The Wanderers
Tags: cult, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Joey and Turkey are members of the Wanderers, an all-Italian street gang. In the Bronx, Joey tries to dissuade Turkey from joining a rival gang, the Fordham Baldies. Before Turkey can ask, Terror's girlfriend Peewee overhears Joey insulting the Baldies, calling them a "bunch of pricks with ears". Joey and Turkey flee and the Baldies chase them. Richie—the leader of the Wanderers—and Buddy come to help but they also flee from the Baldies. After being cornered, the Wanderers are helped by a tough stranger named Perry, who has recently moved to the Bronx from New Jersey. After much persuasion, Perry joins the Wanderers.
In school, the Wanderers get into a racial dispute with another gang, the Del Bombers who are all African-American. Both gangs agree to settle their dispute, seemingly a street fight, but the Wanderers struggle to find a gang willing to back them. With no other options, Richie asks his girlfriend's father, local mafia boss Chubby Galasso, who agrees to help solve the gangs' dispute.
During a game of "elbow-tit", Richie gropes a woman called Nina. He feels ashamed of himself, apologizes for his actions and persuades Nina to accept Joey's telephone number. The Wanderers then decide to follow Nina in Perry's car.
After Perry becomes lost, the Wanderers are attacked by a gang from Long Island called the Ducky Boys. They escape after Perry's arm is broken.
While drunk, the Baldies are tricked into joining the Marines. Before reporting for training, they decide to crash Despie's party, where Turkey—who has recently joined the Baldies—is told to draw the Wanderers outside. After drawing them out, Turkey realizes the Baldies have abandoned him. He tries to chase them but fails. Upset, Turkey visits a nearby Catholic church. After being spotted by a member of the Ducky Boys attending mass, Turkey is chased down the street. After climbing a fire escape ladder in an attempt to escape, falls to his death.
In school, while the Wanderers are mourning Turkey's death, the rest of the gang oust Richie for sleeping with Joey's date Nina. After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Richie rekindles his relationship with Despie. When Chubby discovers his daughter is pregnant, he forces Richie into marrying her.
In the climax, we discover the Wanderers and the Del Bombers are settling their dispute not with a street fight but with a football game organized by Chubby. Richie uses the opportunity to make amends with Joey. A member of the Ducky Boys interrupts the game, as the Wanderers momentarily turn their heads, hundreds of Ducky Boys invade the field. Many of the Wanderers and the Del Bombers flee, but some stand their ground. The remaining players join forces with spectator gangs in the stands, including one called the Wongs and even Emilio. After a long and bloody battle, the Ducky Boys flee.
After being physically abused by his father Emilio, Joey decides to spend the night at Perry's apartment. Perry tells Joey he is planning to leave the Bronx and move back to New Jersey. Joey asks Perry if he can go with him; after an initially skeptical response, Perry agrees. Emilio, drunk, enters Perry's apartment and fights with him; Joey knocks Emilio unconscious with a glass bottle. Joey and Perry quickly leave the apartment and head to Richie's engagement party. They say an emotional goodbye to Richie; when they leave, Richie realizes things will not be the same. At Richie's party, members of the Wanderers, the Del Bombers and the Wongs embrace one another while singing "The Wanderer". The movie ends with Joey and Perry traveling to California.

Review: One of the greatest scenes ever put on film is in this movie: Ken Wahl, about to get married, facing the transition between youth and responsibility, peers through a window at the action at Gerdes' Folk City in Greenwich Village, where, he dimly senses, there's a whole new world beyond his comprehension...it's pure gold, like most everything in this movie.
For me, this is rather like a New York version of American Graffiti; it creates a world that I feel at home in, even if I never was a gang member and we left the Bronx when I was eight.
Philip Kaufman is a great director (true some of his films are not my cup of tea, so to speak, such as "Quills" & "the Unbearable Lightness of Being", but he's had his hand in "The Right Stuff", "Indiana Jones" & "the Outlaw Josey Wales", and that ALONE qualifies him for greatness) This film is one of my favorite coming-of-age movies, having never read the book it was based on didn't deter me from falling in love with this movie.
I remember when it came out at the cinema and was unfairly compared to 'The Warriors' which is a very different film (although both have the gangs in New York setting).
The acting is great, and it is interesting that only KAREN ALLEN 'made it' to Hollywood fame and went onto make films like 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'Starman', 'Scrooged' and 'Perfect Storm'.
From the opening scenes of the Bronx in 1963 while The Four Seasons "Walk like a Man" is playing to the end when we hear Dion's "The Wanderers" this is truly a special movie.
