Tagarchief: FilmDungeon

The Warriors

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld


‘Warriors! Come out to play!’

Director: Walter Hill
Written by: David Shaber, Walter Hill
Cast: Michael Beck, James Remar, Dorsey Wright, David Patrick Kelly

Year / Country: 1979, USA
Running Time: 89 mins.

Under the glow of neon lights, a bloody war takes place within New York’s underworld. The armies of the night are 100.000 heads strong, five times bigger than the entire police force. But instead of taking over the city, they are fighting each other. Cyrus, leader of major gang ‘The Riffs’, wants to unite the gangs and calls for a meeting. Nine representatives of each gang come to listen to Cyrus’ takeover plans.

But it is not meant to be. The insane leader of a small gang called the Rogues blows Cyrus away. ‘For no reason. He just likes doing things like that.’ Another small group called the Warriors get wrongfully accused of the attack and have to run for their lives. It is going to be a dark, long night riddled in fear. Not only do they get the police on their case, 100.000 bloodthirsty gang members are looking for them as well. Will all the Warriors make it back to their home base in Coney Island?

Based on the novel by Sol Yurick, Walter Hill has delivered an action film that shows a subculture involved in a gang war around Coney Island. The Warriors have to fight for life or death within an immense asphalt jungle. Only loyalty in the group can lead them to survival. But this is easier said than done. After all in any group, like in a bunch of chimps, leadership conflicts arise. So besides having to deal with gangs and police, they also have to overcome internal problems.

Can we dig it? Yes, we can. The Warriors is a cult classic. The minimalist plot works to the film’s advantage, because the focus lies on art-direction and creating tension, two elements that are executed extremely well. All the gangs look amazing. So does their environment. The tension comes mainly from the fight- and chase scenes, in which the Warriors make one narrow escape after another.

For fact fans, here are the names of all the major gangs; The Baseball Furies, The Blackjacks, The Boppers, The Electric Eliminators, The Fire Tasters, The High Hats, The Jones Street Boys, The Lizzies, The Moon Runners, The Orphans, The Punks, The Riffs, The Roques, The Saracens, The Satan’s Mothers, The Savage Huns, The Turnball AC’s, The Van Courtland Rangers, The Warriors, The Zodiacs.

Rating:

Biography: Walter Hill (1942, California) has been an active member of the Hollywood community since 1967 when he became a 2nd assistant director. Ever since, he has produced, written and directed a significant number of movies. He once said in an interview that he considers all the films that he directed as westerns. If you look closely, you can see western touches, such as revolvers, Winchester rifles and cowboy hats in all of his work. Hill frequently works with character actors James Remar, David Patrick Kelly, Brion James and Ed O’Ross.

Filmography (a selection): Hard Times (1975), The Driver (1978), The Warriors (1979), The Long Riders (1980), Southern Comfort (1981), 48 Hrs. (1982), Streets of Fire (1984), Brewster’s Millions (1985), Crossroads (1986), Extreme Prejudice (1987), Red Heat (1988), Johnny Handsome (1989), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Tales from the Crypt (1989-91, TV-episodes), Trespass (1992), Geronimo: An American Legend (1993), Wild Bill (1995), Last Man Standing (1995), Deadwood (2004, TV-episode), Broken Trail (2006, TV), Dead for a Dollar (2022)

Scarface (1932)

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

Directed by:
Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson

Written by:
Armitage Trail, Ben Hecht, Seton I. Miller

Cast:
Paul Muni (Tony), Ann Dvorak (Cesca), Karen Morley (Poppy), Osgood Perkins (Lovo), C. Henry Gordon (Guarino), George Raft (Rinaldo), Vince Barnett (Angelo), Boris Karloff (Gaffney), Purnell Pratt (Publisher), Tully Marshall (Managing Editor)

The original Scarface opens with a challenge — literally. The very first words on screen declare: “This picture is an indictment of gang rule in America. What are YOU going to do about it?” I can’t think of another film that confronts its audience so directly. It sets the tone for what’s to come: bold, brash, and unafraid to stir things up.

The story kicks off when Louis Costillo, the last of the old-school gang leaders, is gunned down. With him out of the way, Chicago is up for grabs. Enter Tony Camonte — a ruthless, trigger-happy Italian thug with big ambitions. He works for Johnny Lovo, a mob boss running the city’s bootlegging operations, but Tony clearly has bigger plans.

Tony’s greatest strength is his fearlessness. His greatest weakness? He’s reckless to the point of stupidity. At one point, he openly tells an underling — someone he barely knows — that he plans to kill Lovo and take over. Still, Tony lives by his own brutal code: “Do it first. Do it yourself. And keep doing it.” And for a while, that philosophy takes him far.

