Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Tony Scott Commits a Crime!

I am as big a fan of Tony Scott as the next guy. Most of his films, with the exception of Days of Thunder force the wandering remote to stop in place and the films compel me to sit my buttocks in front of the TV. But now Tony Scott is attacking the very fiber of reality, those things that I value most. That is right...Tony Scott is remaking The Warriors. For those of you who don't know, The Warriors is a 1979 Walter Hill masterpiece. It combines the late 70's fear of riot in New York (post "Summer of Sam" 1977) with Xenophon's Anabasis (or Ten Thousand). So here we have the journey of a small band of warriors roaming through hostile territory after the death of a charismatic leader. In the one case, Greeks in Persia (The Anabasis) and in the other a gang framed with the murder of a gang leader trying to make it back to Coney Island. The film is a masterpiece of '70s style filmaking. As odd as the description of the film sounds, and as over the top as some of the acting is, this film works on many levels.

Those of you who are Escape from New York fans will really appreciate this film. It pre-dates the Carpenter film by two years and Escape seems like a natural sequel to some of the action/tensions in this film.

Can you dig it?!

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