MovieChat Forums > The Warriors (1979) Discussion > 'This is what we fought all night to get...

'This is what we fought all night to get back to?'

posted 9 years ago by cbfan41
8 replies | jump to latest

I been watching the scene a lot lately where the Warriors finally make it back to Coney Inland and step off the subway. After Swan gives Marcy the prom corsage, he looks around at Coney Inland and dawn muttering those lines. I been stuck on that for some reason a lot and for some odd reason I been equating it to our returning military personnel. I cannot help but think some feel that way. They fought so long and so hard to get back home and for what? A country in utter chaos with bozos at the helm and people becoming bigger a-holes by the day. I actually played it for a friend of mine who did a few tours overseas and he broke down crying saying that he is exactly how he felt. That he cannot even recognize the country anymore and to him (not his life or family or even town) the country looks as bad and rundown as Coney Inland circa 1979. He even admitted that if it wasn't for his wife and children, he be like Swan. He just take off for a different country.

I wonder if other veterans or people in general feel that way? I know I feel like my years working for the government where a total waste considering how crappy things got after I left. I sacrifice several years of my life putting my country ahead of many things and for what? Our government is a total crapfest which only seems to get worse.

Thoughts?

[–] romefan123 9 years ago

Wow, that is a great great post. You really hit on something that is a reverb, dude, excellent commentary. Further evidence that The Warriors is far deeper than we even know.

Could this be a connection to Vietnam War vets, coming back...maybe...we can see that now. Did Sol actually try to do that while writing the book? Not sure on that...

...but it's interesting to think on... :)

"You can just stand there and let him kick your ass!" Karate Kid III

[–] adresher-1 9 years ago

I am a native New Yorker, born and raised and still reside in NYC. I have seen the transition from a crime infested hell hole and a city with only a handful of decent neighborhoods to a place where people are debating what is going to be the next hot neighborhood.

When this film came out both NYC and America was a mess. Coney Island was a place you only visited during the day. You went to the aquarium, Astroland, Nathans and Gargiulo's and left before it got dark. When I was 9 there was a school trip to Coney Island and many parents were worried.

I can totally understand Swan's thoughts when he returned to Coney Island. The neighborhood was a war zone in the late 70s. They battled their way home that night and their reward was they got to continue to represent a crime infested and crumbling neighborhood.

While I cannot speak for our military, I agree they are coming back to a country that is a mess right now. Despite what the liberal media says on TV, the job situation is bleak with a record number of Americans not in the work force since they have given up looking for a job. I work in finance and sure the banks are making money, but people continue to get laid off left and right. It used to be a wide pyramid structure, and it has become more and more narrow. The area that has been doing the most hiring is compliance but those jobs do not pay remotely what you could once make on a trading desk.

[–] mplo (2372) 7 years ago

My grandparents lived in Brooklyn's Prospect Park West, directly across the street from Prospect Park, up through most of the 1950's (They moved to Tucson, AZ in 1959.), and my parents, my sister and I would all take the 4-5 hour drive down to Brooklyn, NY, to visit them a lot, and they'd come to visit us, as well. I was a child of the 1950's, and I remember my grandparents taking me, my sister and my 2nd cousin to Coney Island first thing in the morning. We'd spend the whole day there, going on the rides, and everything. It was fun.

Beginning in the 1960's, however, Coney Island began to go downhill, and the area developed a "nobody nice goes there anymore" kind of a reputation. From what I understand, however, Coney Island's up and coming again, right now.

[–] ebettman-1 8 years ago

YES!!...When watching this Movie I am ALWAYS Struck by that Line. Coney Island has been a Hole for awhile. They have (or HAD?) A LOT of those "Big Block" Tower Housing Projects. Kids who live there get Decapitated from doing "Elevator Surfing."

Coney Island is ALSO featured in "Requiem for a Dream" which was filmed Years Later (though the Book is Old.)

My Late Father and Me went to Coney Island to get furniture for my Crib in Bay Ridge in 1989 when I lived there for a year. He asked to see a Lamp (this was on the Boardwalk.) The Old Italian...

"I take down the lamp and you know BUY...I have to put it back up there again!"

My Dad: "GOOD BYE!"

and we both stomped out.

[–] Malamute26 8 years ago

The soldiers in the ROman army were gone for years and couldn't believe what their home had turned into once they got back

[–] PoppyTransfusion 8 years ago

I don't think this need apply to a military environment only. I thought it was a great line and all the scenes and photography of the beach were amazing. Sad line. Can't decide if Swan and Mercy will take off or they end up married, with 5 kids, her belly dragging and him drinking. Could go either way.

Ever tried, ever failed?
No matter.
Try again, fail again.
Fail better.

[–] mplo (2372) 7 years ago

It's possible that Swan and Mercy were speculating and hoping that something that they liked better would come along, but it never did.

[–] mplo (2372) 7 years ago

What Swan really meant when he said "This is what we fought all night to get back to?" is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.