I Hate This Idea Because Some Classics Should Never Be Remade

 

I have a deep relationship with the Warriors. I remember sneaking into the Drive-In theatre to see it after my Mother forbid me from seeing it after hearing all the real life gang problems that came about when the movie was first screened at big city theatres. So years later when it appeared as the second show at the drive-in we all hoped she wouldn't notice and get away with finally seeing this forbidden film. It was better than I could have ever expected a  movie to be and still is one of my all time favorites. It's perfect the way it is and needs to stay pure. For that reason among many others I am against this HULU remake.

 

The Warriors is Walter Hill’s classic cult action movie about a gang framed for an assassination. They have to get across New York City to their home turf in one humid summer night, all of it scored to classic soul cuts delivered by the Chief from Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? It’s beloved by anybody who’s seen it, which makes any sort of a remake a tricky proposition. But the Russo Brothers are going to try, by expanding it into a series for Hulu.

Extending a two-hour movie to a TV series might seem risky, but they can probably go to the original source material for help. The Warriors is based on the Anabasis, a supposed history written by Greek soldier Xenophon about a group of mercenaries who wind up stranded in hostile territory after the man who hired them dies in battle and then have to march for the Black Sea, while fighting against the Persian army, angry locals, and starvation. It’s completely impossible to prove it ever happened, mind you, but it’s still one heck of a story.

The Russos likely won’t be directing the entire series. They’ve got an Avengers movie to direct and a whole bunch of movies they’re producing elsewhere, including a Thomas Crown Affair remake. And we’ll be curious to see how the movie’s exaggerated idea of gangs, which had the Warriors fighting everything from lesbians to mimes, makes the jump. We’ll likely see the series sometime next year.