The Warriors - Sol Yurick

...later went on to inspire the 1979 cult film classic of the same name.

The film concerns the fates of nine members of a Coney Island (New York City) gang named ‘The Warriors’ who are mistakenly blamed for the death of the leader of the city’s biggest gang at a huge truce meeting between the city’s underworld. They are forced to traverse the city at night, unarmed, with the sole objective of getting home safely whilst avoiding the pursuing ...
...to the book, but the differences between screen and page are almost endless.

=== THE NOVEL ===

Unlike the movie, the term ‘warrior’ is used in the book to describe a gang member, a soldier. In the movie this term was used to name the gang. But in the book, a completely different set of gangs appear. This is most likely since the movie was made 14 years after the book and due to the escalation in gang warfare and problems ... more

‘The Warriors’ is a 1965 book written by ‘Sol Yurick’ which later went on to inspire the 1979 cult film classic of the same name.

The film concerns the fates of nine members of a Coney Island (New York City) gang named ‘The Warriors’ who are mistakenly blamed for the death of the leader of the city’s biggest gang at a huge truce meeting between the city’s underworld. They are forced to traverse the city at night, unarmed, with the sole objective of getting home safely whilst avoiding the pursuing gangs and the roaming police. This is a similar premise to the book, but the differences between screen and page are almost endless.

THE NOVEL

Unlike the movie, the term ‘warrior’ is used in the book to describe a gang member, a soldier. In the movie this term was used to name the gang. But in the book, a completely different set of gangs appear. This is most likely since the movie was made 14 years after the book and due to the escalation in gang warfare and problems with gang activity, the story was brought up to date and varnished to give an appeal to cinema audiences. The gang members appear to be in their early twenties and most display a moral conscience and come across as typical anti-heroes. There are a fair few fight/chase scenes and the story ends up very different from that of the novel.

Yurick’s novel centres around ‘The Coney Island Dominators’ a gang described as between the ages of 14 and 18, much younger than in the movie, but all together a more realistic premise. They are of Latin and african-american ethnicities as oppose to the ‘native American’ theme portrayed in the film. The main theme of the book is family although this is a difficult notion to determine until later on in the story. Also, unlike the movie there are only seven ‘dominators’ mentioned in the book and the gang displays an altogether more realistic and believable behaviour that you would expect from a gang. As oppose to the squeaky-clean Warriors depicted in the big screen translation, the ‘Dominators’ have no qualms about attacking civilians or getting heavy handed (to say the least) with women. In my opinion, this gives the novel a little more credibility and realism although it can make it harder for some readers to then sympathise with the plights of the young hoodlums.

THE DOMINATORS

The Dominators are seven youngsters who structure their gang like a family. The leader is known as ‘Papa’ or ‘father’ with the next in command being ‘Uncle’ the third being ‘Older Brother’ and the remaining members are ‘Sons.’

PAPA ARNOLD: He is the gang’s leader and presumably one of the oldest members, a competent leader, sensible and assertive. There are a few similarities between Arnold and the leader of the ‘Warriors’ from the movie, Cleon. Both characters are removed from the story at the failed truce meeting; I will expand on this a little later. Arnold founded the Dominators and the gang survives by his two mottoes; ‘When family life stops, delinquency begins’ and ‘be a brother to him.’ The reasoning being that if the gang act as a family, they cannot become delinquents. Admittedly, a very twisted logic.

UNCLE HECTOR: Hector is the group’s second in command, a good fighter, decent negotiator and mostly, a reasonable young guy. He acquires leadership of the gang when they are separated from Papa Arnold early on. He is fairly competent in this position but nowhere near as rational and confident as Arnold.

LUNKFACE: A huge african-american brick wall. What he lacks in tact and intelligence he replaces with pure brute force. He is a menace to control and frequently contradicts and argues with the other members. He always wants a fight or a sordid liaison and is usually the reason why the Dominator’s end up in trouble. However, he is so handy to have around in a fight that these things are overlooked by the gang.

BIMBO: He is the gang’s advisor, quite level-headed. He wears the same uniform as the other Dominators, but also wars a large trenchcoat in which he keeps the gangs supply of alcohol and provisions.

DEWEY: Probably the most level-headed member of the gang but he displays a need to be part of the Dominators, something which becomes more evident as the novel progresses.

HINTON: He is the gang’s second youngest member. He is the artist, responsible for tagging areas with the Dominator’s insignia. As the book progresses, he becomes the central character. He is not a renowned fighter, but is described as having a tendency to ‘go psycho.’

THE JUNIOR: At only 14 years of age, he is the youngest Dominator. Seen as the mascot, he is protected by the others and they enjoy watching him fight other gang mascots. He frequently reads comic books which he takes everywhere with him.

