I only remember seeing some parts of The Wanderers when it was on HBO around 1980, I think. By today’s standards, it would be a PG-13 movie due to the violence. According to its history, the movie tanked upon release but it gained a cult following in Europe and I could see people like me having fuzzy memories via cable. I’m really surprised the film was ever made because people’s nostalgia for all things Fifties had waned, thanks mostly to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.
The story is mostly focused around two characters, Richie and Joey. They’re high school classmates and members of the Wanderers, an Italian street gang, circa 1963. (Other ethnicities have their gangs too.) You get to see their antics as a group (copping feels on women walking by) or individually (Joey’s father beats him, Richie is dating the daughter of a low-level Mafia figure). It eventually climaxes with a football game between the Wanderers and the Del Bombers (a Black gang) which then transforms into a giant rumble involving a few additional gangs. Afterwards, Joey and Richie part company, pursuing different futures as the Fifties® are now officially over.
What made The Wanderers stick out over similar period pieces such as The Lords of Flatbush and American Graffiti, was its surreal quality. There are sequences when the story feels unreal or exaggerated. It also shifted from drama to dark comedy back to drama fairly rapidly or vice versa. Then comes the obvious events to let you know why the Fifties® are ending; the death of JFK and Richie looks into a coffee house and sees Bob Dylan perform “The Times Are A’ Changin'”.
If you get a chance to watch The Wanderers, give it a shot. Movies with its odd qualities just aren’t made any more or it could be my foggy memory from grade school. It’s definitely more accurate than the Fonz.
Alamo Extras: Some silly video of “gangs” dance-fighting; Interviews with real ex-gang members; Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” video (man, those extras could move); Trailer for Body Rock, Enemy Territory and Streets of Fire; documentary on graffiti in the NYC subways.