Armies of the Night: The Warriors and Its Legacy

From the New York City Subway to Coney Island—uncover the gritty legacy of The Warriors, the cult classic that stormed the streets—and shaped mainstream culture—since 1979!

The Warriors opened to scathing reviews, big box office, and major controversy. Walter Hill’s stylized tale of gang warfare wasn’t just another action movie—it rewrote the rules of the genre. Vilified and celebrated in equal measure, it rose above its notoriety to become a cult phenomenon. Today, it stands as an influential classic, spawning cross-media spinoffs and offering a vivid snapshot of late-1970s New York City.

The history of The Warriors is a complex, sometimes tumultuous one. Armies of the Night: The Warriors and Its Legacy tracks the movie’s long journey, beginning with its origins as a groundbreaking Sol Yurick novel, revealing the many changes it underwent from book to script to screen, recounting a turbulent production involving real gang encounters and a lead actor dropped mid-shoot, through to a detailed chronicle of the controversy The Warriors sparked. How did the film overcome the kind of obstacles only an all-nights NYC shoot could throw in its path? And how did a movie that does not actually contain much graphic violence ignite such a firestorm of outrage?

Authors Michael Gingold (Fangoria, Ad Nauseam) and Chris Poggiali (These Fists Break Bricks, Temple of Schlock) answer those questions and many more via exclusive interviews with cast and crew, a wealth of vintage reportage and dozens of photos and promotional images. It’s a story as unique and dramatic as The Warriors itself.

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