[Insert "come out to play" joke here.]
I just found out last week that the insanely talented Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame (along with In the Heights and the soundtracks for Moana, Vivo, and Encanto) has a concept album coming out next month (the one that starts tomorrow) based on The Warriors. I'm pretty stoked.
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| Check it out HERE |
As I mentioned recently, I've become a bit of a Playbill collector over the past few years, and my love of the transcendent musical Hamilton definitely played a role in that development. And The Warriors...so, I found it relatively late in life, interestingly through learning about its potential influence on beat 'em up video games - specifically Double Dragon and Renegade - that I really liked as a kid. But now, if you catch me on the right day, I'll probably tell you it's one of my favorite movies ever. It's just so freaking...I don't know, stylish? Beautiful? Slick? Cool? I feel like a lot of folks of a certain age and outlook just have to admit, whether or not we think it holds up as quality cinema, that it's just badass.
It looks like Miranda is taking some interesting creative approaches - like casting women for all of the Warriors (plus replacing the Lizzies with some dudes called the Bizzies) and anthropomorphizing the boroughs of NYC by giving them distinct voices (maybe...I'm just guessing based on the cast list). And the cast itself has some legends.
If you're interested in learning more about this most fortuitous combination of things I really dig, you can check out the album's website HERE. I assume there will eventually be a stage musical, but either way, this looks awesome.
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And for a nerd touch, here's the film's closest-thing-to-a-hero Swan statted out as I've been putting numbers to characters lately...
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| Image from HERE |
Swan
Warlord, the Warriors
Dexterity 3
Knowledge 2
Presence 4
Skills: Brawling +4, Courage +3, Streetwise +2, Knife +1
Goals: Survive; defend the Warriors
Quote: "When we get there, you stick close by, okay?"
The Warriors is great, and I do find it neat that it's a perfect computer game adaptation... only a decade before the computer games it adapts!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great way to put it. :) It even has "levels" and a plot that's more linear than a bunch of NES games!
DeleteI only paid attention recently to some of the details of the Warriors video game that came out (I think) 15+ years ago. In case you haven't seen it, it even has a mini-game that is an obvious tribute to Double Dragon...it's a belt-scroller that starts with the damsel in distress (I think it's Mercy...?) getting punched and carried off, then an overhead door opening up and the PC walking down to the street.
I never played it, but I'm aware of it. I think seeing the game in a magazine was what made me realise that all of those classic beat-em-ups were more or less adaptations of the film. It hadn't clicked until then.
DeleteGotcha. It really is an interesting connection; I can't think of a single other IP that fits the theme of those old games so perfectly. Previous to knowing anything about The Warriors, I would have thought of those beat 'em ups as sort of a combination of 70s NYC noir-ish stuff and...maybe the near-future gritty SF from around that era, The Road Warrior and Escape from New York and whatnot. But it's like the film and games collectively form their own genre...!
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