labelling is sometimes everything . 
in original mad max , the opening title set the plot of the movie in near future , thus making it one of the science fiction classics , despite the future world being almost exactly like our own . 
walter hill wanted the same opening title for his action classic the warriors . 
producers weren't thrilled by that idea and consequently the movie lost all of its futuristic overtones . 
on the other hand , producers were right on the mark ; walter hill was accused of actually promoting some disturbing trends that were quite visible in contemporary america . 
to make the movie even more distant from future , plot was loosely based on anabasis , historical book written by xenophon , greek mercenary soldier who had described his adventures in ancient persia 2400 years ago . 
instead of ancient persia , movie begins in contemporary coney island , where cleon ( dorsey wright ) , leader of the warriors , local youth gang , gets invitation to the great gathering of all youth gangs from the city . 
the gathering , organised by gramercy park riffs , most powerful gang in the city , is taking place in bronx . 
that is far away from warriors' home territory , but small and unarmed delegation of the warriors gets there safely thanks to the general truce . 
on the gathering , cyrus ( roger hill ) , charismatic leader of the riffs , announces his grand plan to unite all the gangs and take over the city . 
crowd is enthusiastic , but the small gang of rogues , led by psychopathic luther ( david patrick kelly ) uses the opportunity to assassinate cyrus . 
police simultaneously raids the gathering , and in the commotion warriors get blamed by the killing , and their leader gets killed by riffs . 
the remaining eight , led by cleon's lieutenant swann ( michael beck ) , must now try to get to coney island , but this time unprotected by truce and instead being chased by all the gangs . 
upon its release , despite the controversies and even some youth riots that were allegedly inspired by it , the warriors enjoyed immense popularity and very quickly received some kind of a cult status . 
however , despite being one of the best movies of that year , and being directed by talented action director walter hill at the peak of his career , the movie failed to leave as strong impression to the future generations as some other cinematic achievements of that same year . 
the reason for that probably lies in a fact that this movie aged very quickly . 
if walter hill's idea was to warn the public about problems of urban america , he failed miserably . 
the future was much worse than his vision . 
the youth gangs , as presented in the warriors , are far from shadowy armies , able to take over entire cities . 
their members seem more interested in unorthodox fashion and their little petty feuds than such prosaic , and for the public more annoying , matters like crime . 
in their vocabulary , word " arms " is reserved for small knives and blunt objects , and only few of them use heavy artillery like handguns . 
they even have their own , very strict and detailed laws , upheld more strictly than some governments do with their own . 
many people in american cities would be more than happy to see their young criminals behaving like those in the warriors . 
some of the critics who accused hill of actually praising youth crime had a lot arguments in their favour . 
despite those objections , the warriors have all the elements of a very good film . 
the plot is simple , and serves as good basis for numerous action scenes . 
the fights are brilliantly choreographed and quite realistic , although there isn't much bloodshed or gore in the movie . 
editing is superb , events happen at quick pace , with the exception of middle , when boring moralistic exchanges between swann and his would-be-girlfriend mercy ( deborah van valkenburgh ) drag the plot from straight action to social drama territory . 
the soundtrack by barry de vorzon is very suggestive and recognisable . 
yet , the trademark of this film are the actors who showed great talent , although most of them later sunk into anonymity . 
best known of them is david patrick kelly , whose superb and original performance in this film later subscribed him to the roles of psychopathic villains . 
michael beck as cool , almost statesman-like leader of a gang , is also very good , and james remar gives good contrast as his hot-shot contender for top spot . 
all in all , this movie is perhaps dated , yet in its hour and half can give a lot more entertainment than most of the contemporary movies .