THE STORY

There are three main similarities in the plot of the book and the film. Both gangs attend a truce meeting in ‘Van Cortland Park’ where the most prolific gang leader is killed; however the events in the park differ greatly between page and film. The next similarity is when both gang’s try to return home they are forced of a subway train due to a malicious fire set on the line and are forced to ‘parlay’ (a play on the French verb ‘parler’ – to talk) with another gang (a smaller one, not present at the meeting) for safe passage through their territory and finally, when the gangs reach ‘96th Street Subway Station’ they are forced to split into three parties to avoid the pursuing police. Aside from these instances, the novel takes a very different and usually more low-key approach. Also, like the movie, the gang’s are unarmed as per a truce agreement, save for 1 pistol each, wrapped, as a gift to the leader of the city’s biggest, most prolific gang.

In the movie, the gang are blamed for the death of ‘Cyrus’ the leader of the ‘Grammercy Riffs’ by the gang that actually killed him. As a result they are pursued by all the cities gang’s who are hoping for a reward. However, this is where the book greatly deviates. The gang leader in question is named ‘Ismael Rivera’ and he is the leader of the ‘Delancey Thrones.’ The book gives Ismael more of an introduction than Cyrus gets, and he is still shown as a young guy who is embroiled deeply in a gang culture. Contrary to the film, Ismael’s speech is in a darkened park, and the conference is so vast that his speech is relayed countless times throughout the ranks, into the darkness where his words are somewhat lost in translation on some of the gang members. In the movie, this same speech is shown rousing and well-received by all. However, Yurick chooses to have some people display protest and in the darkness, under a shaky peace agreement, the gangs begin to scuffle and the local police raid the park. Thinking this has been a set-up, many of the gang leaders pull out their ‘peace offering,’ a loaded handgun and fire at Ismael, who is hit three times, the third bullet shattering his sunglasses. This develops into a mass brawl between gangs and police but Papa Arnold is shown to have his ‘soldiers’ well disciplined and the gang do not break for escape until the opportunity is perfect, however, their composure is shattered minutes later when they are separated form Arnold and are forced to confront the dangers of this night without their leader.

Page 56: ‘... They passed a bunch of Ismael’s men standing around the body of their leader. They wanted to stop and look but Hector yelled at them to keep moving. Arnold in the rear should have known better, but he HAD to stop and look at Ismael’s face. One of Ismael’s men asked him what did he think he was looking at, and before Arnold could say anything he was surrounded and being pounded and down. Bimbo just ahead of Arnold did notice because of the noise; he was moving after the others faster now and they were into the black bush clumps and out of that terrible dazzle...’

When the gang realise they have lost their leader they initially panic but seem to come to terms with things since they are still an almost complete unit. But here is where they begin to get undisciplined. They initially try to call their youth worker to pick them up but a recurring theme of suspicion towards authorities and civilians leads them to try to get home using the subway. They are forced of the subway and into their first human contact since the disastrous meeting. It is here that the new dynamic of the gang rears its head and the impetuousness of what are in reality; a group of lawless teenagers becomes evident. They come across two Latino gang members and their attractive female companion and like the film, the new ‘father,’ Hector, appears to be making progress with the gang member in brokering a truce. However, his masculinity is challenged by the girl who calls him ‘chicken’ and demands a ‘pin’ from the Dominators. This is the gang insignia (A stolen Mercedes-Benz symbol with three stars welded onto it) and the gang outright refuse. They also refuse to remove their insignia and march off to the disdain if the three local gang affiliates. At the risk of divulging a little of the plot, I feel it is necessary to address what happens here.

They are followed by one gang member and the girl and they ambush the two pursuers, disarming the guy of his knife, they beat him a little and send him fleeing, but the girl who fancies herself as quite tough sticks with the gang. They soon accost a pedestrian just for looking at them and eventually end up stabbing the poor guy to death, each taking turns to sink the blade into him while the girl shrieks with approval. The lack of Papa Arnold’s diplomacy and sensibility ultimately proves to be the undoing of the gang’s discipline and soon after; they rape the ‘semi-willing’ girl and leave her before continuing on their journey home. This provides a stark contrast to the movie, where the ‘Warriors’ also encounter a female in similar circumstances and while they initially suggest they COULD do this to her, they eventually befriend her and take her with them. In the book, the Dominators are much more callous and selfish, probably more realistic in my opinion. This is the catalyst for many of the warriors ensuing problems as they foolish hang on to the knife they used to stab the innocent man.

