Can You Dig It: The Phenomenon of The Warriors (paperback)

ISBN  97816293380257 CAN YOU DIG ITWalter Hill’s The Warriors was not just a motion picture—it was a social phenomenon on every level.The tale of a Coney Island street gang who, framed for murder, have to make the perilous journey back to home turf across the terrain of rival crews out for revenge, it caused a sensation when it hit the theaters in early 1979. Despite a low budget, an absence of marquee names, and minimal promotion, it proceeded to lead the box office, devoured by an urban youth that had never before been represented non-judgmentally on screen. Within weeks, though, the glory was tarnished when deaths at and around screenings created an unparalleled controversy about imitation of on-screen violence. The Warriors never recovered commercial momentum. However, it never lost its critical kudos, partly deriving from its plot’s unlikely origin—courtesy of the 1965 source novel by Sol Yurick—in Greek classic Anabasis. It now enjoys cult-classic status. “Can you dig it?”—the ca