The Wanderers

The year 1979 saw an epidemic of American street-gang films, including Phil Kaufman's hit period drama The Wanderers. Set in the Bronx in 1963, the film concerns the titular gang of Italian-American teens and their ongoing power struggle with the rival "Fordham Baldies." Richard Price, upon whose ...more

Philip Kaufman's screen adaptation of Richard Price's novel superbly captures the lives of a group of Brooklyn teenagers trying to seem tougher than they are, just as America is about to lose its innocence. While often lumped with The Warriors, Boulevard Nights, and the other street-gang films that hit the screen in 1979, The Wanderers doesn't deal much with territorial violence among emotionally disadvantaged youth. "The Wanderers" rarely confront violence more serious than a schoolyard ...more