Can you dig it? The director of The Warriors is back

With Scarface on the verge of its Blu-Ray release, many have said we have the hip-hop community to thank for keeping the film alive for so many years. 



We also have the hip-hop community to thank for keeping The Warriors alive as well. Shaquille O Neal quoted one of the most well known lines from the film, “Can you dig it?!” when the Lakers won, and over thirty years after its release, The Warriors is still one of the best action films of the seventies.

Walter Hill, the director of The Warriors, is a great action director, and even by today’s standards, he keeps the fight choreography and the pacing of the film lean and mean.

The story is based on Greek mythology, and David Holden, who edited the film, says, “In my opinion, everything that appeals to Walter has certain elements of Greek drama, that character is defined through action. What you do in a crisis defines who you are, and that’s the kind of script Walter likes.

“The Warriors is like one of the old war movies where you have one of every nationality walking in Italy under the hot sun fighting, except here you had a scraggly bunch of guys who gain their chops during the movie and learn to be heroes.”

If you’re not familiar with Hill’s filmography, he wrote the Sam Peckinpah classic The Getaway, wrote and directed one of Charles Bronson’s best films Hard Times, was one of the producers of Alien and did some uncredited work on the script, wrote and directed the under-rated ’70’s gem The Driver, and also helmed The Long Riders, Southern Comfort, Crossroads (another under-rated gem), and more.

Some years back I was pleased to see him making a real Walter Hill movie again with Undisputed, and was also very disappointed it did no business.

Now Hill is back again with Bullet to the Head, which is due for release next year. Bullet is an adaptation of a graphic novel starring Sylvester Stallone, where a cop and a hit man who want the same bad guy who killed their partners, and they join forces to do so.

This is very much Walter Hill territory, and it could be a hell of a vehicle for the tight, lean action sequences he’s known for. He’s also never made a movie with Stallone before, and it could be a good combination if all the right elements are in place. In short, here’s hoping with Bullet to the Head, Walter Hill can once again deliver a classic Walter Hill movie.