The Warriors [VHS]
Walter Hill's controversial 1979 drama was blamed for causing gang violence at theaters, but now it looks as highly stylized and pulpy as Hill (Last Man Standing) intended. The plot finds a New York gang having to cross the territory of rivals in order to get to their own 'hood. A sort of urban Western with a comic-book pace, artificial colors, fable-like tone, and broad acting, the film isn't intended to steep us in gritty realities so much as spin a decadent fantasy out of them. Still, this is a tough film with an almost futuristic element to its characterizations of gang activity, and it is more absorbing than Hill's more elaborate youth opera of punk wars,Streets of Fire.--Tom Keogh