(Today we'd call them a "gang," but if you compare the "Wanderers" to today's "Bloods", "Gangster Disciples", etc., those l963 kids were relative sissies.)The movie is unpretentious,  Its structure, pace, and acting are outstanding, with special kudos for the renditions of various neighborhood "characters" by largely unknown players.
Of course, each group developed its own mythical idea of what the other groups were like, and in his novel, Richard Price used much of this teenage myth and lore.Of all the well-embellished epics common to the teens in the Wanderers' neighborhood , those dealing with the Duckies were the most detailed and commonly accepted.
Since The Wanderers had never really engaged in any real "gang wars" (or any significant fighting for that matter),  that particular episode was the source of most of their perceptions of the Duckie Boys' penchant for unbridled violence..
Great cult movie about coming of age in a street gang in The Bronx.
I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I watched it after it was mentioned by "The Warriors" director Walter Hill because he had some worries that his film and The Wanderers would be coming into theaters around the same time, and he described them as two street-gang movies competing for box office sales.
The truly surreal moments involve a whole different gang that shows up a few different times during the movie; they don't seem to resemble a different neighborhood and its residents but more like zombies, and it was very difficult to take them seriously without understanding their true intentions and characters.
In contrast, I really enjoyed The Baldies, the neighborhood skinhead gang that didn't seem to take life too seriously, which differentiates itself between the skinhead stereotype of white supremacists which most skinheads get labeled as.Overall, I really want to buy this movie after watching it.
They come in at the right time, and give goosebumps throughout.Two of the best scenes in the movie ---- absolute chills down the spine ---- when the women are crying on the street for Kennedy, and the song "Stand By Me" (Ben E.
Ken Wahl and Karen Allen are priceless, and the song "Baby it's you" is unbelievable.If you like a little history, some classic songs, and a really good story, mixed with good writing and great acting, this movie is a absolute must see.
However, as the times are a changing, The Wanderers and all the other gangs of the city must come to terms with pending adulthood, and, the ending of an era.Directed by Phillip Kaufman, this adaptation of Richard Price's novel stands up as one of the best pictures to deal with gang culture.
I didn't grow up in the Bronx but that movie made me feel like I was there in a more simpler time.
If you ever felt any teen-age angst, or if you ever felt a part of anything bigger than you, this is a movie that you can relate to.The soundtrack is good if you like early 1960's music.
There's multiple stories going on and the movie is full of incredible sequences.Highlights include: a classroom "discussion" about race; the Wanderers marching down an alley to the title tune; the Baldies revenge on Joey and Richie; a small role for the then unknown Olympia Dukakis; a game of "elbow tit"; Karen Allen's introduction; a trip to Ducky Boys territory; a memorable party and football game; JFK's assassination and a violent rumble.All the acting is great but Wahl and Allen stand out.
When The Wanderers was first released I went to every movie house and Drive-In it was playing at and took a different friend each time.
Philip Kaufman adaptation of Richard Price's semi-autobiographical novel 'The Wanderers' re-creates the atmosphere of the gritty street gang life of Bronx, NY in 1963.
It's truly an independent Philip Kaufman masterpiece, which includes Kaufman's trademark use of captivating cinematography while the great music of 1963 serves the movie by magnifying the films humor, tragedy, gritty realism, with an occasional touch of the truly bizarre, as we observe the daily lives of the young tough high school gang members of the Bronx in 63'.
The Wanderers Is one of the most underrated,overlooked movies of all time and a classic of gang films,teen films and coming-of-age films and one of my all time favorite movies.Based on Richard Price's novel and set In 1963 Bronx,New York, The Wanderers tells the story of an Italian gang called The Wanderers focusing on three members of the gang Richie(Ken Wahl),the leader of the gang,Joey(John Friedrich),the hyperactive little guy In the gang who lives with an abusive Father and Perry(Tony Ganinos),the gentile giant who's new In town and joins The Wanderers and Is a neighbor of Joey's.
The three characters along with The Wanderers deal with love, growing up, changing of the times, and rival gangs such as the all-black gang The Del-Bombers, the bald headed gang The Fordham Baldies, an Asian gang called The Wongs and probably the scariest gang of them all The Ducky Boys a group of small guys who are silent,but come in large numbers.The Wanderers Is a great film from beginning to end and will stay with you after you watch it because it's funny,tragic,nostalgic,haunting and unforgettable.
