Warriors has since become a cult film, and it has spawned multiple spin offs, including video games and a comic book series.
This 3 x 400ft release from Marketing was an absolute must for me, at the age of 18 it was one of my favourite films & I wanted, (and still do), the full length feature when it was released on 8mm but price wise this was out of my price range.
This was one of the second phase of releases by marketing where the quality was even better than the first releases, (Sat night fever, godfather etc).
The biggest downfall of this release (and all the second batch of titles) was that all traces of the original titles were replaced with crappy Letraset titles and as many of you will know the opening titles sequence of this film was so important as it sets up the mood of entire film.
Marketing would have done so well to have made the 200ft version nothing more than the title whole sequence this could have been spliced onto this version, I guarantee everyone who bought this 3 x 400 footer would have also purchased that reel, it would have been a leaf out of Deranns book as they did this for there 3 x 600 ft version of sound of music and also Superman 2 x 600ft version. I have seen three different copies of this mini feature and on all three the second reel is not quite as good an image as reels 1 and 2, namely in the contrast department, never the less, it is very good and mine has held up very well with only the slightest trace of fade.
This one has been put through my Elmo’s countless times and as you can see there isn’t a mark on it, any scratches on this title would ruin it as it is set mainly at night, two of the tricks used by the cinematographer to help with the lighting was to make streets wet to reflect the street light and movie lighting and if you watch the chase through Central Park you will notice the extra lights in the trees themselves, cleverly filmed in a way that they look like the park lights.
By the way, this was another bargain from Roger Lily of Movieland International, it was part of a collection he bought but Roger was dead against any films about violence so he rang me and offered this for £30 at the time when they were going for around £50-£70. Should a 16mm copy with good colour and no fade come along at the right price i will be there. Or,(unlikely) an odd part one, chances are the full feature on 8 will be fading now.
These images dont do it justice as they look quite red but i assure you it isnt.