The Warriors

Selected by Wardell Milan

Falsely accused for the assassination of New York’s most powerful ganglord during a citywide summit in the Bronx’s Van Cortlandt Park, Swan (Michael Beck) and his fellow Warriors now have to fight their way back, block by block and mano a mano, to the safe shores of their Coney Island turf.

The film’s knuckle-busting action choreography and its vision of NYC as a coliseum-like proving grounds for epic heroism, but its greatness lies in its attention to character, how it lets us see a crew of provincial Brooklynites gradually discovering they’re the toughest dudes in town.

Part of the Fraenkel Film Festival