The Wanderers (1979)

Thanks for the memories!

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the best movies, watched it on Youtube then came looking for it and instantly attached to the characters like Richie, Joey and Turkey tho one thing i feel disturbed was Turkey's joining the Baldies and getting himself killed by The Mysterious Ducky Boy gang, nonetheless the movie was entertaining and capture the feels of the era is changing with the 50s ending and 60s is coming and the boys realize they're no longer a teen and can't be street gang forever, Richie must face the life of teen father's, Joey escape from his psycho dad with Perry, overall the movies is classic and yes i'm a true Wanderers fans heck i even own the jacket

I have watched this movie at least 50 times. It is my all time favorite movie. I just mailed my DVD copy (I have VHS also)last week to friends in Santa Barbara. I spoke to them this afternoon and they told me they loved it. My friends wife adores Ken Wahl. When The Wanderers was first released I went to every movie house and Drive-In it was playing at and took a different friend each time. The only person that didn't like this movie was my wife at the time. I even have the soundtrack on 8-track tape. A few songs in the movie were not on the released soundtrack, ie, I Love You by the Volumes. I have also read the book written by Richard Price who appears in the movie as one of the bowling sharks, the one with the mustache. The book is a very good read but does not follow very close to the movie.

I was delightfully surprised with this film. I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but I watched it after it was mentioned by "The Warriors" director Walter Hill because he had some worries that his film and The Wanderers would be coming into theaters around the same time, and he described them as two street-gang movies competing for box office sales. As much as the seniors in this movie had a "gang," the two movies were far different from each other, I feel.The Wanderers is a strange movie. At moments, intensely serious fighting and interpersonal problems exist amongst these teens in the community, and then in other scenes, the moments couldn't have been lighter (ie. Playing strip poker with a couple of the girls at a party). It reminded me more of "Porky's" and the relationships between characters in that film. The cast was an excellent ensemble, and even though most of them went on to other acting work, I'm surprised I haven't seen them in more roles.Watching the movie now is a little difficult due to political correctness and the way the movie tried to cut the racial tension with a knife. The movie has real guts by laying it out there for the audience to get uncomfortable by. The truly surreal moments involve a whole different gang that shows up a few different times during the movie; they don't seem to resemble a different neighborhood and its residents but more like zombies, and it was very difficult to take them seriously without understanding their true intentions and characters. In contrast, I really enjoyed The Baldies, the neighborhood skinhead gang that didn't seem to take life too seriously, which differentiates itself between the skinhead stereotype of white supremacists which most skinheads get labeled as.Overall, I really want to buy this movie after watching it. It reminds me of a movie that tried to get remade in the same style, "Dueces Wild." The characters were playful yet had real problems. The music is classic 60's tunes from the era, with a handful of originally scored pieces for the surreal fighting scenes. I feel that its good enough for a few more watches, but there are some odd choices for included scenes that I didn't feel fit the movie too well. Definitely check it out if you like gang movies like The Outsiders or The Warriors.

I first saw this movie at a drive in theater when I was in college back in the late 1970's.I liked it but didn't think much about it for a long time. Recently I caught it again and realized what a thoroughly good movie it was.Never mind the setting or time period. If you ever felt any teen-age angst, or if you ever felt a part of anything bigger than you, this is a movie that you can relate to.The soundtrack is good if you like early 1960's music. But to me this was incidental.Powerful performances propel this movie, although the ending is a bit strange. All of the acting is A-1 in my book.