Twenty-five years after its original theatrical release in 1979, “The Warriors” remains a cult classic. The plot is simple: all the gangs of New York declare a truce and gather in Central Park to hear gang leader Cyrus speak. When Cyrus is shot and the Warriors falsely blamed, they must fight their way back to Coney Island and freedom, led by their War Chief, Swan (Michael Beck). Along the way, they encounter a multitude of deliciously cheesy gangs, including the Baseball Furies (men in full jerseys with bats and clown makeup), the Lizzies (chicks with guns and knives) and the Orphans (B-list gangsters who never get invited to play with the big boys) before eventually making it home to have a showdown on the beach with Luther (David Patrick Kelly), the architect of their setup.

The cinematography is amazing, painting a gritty urban landscape with neon signs, flashing subway windows and an abandoned theme park. Layered onto this is a tense and eerie score punctuated with rock songs. The result keeps the tension and action alive until the very end.

The Ultimate Director’s Cut does little to change the original flick, other than add some stylistic comic book page transitions and a section in the beginning tying the plot into a story of Greek soldiers fighting their way out of the Persian army’s midst. What makes this DVD great is the features that provide context and history for the film. Along with a new introduction by director Walter Hill and the original theatrical trailer, four featurettes examine different aspects of the production.

In “The Beginning,” Hill talks about how the idea for the movie was conceived (it was based on a book by Sol Yurick) and how they rushed to finish filming before another movie (“The Wanderers”) based on the same book finished production.

“Battleground” goes behind the scenes to look at shooting and production, including difficulties with the Transit Authority to get permission to shoot in the subways of New York, where a large part of the film is based.

The third featurette, “The Way Home,” covers stunt and fight choreography as well as the origins of one of the most recognizable scenes in the movie—the unscrupulous Luther (Kelly) driving through Coney Island, clanking bottles together with his fingers and chanting “Warriors, come out and pla-aay.” As it turns out, the scene improvised on the spot after Walter Hill asked David Patrick Kelly to come up with a taunt for the Warriors.

The final featurette is the most interesting. “The Phenomenon” talks about the score and soundtrack and then goes on to talk about how the film was received in theaters, where gang violence caused many chains to stop showing the movie or add security. Hill and many of the main actors in the film talk about the film and the surprising impact it continues to have on their lives years later.

The Ultimate Director’s Cut is worth getting just to see the original movie, but all the extras are a nice bonus, too. This movie is gloriously campy, and while it was never meant to be taken seriously, somewhere along the line, “The Warriors” transformed itself into a story that still resonates with people today.

also this month:
Kolchak, the Night Stalker (Universal Studios Home Video, Oct. 4): Watch the original television show from 1974 starring Darren McGavin before you check out X-Files scribe Frank Spotnitz’s modern take on the rumpled vampire hunter.

ABBA, The Movie (Universal Music, Oct. 11): Admit it, you could sing your way through this thinly plotted movie-cum-tour video shot in 1977 during the height of ABBA’s popularity in Australia. Just shut up and buy it already, I won’t tell anyone.

Batman Begins (Warner Home Video, Oct 18): Throw out your VHS copies of the first four movies in this series and start with this DVD as your introduction to the Dark Knight. This is Batman the way he should be, sans bitchy partners and bat nipples.

American Gothic, the Complete Series (Universal Studios Home Video, Oct. 25): Deliciously dark and disturbing in a Twin Peaks kind of way, this series, conceived and produced by Shaun Cassidy (yes, the teen heartthrob) along with Sam Raimi, never got the attention it deserved, but is now available to replace your worn out taped-from-TV copies.