In the late 70's and early 80's it seemed that movies involving street gangs were kinda in. Walter Hill's The Warriors raked in box office cash (while inciting riots), The Outsiders had everybody talking, and Boulevard Nights was quite popular as well. Something about that us vs. them mentality of these films must have tapped into America's zeitgeist at the time. I myself was too young to tie anything together in that regard.
And then there was The Wanderers.
What can I say about Philip Kaufman's take on Richard Price's novel? A lot. As a kid I liked it for reasons that it really doesn't hold up for now. The "tough talking" kids battling over territory, the wise-crack humor, the street battles? As a 10 year old, I guess these things may seem attractive, but I feel almost embarrassed at the fact that these plot points (particularly in this film) were what drew me to it. Those elements now seem juvenile. They aren't so cool anymore. Not even close.
In reality, what's good about the film now differs greatly.
Other films, (American Graffiti and Grease, in particular) show a strange similarity with The Wanderers regarding the late 50's and early 60's. The commonality is these hyperkinetic, fast-talking, annoying teenagers with what seem to be boundless energy and limitless stupidity. Due to these common denominators, I'm led to believe people that acted like that were somehow the era's norm. That shit would have driven me insane. I may have been forced to deal Ritalin on the street corner to quell the loudness of my schoolmates. Of course these films' young Category 5 morons hung around brutish sleepy-eyed Lords of Flatbush look-a-likes that pretended to have a grip on things, but were really just as dumb (and scared) as the hang-abouts running circles around them.
The Wanderers is a bizarre film indeed. It takes place in1963 New York, and in this particular neighborhood all of the kids appear to be members of different gangs as opposed to cliques, and none of them get along. Besides the titular gang whose members are all of Italian descent, there's the bizarre Baldies, the all-Asian Wongs, and a final gang comprised of the neighborhood's African American representatives, the Del Bombers. It is a bit of a cartoonish separation of sorts, but by films end, there seems to be a peace brought about by familiarity that actually works despite the insanity.
This stylistic exclamation of visual differences (shown in even-more neon exaggeration in The Warriors) was one of the things that drew me to it as a kid. Did I want to be in a comic book gang or something? God, I hope not.
There's one more gang that I will refer to in a separate paragraph. When these guys, known as The DuckyBoys, are on screen the film takes a creepy, if not disturbing tone. This gang is huge, and seems to be comprised of child molesters in training. They take things to a level the rest of the "kids" in this film are hesitant to go to, and for good reason. That level is awful, violent, and laced with sadism. The DuckyBoys send out an aura of cult-like violence that seems to cast them in almost a boogeyman light for the rest of the gangs in the film. They are indeed frightening.
Oddly, I don't really remember the DuckyBoys from the Spectrum days. It was only in a recent re-watching that I was taken aback by these DuckyBoy sequences and found them to be the most striking of the film.
Much of the dialogue, especially early on in the film is racist, vile, and stupid, much like most of the principals. Sadly, it is probably representative of the era and the location, and I'm sure the filmmakers are aware of this. It doesn't come across as a message, but a recording. Make no mistake, The Wanderers are young, dumb, and lack the ability to function as human beings. Their development of that much-needed quality, a degree of maturity, is what the movie is about. In my recent viewing, I wondered what the hell I ever saw in most of these low-lifes as an adolescent. I really did.
The performances in this movie are excellent by all involved. The cast was comprised mostly of then-unknowns, but Kaufman picked the right crew to lead this film. Ken Wahl is excellent in his film debut as the leader of The Wanderers. He was a good-looking youngster with screen presence and toughness, but had no trouble conveying his character being in over his head. Also outstanding is a young actor named Tony Ganios as Perry, a quiet but pivotal character. His performance is subtle, often intimidating, and vulnerable. Perry quietly often proves to be more of a leader than Wahl's Richie, but never tries to subvert The Wanderers.
There's really not a sour note in any of the acting in the film. Early on, the energy level of a few characters make it difficult to concentrate, but it comes together nicely if you can get through the early maelstrom twisting across the screen. When I was a ten year old, I found myself liking Ken Wahl's character a lot. 37 years later, it was Ganios' Perry that struck me as the most interesting and satisfying of the film.
The conflicts, battles, and spastic energy of the film and its characters is what kept me hooked multiple times as a youngster. All that seems superfluous now, as the The Wanderers sudden growing realization that the world is shifting becomes something I didn't notice back then, but gives the movie its current existing power. Their world is changing hard, violently, and without patience. It will not wait for The Wanderers, and it's both beautiful, sad, and often powerful to see how all the different members of the gang face that knowledge.
It's amazing how times changed for me too. Many years ago, (after an older sister almost blocked my viewing due to a just-after-the-Orion Pictures-production-logo interlude between Wahl's Richie and his girl) I absorbed a truly strange, kinetic, sometimes confusing, and often violent film and really dug The Wanderers a lot.
I do now, too. Just for completely different reasons.
No comments:
Post a Comment