Far away from the neon sky

 

 

Somewhere out there on that horizon
Out beyond the neon lights
I know there must be somethin' better
but there's nowhere else in sight
It's survival in the city
When you live from day to day
City streets don't have much pity
When you're down, that's where you'll stay
In the city, oh, oh.
In the city

I was born here in the city
With my back against the wall
Nothing grows, and life ain't very pretty
No one's there to catch you when you fall
Somewhere out on that horizon
Faraway from the neon sky
I know there must be somethin' better
And I can't stay another night
In the city.

             "In The City"

               The Eagles

 

Ken was looking through our DVD's to see what we wanted to watch tonight. He said, "How about 'The Warriors'?" and I said "YEAH!"

We've laughed about this, because when I picked up this DVD for next to nothing (it's one of my favorites from the '70's) and I asked Ken if he liked this movie, he immediately did the "Warr-ee-yorrs...come out to play-ee-yay" thing with his fingers. (If you haven't seen the movie, I know you're lost, butif you have seen it, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!)

It was a total BLAST to watch this movie again. I don't think I've seen the entire thing since I saw it the very first time in the theater. Yeah, it's very cheesy, and the whole gang culture thing is disturbing. As a smalltown girl, seeing the depiction of city life in this movie was downright frightening--the subway...agghh!--but cheering for the underdog is the common denominator. The Warriors have to make their way through the city to get back to Coney Island, and on the way they encounter several other gangs, like The Furies, the guys who wear Yankees garb and carry baseball bats. A sad moment came when the "gang girl" and the Warriors encountered prom kids on the subway, and the gang girl looked at the prom girl...the gang girl touched her hair as if embarrassed...and Swan, the leader of the Warriors, took her hand and pulled it down, as in, "No, don't do that...you're better than that." Good stuff.

And if I can get a little deeper into what most would see as a very superficial movie, I was pleasantly surprised to watch this again and realize that it's got a little more going on than I thought. "The Warriors" is quite simply a modern version of "The Odyssey." No lie! A band of warriors, led by Swan, is trying to get back home, encountering many obstacles along the way. The slutty gang girl is the equivalent of Circe, and the girl gang called The Lizzies (and the stupid Warriors members didn't get it) is the Sirens! The Warriors must traverse the dangerous path back to their Coney Island home, just like Odysseus has to make his way home.

Sometimes you have to look for relevance and connections, but if you look, you will find it.

The closing credits of this movie includes my favorite Eagles song, "In The City." Some prefer "Desperado" and some prefer "Hotel California," but for some reason, "In The City" has alway moved me.

Tags: The Warriors, The Eagles