Finished “The Warriors”/What I am Reading

I just finished Sol Yurick’s “The Warriors” this week, and it was an interesting ride. I’ll probably be doing a book vs. film comparison on that one, since I love the movie, and, despite the fact that the book is literally mentioned in the credits, have never bothered with it until now. The book included a fairly lengthy afterword from the author, who explained a bit about the gangs involved, how he observed them, and how he ultimately disliked the movie. 

Really, though, the film is a very loose adaptation. I’ll go over it in some detail next week. Yurick wrote a number of other books, and even had another film adaptation built on one, but most are out of print, and I suspect “The Warriors” only remains in print because of the film’s status. A lot of the Goodreads reviews point this out, and it’s unsurprising. The book is both well written and sensationalistic. 

It’s also worth noting, and I will not find space for it in the longer essay, that the “Coney Island Dominators” (the main gang in the book) use stolen Mercedes-Benz symbols as an identifier, predating the Beastie Boys by about two decades. 

I am now reading:

“Vamphiri!”— Book Two of the Necroscope Scoreology. I couldn’t resist. It’s already as wacky as the first one, let’s see if it’s as fuckin’ br00tal. 

“You’ve Lost a Lot of Blood”— this appeared in some random list of ‘disturbing books’ and it’s fairly short. Said list also said the less I know going in the better, which to me is often a warning sign. 

“Fight Like Hell”— slower going for me than I’d like, but it’s only in the background as I work on stuff for the blog.

I’ve stopped “TheMystery.doc” for now; I plan to pick it back up once I finish “Vamphiri!” It’s likely gonna require my full attention. 

Also, I have a friend who has not read “Moby Dick” so we have formed a two person book club in an effort to get her to read one of the greats. “Moby Dick” is a book I re-read every few years or so, and I am looking forward to seeing how a first time reader reacts to it. Interestingly, one of the characters in “The Warriors” is named Ishmael, and part of the action of the book takes place in the cemetery where Melville is buried. The world is indeed filled with odd connections.

, , , ,
,

2 responses to “Finished “The Warriors”/What I am Reading”

  1. Puffer Avatar
    Puffer

    Just a heads up, if you don’t already know, a lot of the versions of the movie The Warriors are a Director’s Cut which from what I understand is pretty bad. I have a lot of nostalgic love for the movie but I’ve put off rewatching it for a long time cause the only version readily available is this recut version which by all accounts is not improved & in fact worse. There’s some Australian company that just released the original cut on Blu but I don’t think I like the movie enough to pay 50 bucks for it.

    Like

    Reply
    1. toddbert Avatar
      toddbert

      So, the digital version I own is the original theatrical cut with a directors cut added. The director’s cut adds like a minute of footage, changes the transitions, and has a brief comic book prologue relating it to the Anabasis, upon which it is loosely based. There is also a “TV Cut” which adds like 10 minutes of footage. This is one of those things where I think the theatrical version is the best, and I’ll be basing my comparison on it. I understand what Hill was ‘going for’ with the director’s cut, but methinks it a bit too obvious– though it does weirdly tie back to the book.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a comment