The film is funny because of the way it depicts teenage life for The Wanderers in the early 60s,whether it's picking up girls,going to parties,or getting in fights with other gangs.
The film is like a great mixture of George Lucas' American Graffiti,Walter Hill's The Warriors and Barry Levinson's Diner all in one.
The film also paints a world where every teenager in the Bronx is in a gang and all of the gangs are different by race like the all Italian gang (The Wanderers),a Asian gang(The Wongs) Black gang(The Del-Bombers),Bald gang(The Baldies),a silent gang(The Ducky Boys).
Like the best Teen films or Coming Of Age films The Wanderers is a film about dealing with the last grasps of being a teenager and facing the tough challenges of being an adult,where the characters face the fact that they're not going to be teenagers or in a gang forever,or it's dealing with life teenage and other relationships,parents or an uncertain future.
Like American Graffiti,The Wanderers is about the end of the 50s and the beginning of the 60s where the innocence and fun of the late 50s was being replaced by the dark times of the 60s.
As someone who owns and loves both films they both shouldn't be compared,The Wanderers is coming of age Comedy-Drama,The Warriors is an Action film,the only thing they have in common is that they're both gang films.
A year before in 1978 Kaufman directed the great remake Invasion of the Body Snatchers a creepy and terrifying film and Kaufman brings the same terrifying tone in this film with The Ducky Boys scenes.
In final word,if you love Gang films,teen films,Coming of age films and love films like The Warriors,The Outsiders,Rumble Fish and American Graffiti or cinema in general,I highly suggest you see this underrated classic.
Set against the urban jungle of 1963 New York's gangland subculture, this coming of age teenage movie is set around the Italian gang the Wanderers.This story is something like a blend between "The Warriors" and "American Graffiti", though for some reason is not as well known as either of them.
I don't know how music rights worked at the time, but today a film like this would probably cost a fortune just on licensing..
One of the best movies, watched it on Youtube then came looking for it and instantly attached to the characters like Richie, Joey and Turkey tho one thing i feel disturbed was Turkey's joining the Baldies and getting himself killed by The Mysterious Ducky Boy gang, nonetheless the movie was entertaining and capture the feels of the era is changing with the 50s ending and 60s is coming and the boys realize they're no longer a teen and can't be street gang forever, Richie must face the life of teen father's, Joey escape from his psycho dad with Perry, overall the movies is classic and yes i'm a true Wanderers fans heck i even own the jacket.
"The Wanderers" is a film about another time, when people fought with fists instead of guns, when chewing bubble gum in class was among the most serious of violations, and gangs were about fraternity not crime.
Not only does the film contain some great performances by Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, John Friedrich, Toni Kalem, Tony Ganios and Michael Wright to name but a few, it also sprinkles in a good dose of some rock 'n roll music classics.The Wanderers are a young Italian ethnic street gang which is one of the many cliques posturing in their New York borough which also includes gangs comprised of Chinese, African Americans and the baldies who are unemployed white skinheads.
Wherever the Wanderers turn, they seem to be clashing with the other gangs and rumbles are sure to follow.There is a great "**strip poker scene" in which four of the main characters played by Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, John Friedrich, and Toni Kalem, challenge each other to a bit of friendly and fun strip poker which quickly turns more serious between all four (4) players as each has a love and fondness for one another which is acutely displayed by the "eyes have it".
I've watched this film several times and as much as I love it and think it is a great achievement, I cannot say that the movie is replete with superb performances.
The movie follows the Wanderers, an Italian-American street gang.
Like most street gangs during this time period membership was based on ethnicity and the Wanderers were the toughest Italian gang around.
The leader of the gang is Richie and he's a complex individual who has many things on his mind besides leading his boys into rumbles.The novel plays out through a series of short vignettes whilst the movie is straight forward.
Hell, the fight alone is worth the price of a rental."The Wanderers" is also a great time capsule film.
In my opinion "The Wanderers" is a less smarmy, but more probable version of American Graffitti (a great movie, which I love).It is more probable than AG because AG is told from an adult removed, years later, an old man (re)telling the stories of his youth; whereas The Wanderers dissolves into a fantasy at the end.
A group of high schoolers, mostly Italian-American, form a gang, more out of self identification and self worth, rather than any maliciousness or violence...The Wanderers.I saw the Wanderers many years ago and was moved and impressed; I'm not from New York, but I think most people could identify with the dilemmas faced by most of the characters - some of my acquaintances found themselves in the same situation as Ritchie!
