The Warriors (Hill, 1979): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 12pm
This film is part of the 'Scala: Sex, drugs and rock and roll cinema' season
at BFI Southbank. The screening on January 17th is introduced by Scala!!! co-director Ali Catterall. The movie also screens on January 6th. Full details here.
Time Out review:
'From
its powerhouse opening, in which all the gangs of New York gather in
tribal splendour in Riverside Drive Park, to the last ditch stand in
dilapidated Coney Island, Hill has elevated his story of a novice gang
on the run into a heroic epic of Arthurian dimensions, with sex as
sorcery and the flick-knife as sword. Anyone expecting gritty realism
will be disappointed, because Hill is offering something better:
shooting entirely on NY locations at night, he has transformed the city
into a phantasmagoric labyrinth of weird tribes in fantastic dress and
make-up who move over (and under) the streets as untouched as
troglodytes by the civilisation sleeping around them. The novice gang
from Coney accidentally encounters some middle class swingers on the
subway, and the two groups stare at each other like aliens from
different galaxies (while the gang's new female recruit has to be gently
restrained from instinctively putting a hand up to straighten her
hair). Mixing ironic humour, good music, and beautifully photographed
suspense, it's one of the best of 1979.'
David Pirie
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