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Wanderers, The
Warner Bros. // R // September 3, 2002
List Price: $19.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
This is the story of the Wanderers, an Italian gang from the Bronx, New York back in the early 60's. Boys growing into men is the focus, and with families usually being distant and abusive, these boys are all each other had.
Richie, the gang leader played by Keh Wahl, is courting the daughter of a mobster but has an eye for Nina (played by Karen Allen of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). Joey (played by John Freidrich) builds a special friendship with Perry (Tony Ganios), the local muscle and Wanderer newcomer who has just moved to the neighborhood. Joey and Perry find out they are neighbors living right across the hall from each other. Perry notices Joeys abusive father and becomes a sort of big-brother protector for him. This is rather heart-warming and even culminates in a confrontation of Perry with Joeys father in the end.
The idea that a kid goes outside the home to find love and acceptance when the home doesn't offer this is a very interesting one and I wanted to see more of this. Unfortunately we only see a very few slices of the parental influence on the gang members. The attention is paid primarily on the relationships within the gang and with other gangs, but even these are not very well developed. There are some powerful bits and pieces in this film that really hit pretty hard, but they seem to go nowhere. In any coming-of-age picture its nice to see how the main characters are maturing or growing up in the process of telling the story, but I just didnt see very much of this happening.
Character development is good and most of the cast does a nice job at creating a variety of personalities to relate to, I just would have liked to see a bit more interelating amongst them beyond simplistic every day exchanges.
In 1963, I wasnt even born yet so my view on this film is very different than someone who grew up in this time period. I guess this could be considered a teen flick for the 60's era with a hard edge to it. I wanted to see more of the relationships of the families. The movie was sort of a montage of different experiences and stories woven together.
Soundtrack very similar in feel to American Graffiti - not surprising considering they were made around the same time.
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The colors are good but a bit muted and the picture is a bit soft - this is probably intentional or was a consequence of the film age. Its a very average looking transfer
AUDIO: Quality is fine, but is only a mono channel Dolby Digital track. English and French subtitles are included.
MENUS: The menu designs are static and simple but easy to navigate.
BONUS MATERIALS: Positively none.
Final Thought: The Wanderers does a nice job showing us how gangs related to each other in the 60's, and has some nice characters, but I think the success of this film depends on a narrowly focused group of people.
Richie, the gang leader played by Keh Wahl, is courting the daughter of a mobster but has an eye for Nina (played by Karen Allen of "Raiders of the Lost Ark"). Joey (played by John Freidrich) builds a special friendship with Perry (Tony Ganios), the local muscle and Wanderer newcomer who has just moved to the neighborhood. Joey and Perry find out they are neighbors living right across the hall from each other. Perry notices Joeys abusive father and becomes a sort of big-brother protector for him. This is rather heart-warming and even culminates in a confrontation of Perry with Joeys father in the end.
The idea that a kid goes outside the home to find love and acceptance when the home doesn't offer this is a very interesting one and I wanted to see more of this. Unfortunately we only see a very few slices of the parental influence on the gang members. The attention is paid primarily on the relationships within the gang and with other gangs, but even these are not very well developed. There are some powerful bits and pieces in this film that really hit pretty hard, but they seem to go nowhere. In any coming-of-age picture its nice to see how the main characters are maturing or growing up in the process of telling the story, but I just didnt see very much of this happening.
Character development is good and most of the cast does a nice job at creating a variety of personalities to relate to, I just would have liked to see a bit more interelating amongst them beyond simplistic every day exchanges.
In 1963, I wasnt even born yet so my view on this film is very different than someone who grew up in this time period. I guess this could be considered a teen flick for the 60's era with a hard edge to it. I wanted to see more of the relationships of the families. The movie was sort of a montage of different experiences and stories woven together.
Soundtrack very similar in feel to American Graffiti - not surprising considering they were made around the same time.
VIDEO: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. The colors are good but a bit muted and the picture is a bit soft - this is probably intentional or was a consequence of the film age. Its a very average looking transfer
AUDIO: Quality is fine, but is only a mono channel Dolby Digital track. English and French subtitles are included.
MENUS: The menu designs are static and simple but easy to navigate.
BONUS MATERIALS: Positively none.
Final Thought: The Wanderers does a nice job showing us how gangs related to each other in the 60's, and has some nice characters, but I think the success of this film depends on a narrowly focused group of people.
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