The likely costs for not doing so, particularly in working class environments where solidarity (at least back then) are starkly spelt out by the Duckies.The Wanderers is a raw and gritty, warm but unsentimental, coming of age film.
One of the most underrated movies of all time.Sort of an inner-city American Graffiti,showing the rapid changes the world was going through in 1963.As with The Hollywood Knights,one of my biggest disappointments was no "where are they now"sequence at the end such as with American Graffiti.Ken Wahl gave an excellent debut performance as Richie,the other actors were also very good.The music was some of the best from the era.The surrealistic turn taken with appearances of the Ducky Boys gave an implication of the emergence of the coming drug culture.Whoever played Bob Dylan in that shadowy sequence looked a lot like him,& had his mannerisms down pat.I have always wondered if he was singing or lip-synching..
i think i liked the warriors better, but the thing that intrigued me most about this movie was the "ducky boys".
It is great when you can remember the lines like.."Leave the kid alone" and "Wanderers forever" after all these years.
We saw this film a few times at the drive in back in the late '70's and we rated it much better than The Warriors, I think now because it didn't take itself as seriously as other gang films did.The imagery of The Wanderers is very memorable particularly in the scene concerning the drive chasing Nina which all of a sudden winds up in Ducky Boy territory.
Judging by the front cover, I really expected this to be something like another gang film called The Warriors, which I might add is one of my all time favorite movies.
The gangs replaced the fraternities, the soundtracks were almost the same, they introduce a new 'member' into the main group at the start (Flounder/Pinto and Perry), there's a scene of mayhem near the end of both films, and more.
The end result though: An extremely entertaining film, with gripping characters, fun scenes, hot chicks, nice soundtrack, awesome fights, and you'll definitely be thinking about this one long after the final credit ends.
I love this film, but it's hard to be objective, since my brother played "Terror".To Gosling2 and McCormack7: Karen Allen wasn't the only one who went on to success from this film, so did Ken Wahl and Alan Rosenberg (both in TV series), Olympia Dukakis has done a lot of good work since and become very well known, Danny Aiello III is a successful stuntman & stunt coordinator, and my brother was doing pretty well up until his death just before the release of THE RUNNING MAN with Arnold Schwarzenegger.As for the film, it is violent, yet has much charm as well, and I think it captures a time gone by in a simple, poignant way..
The film takes a look at gang warfare of that era - The Wanderers (although to be fair they're not really a gang, more a bunch of mates), The Fordham Baldies, The Wongs, The 'Coloured' (it was set in the 60s and made in the late 70s so be prepared for potentially offensive racist language) and, of course, The Ducky Boys.
Richie Gennaro (Ken Wahl) is the leader of the Wanderers, an Italian-American street gang.
If someone could answer to a new great fan of gangs films, I would be very glad.
Based on a novel by Richard Price, Philip Kaufman's 1979 film The Wanderers is a surreal comedy about teenage gangs in the Bronx during the sixties that is both a coming of age film and an homage to the end of an era.
Set in 1963 just prior to the Kennedy assassination, The Wanderers deals with a group of high school friends who must ward off challenges from rival gangs while coming to grips with the problems of growing up during rapidly changing times.
All except the sadistic Ducky Boys who seem to suddenly materialize at the opportune moment, are more like social clubs and do little besides partying and hanging out.Led by slick, good-looking Richie (Ken Wahl), a pizza parlor employee discovered by Kaufman, and his friend Joey (John Friedrich), The Wanderers have their hands full fighting the Baldies and their 6' 7'', 400 lb.
Although there is lots of violence, it is of the comic book variety and never seems quite real.The energy never flags throughout The Wanderers and the film is assisted by a great soundtrack that includes many sixties favorites: "Runaround Sue'' performed by Dion and other classic oldies such as The Contours' "Do You Love Me,'' the Shirelles'  "Soldier Boy,'' and the Surfaris' "Wipe Out''.
All except Joey, the artist who – like the artist character at the end of George Lucas' similar film, "American Graffiti" – jumps in a car and skips town.
In the modern world, individuality as a means of defining oneself against any number of groups becomes lost within the ubiquitous streamlining of social, ethnic, and religious differences, everyone essentially becoming the same in their differences.In Kaufman's next film, "The Wanderers", he again has a character yelling "They're here!", this time when the virus-like "Duckies" appear.
The Wanderers is a really nice coming of age gang war movie that is mostly comedic but contains some commentary on race relations.
The film depicts gang life and love in the early 1960s, with a likeable youth cast delivering winsome performances (none more so than the great Ken Wahl and Karen Allen).