It’s no secret that Tony Camonte is a thinly veiled version of Al Capone — the real-life ‘Scarface’. The film even recreates the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, among other bloody moments from Capone’s reign. Paul Muni, who plays Tony, throws himself into the role with raw intensity. At times, maybe too much intensity. His exaggerated Italian accent borders on parody today — but to be fair, that larger-than-life acting style was very much in fashion back then.

Watching Scarface for the first time, I was struck by how much it echoes Brian De Palma’s 1983 version — the one I grew up with. Tony’s obsessive, almost incestuous protectiveness over his sister, the iconic ‘The World is Yours’ sign, and of course, his violent downfall in a hail of bullets — it’s all here. The DNA of De Palma’s Scarface runs straight back to Howard Hawks’ original.

But what really stood out to me on my recent rewatch was just how groundbreaking the action scenes are. The machine gun shootouts — stark, brutal, and filmed in gritty black and white — feel years ahead of their time. There’s a raw energy to them that still hits hard, even nearly a century later. This Scarface might not have the swagger of Al Pacino’s Tony Montana, but it’s every bit as bold, violent, and unforgettable.

Rating:

Quote:
TONY CAMONTE: “Hey, Cesca, you and me, huh? We’ll show them. We’ll lick them all, the North Side, the South Side! We’ll lick the whole world!”

Trivia:
Like many of the early gangster movies, real machine gun fire is used to create the bullet damage in walls, including scenes with main characters ducking gunfire.

Dungeon Classics #38: Foxy Brown

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Foxy Brown (1974, USA)

Director: Jack Hill
Cast: Pam Grier, Antonio Fargas, Peter Brown
Running Time: 92 mins.

After the success of Coffy (1973), one of the defining films of the Blaxploitation era, director Jack Hill reunited with Pam Grier for Foxy Brown – a spiritual sequel that cranks up the style, violence, and attitude even further. Grier stars as Foxy Brown, a bold and beautiful woman who takes justice into her own hands after her undercover-cop boyfriend is betrayed and murdered. The snitch? Her own brother Link (Antonio Fargas), a small-time hustler desperate to pay off his debts to a ruthless drug syndicate led by the cold-blooded Miss Katherine Wall. Determined to take down the criminals who destroyed her life, Foxy infiltrates their front – a high-end modeling agency that’s really a cover for prostitution and drug trafficking. Undercover as the seductive ‘Misty Cotton’, she soon finds herself captured, drugged, and brutalized on a remote farm. But Foxy is far from finished. Escaping captivity, she joins forces with a militant Black community group to unleash righteous, bloody revenge on her enemies. The acting in Foxy Brown may not always aim for subtlety, but that’s hardly the point. What it delivers in spades is raw, unfiltered exploitation energy: flashy ’70s fashion, a killer soul-funk soundtrack, outrageous violence, razor-sharp one-liners, and some jaw-dropping set pieces – including a wild brawl in a lesbian bar where Foxy famously warns, “I got a black belt in bar stools!” Like many films of its kind, Foxy Brown is packed with gritty, shocking, and often deeply problematic content — misogyny, racism, drug abuse, and sadistic violence – but it’s also a defiant celebration of Black power, female strength, and street-level justice. By the end, Foxy ensures the villains get exactly what they deserve – and in true exploitation fashion, revenge has never tasted sweeter.

Dungeon Classics #37: Coffy

Posted on by Jeppe Kleijngeld

FilmDungeon’s Chief Editor JK sorts through the Dungeon’s DVD-collection to look for old cult favorites….

Coffy (1973, USA)

Director: Jack Hill
Cast: Pam Grier, Booker Bradshaw, Robert DoQui
Running Time: 90 mins.

‘Coffy is the color of your skin’, sings Denise Bridgewater in the opening theme of Coffy – a blaxploitation classic starring Pam Grier and one of Quentin Tarantino’s all-time favorite films. From the moment the stylish opening credits roll, it’s clear this movie is something special. Grier plays Flower Child ‘Coffy’ Coffin, a nurse whose sister’s life is shattered by heroin addiction. Fueled by rage, she sets out on a ruthless mission of revenge. Disguising herself as a drug-addicted prostitute, she lures street-level pushers into a trap – before blowing their brains out. But she doesn’t stop there. Determined to take down the real power players, she goes after the slick pimp and drug dealer King George, as well as the dangerous mob boss Vitroni. Directed by Jack Hill – an early collaborator of Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola before cementing his legacy as the king of blaxploitation – Coffy delivers everything the genre is known for: gritty action, bloody vigilante justice, and plenty of nudity, not least from Grier herself. While her acting faced some criticism at the time, her sheer star power is undeniable. She owns this film, elevating it beyond mere exploitation and securing its place in movie history as an absolute cult classic.