THE WARRIORS is most notably a pulp film. Despite it’s huge cult following and the initial reaction to the film (which caused rival gangs to see the film and then fight at the theater), it’s the fact that this cheap film, based on someone else’s work, was supposed to be an exploitation film with graphic violence and gang members as the lead protagonists that truly make this a part of pulp cinema.

THE WARRIORS, written by Walter Hill has got about as much pulp as one film can stand. First off, the film had a low budget. Almost all unknown actors were cast, and much of the filming was done on location. The crew even went as far as hiring real gangs to protect their equipment (for a small fee of 500 dollars). Sometimes, they even had to let gangs have cameos for being in their territory. In general, it was Guerilla filmmaking at it’s finest.

The story, although quite compelling, was adapted by Hill from the novel by Sol Yurick, which in turn was based on Xenophon's The Anabasis. Most pulp films are adapted, and this is no exception. Although Sol Yurick is credited with the novel, more of the film is based on Anabasis than the novel. Many have also compared the film to Homer’s The Odyssey.

The film also deals with exploitation; it basically exploits every race and both genders. And often times this exploitation is done during times of gratuitous violence. And although the film is very plot driven, it must be noted that the plot was formed around the violence and not the other way around. This film was first and foremost a gruesome story about gangs before it was about one gang’s struggle to get back to their turf.

Also, all the characters are gang members. Whether they’re the protagonists or the antagonists, they’re still all gang members. This makes it just a little hard for an audience to identify with them, at least in the sense of what is right and wrong. Most pulp films will have characters whose morals are in question, and this film is a great example of that. Throughout the entire script, they’re running from the cops and gangs and trashing places, they don’t care about society at all. But that’s not the point, at no point in the film do the protagonists get into a moral situation, and so it doesn’t really matter what their morals are.

THE WARRIORS is a very rare kind of pulp cinema. It was cheap, it stole source material, it exploits everyone, is brutally violent, and all of the protagonists you’d want in jail if you ever crossed paths with them, yet the film was and still is very successful and popular. It’s a film that gains more and more fans through late night cable premiers than anything, which can’t be said for all films in this genre.