The Warriors Movie Site Forum

....This is one I've wanted to opine on for a while, but haven't had a chance to until now.

I recently finished my MA in Lit, and one of my courses was analyzing American film. In the 12 Week course, the teacher brought in 3 and the rest were brought in by the students (after they were approved by the Prof, natch).

Nice thing: the couse met once a week for 3.5 hours, which allowed us to both see an entire film and then for the student who brought it to give a 1/2 hour seminar on it, with time left over for questions, a break, and we still got to go home an average of 15 minutes early.

Now for me: Guess which film I brought in 

After we watched the Warriors, I gave my seminar on its sources (Battle of Cunaxa, Walter Hill's comic book sensibilities, film noir), and which distinctly American film themes ran through it (David v. Goliath obstacles, use of wisely-placed agression as favored means to surmount obstacles, etc.)

...Suddenly, during the Q&A, one woman puts her hand up:

"Why didn't you look at the sexist undertones?"

Ummmmm...I didn't see it as sexist. There is a strong female character, and one of the gangs is exclusively female, so I don't see....

To sum up (since this post is getting too long already):

-Ancient Greek warrior codes looked down on women (this mainly came from a Greek philosopher named Zeno)
-Women were not to be trusted the same as men
-Ajax gets nailed when he is distracted by a woman
-Mercy is more a source of trouble for the Warriors and Swan than a help (stirs things up with the Orphans, lets Swan know prematurely that he is being followed, alerting the Punks)
-We finally see a girl gang who...uses sexuality to entice the Warriors before attempting to kill them.

...I had my own response to this, but I was wondering what the fans would say, who've likely viewed this film many more times than the average grad student.

-Joker

I wouldn't call The Warriors sexist really.
In my eyes sexist is when men look down on the other sex, and in The Warriors, I don't think that it ever actually looks down upon women.
And about The Lizzies, I don't think that is sexist at all. In 1979, there wasn't any girl gangs, so The Warriors went against the times in that way. And, IMO, The Lizzies came the closest to catching The Warriors.
It is a very good point bought up by that girl tho.

Honestly,I don't see the warriors as sexist.Yes if you haven't  played the game they actually have many girls in it.I believe once you beat the game you always have quite a few girls at the hang out.

Ummmm...if ya read the post, you'd see I was talking about the movie, not the game.

...My rebuttal to her had the following points:

-the Lizzies DID use sexuality to entice the warriors, but this in and of itself didn't denegrade females or sexuality, any more than if other forms of enticement were used (ie. if another gang had showed them a big bag of money).  You could, I suggested, turn her argument on its head and say the story was anti-male, saying men are easily misled by a pair of batted eyes even after tremendous hardships.

-Fox does get killed after holding hands with and staying with Mercy, but his death (story wise) is not a direct result of his bonding with her, but because of the cop. Is the film anti-cop?

-Ajax doesn't get arrested because of girl's actions, but of his own inability to say no to his wants of the moment.

-Yes, it is true that ancient Greece did have a mistrust of women as a major component to its culture (a philosopher named Zeno was mostly responsible for this), but in the Warriors this is not reflected so much as a slam on women, but on the guys who led themselves be led astray from their goals by their desires.

-And, other weaknesses fell the Warriors besides sexual ones: Cleon yielded to excessive curiosity when he houlda been getting his boys the heck outta there, Rembrandt yielded to peer pressure and follwoed along (albeit at a distance) when he knew there was something wrong with the whole Lizzy thing, resulting in his being cut for his troubles.

....and so on, and so on.

I don't think the movie is sexist.  Admittedly, I didn't know what sexism was the first time I saw The Warriors. 

Mercy never backed down, she did what she had to do to survive both on that night and on other nights.  It seemed to me that she was a prostitute.  I saw no pimp.  (Unless the Orphans were in fact...her pimps)  Not an easy profession to navigate on your own, without protection.  Secondly, she never dropped to her knees at any point during the film, she kept her dignity.  I think for a young woman to make her way through NYC on a night like they experienced is empowering. 

If anything the movie wasn't sexist it showed that woman can hang with the boys.  She made it all the way to CI which is more than I can say for Fox, Ajax, or Cleon.

The Lizzie's were also as strong or stronger than the other featured gangs.  They came much closer than anyone else to eliminating our boys.

For the time , I would say this film is quite liberating for women.....not sexist

Later
G

I'm not even gonna make a big thing about this so my answer is simply...



No.

How can the film be sexist when one sex does not treat the other badly?

I dont think teh Warriors are sexist at all.

The Lizzies (an all girl gang) almost killed Cochise and Co.
Mercy managed to get from one side of the city to the other without getting hurt.. plus she was pretty tough!
Ajax got himself arrested because of his own carelessness!

So.. No. The Warriors isn't sexist.

But thats just my opinion

does mercey count? 8)

of course they are sexist.

Yeah, some of the Warriors themselves probably were sexist... I wouldn't say 'The Warriors' as a film is though.

There's plenty of sexuality in there, like we've established... but 'Sexist undertones'? I don't see any.

Interesting little topic nonetheless, Joker.

Well the gang environment is not exactly the place to be talking about equal rights...I think Mercy definitely showed her value to the group and helped them make it back, but the gang world is male-dominated and probably always will be.

I actually can see how it would be easy to feel that this movie IS sexist, but I disagree.

The first few times I watched this movie, my friends and I could not STAND Mercy.  We called her sluty and whorish and what not because she hella seemed like she was just trying to get into Swan's pants.  This is how her character is generally percieved, I think.  However, after watching again and again, her character grew on me.  Now, I see Mercy as courageous for taking advantage of the fact that this spectacular gang is walking through her neighborhood, and realizing that The Orphans can never give her what her heart desires: adventure. 


And I mean, the Lizzies were a pretty organized gang.  They had a plan.  They were tough and knew how to work with their strengths.  Too bad they executed their plan so poorly!  And, they are a terrible shot.

Also, there is a deleted scene in the very beggining of the movie where Cleon's girlfriend expresses that she feels skeptical about them going to the Bronx.  If this scene had been kept in it could be argued that she is representing the fact that women are often more in tuned to intuition, and maybe even "know best".

now that you mention it... it does sound sexist!!! most (all) action movies are tho.

Well, who is more likely to be in gangs. Men or Women. That just about sums it up.