ANALYSIS

The story continues much further and the gang are further tested and even test each other. They have what is almost an obsession with ‘manhood’ and are constantly trying to prove their dominance. They play games to see who can ‘pee’ the furthest onto the live train tracks or sticking their head out of the subway train when approaching a tunnel and playing ‘chicken.’ In essence they are innocuous and unnecessarily dangerous risks to take which prove very little in truth apart from a need to prove the machismo. They see themselves as men when they set out to the meeting and seek to prove is who is most ‘manly’ but there are many situations which present them self as the night progresses which show them to be the children they still really are. They seem lost when trapped in a crowd of adults coming back from the local racetrack and panic when lost in the crowd. They squabble over leadership after Arnold’s disappearance and are most evidently vulnerable when they are forced to split up into smaller groups. Young Hinton is forced into a subway tunnel, much like one of the Warriors from the movie and his solitude and isolation provides one of the books most intriguing chapters. Away from the world of gang conflicts and petty arguments, Hinton reflects on what it means to be in the gang, what his life is and what he wants it to be. Towards the final chapters he is shown to at times strike out on his own and he becomes the book’s strongest and most memorable character and easily one of the more likeable Dominators.

It is in Hinton’s story that the notion of family is addressed and his is the only family that are introduced in any detail or actually feature in the story. He lives a broken home life and initially, the Dominators are more of a family to him. However, his reflections in the solitude and darkness of the lonely subway tunnel allow him to rationalise his existence.

Page 149: ‘...The curve (of the subway track) was longer that it appeared; it unrolled slowly as he came along it. He kept turning around to look at the 96th Street station. He tripped, fell on his palms, got up and kept going. He felt alone in the darkness greater than any he had ever known before. It closed in more and more as he kept going...’

All throughout the story, the gang are portrayed as a unit, a family but this period where one member finds himself isolated in an unfamiliar place gives a true and reflective look at the situation which the film is almost completely devoid of. In writing, a person’s inner monologue can be conveyed much clearer than if it were a film. In the tunnel, on his own, Hinton experiences a huge range of emotions from worry, fear and pain, past uncertainty, fear, rage and satisfaction. This chapter was one I really appreciated and felt it was a very strong gambit which the book has over the movie. The Dominators experience varying fates towards the climax of the journey and most of the characters are sufficiently developed so that you, as the reader, do actually care to some extent whether they make it home or not.

CONCLUSION

Unlike the film, the story displays character’s who eventually progress to show individual vulnerabilities and it manages to craft believable human beings out of the young gang members. In the film however, partly due to the increased age of ‘The Warriors’ many of the gang members seem overly confident or competent in contrast to the teenagers portrayed in Yurick’s novel.

The youth of the central character’s make their plight all the more realistic and the way that cinema-pleasing brawls are omitted and replaced with the more accurate topics of cowardly assaults, thefts and attempted rapes makes the actions of the gang seem more plausible. In not seeking to endear each character to the reader, Yurick creates a family dynamic in the gang where as a unit it is easy to support them but as individuals, especially when they break into smaller parties, it becomes almost expected that you judge each character. Their age and instinctive reactions show that they are fearful inside, despite their bravado when together as a group. A more contemplative look at gang culture than any film provides, the youths are dissected and shown for what they really are at some points, children.
Different notions of ‘family’ are portrayed are what it means to be part of one seems to be an important question asked by the novel. The character, Hinton’s story is probably most interesting and insightful but it would not have nearly as much significance if it were not for the presence of his fellow Dominators throughout the story. The book also analyses what it means to ‘be a man’ and what is it to come of age. Comparing the common perceptions of this to actual reality.

Yurick has written competently, though without any extensive complexities in his vocabulary so I feel that the book could be read by most people all though it’s very graphic themes may ensure e that it is only suitable for an adult reader. You probably wouldn’t want your school aged child to read it for fear of misinterpretation of the book’s messages. At a fairly short 220 pages (in my copy anyway) this book can be read in a day with reasonable comfort and can be found online for a very fair price. My copy was about £6 from Amazon, which considering the limited number of copies available and the fact it is now 44 years old, is more than acceptable.
If you are a fan of the film, I would not expect a mirror of what you are used to in this book. Converse to the film, there is little actual violence as Yurick prefers tension to confrontation as a method of progressing the story. This gives the story a much less comic book feeling and more of a real vibe of struggle, brotherhood, poverty, family and delinquency. In my opinion a much more mature, if a little less intense journey. I feel it is best to separate the 1965 story from the 1979 cinema one and simply acknowledge the similarities.

‘The Warriors’ is an engaging read and as long as you are willing to explore a different angle and a slightly early time period of New York’s fictional gang world then I believe you will probably enjoy this book as I did. At times it can be quite graphic and admittedly, a couple of the chapters do move fairly slowly, but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will no doubt be holding onto my copy to read again someday.
 

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