The Wanderers



The Wanderers is a 1979 movie that centers on the members of a Bronx youth gang, and their interactions with the other local gangs. At school, a high school teacher accidentally sparks a race riot between the Italian gang the Wanderers and the Black gang the Del-Bombers. Looking to gather allies to their fight as the Del-Bombers have bigger numbers, The Wanderers get rejected (humiliatingly) by the Fordham Baldies and by the Chinese Wongs. But they do get a new member with the arrival of bulky Perry, a newcomer to the neighborhood who proves himself in a fight. Just as it looks bleak for the gang, the local mafia hoods led by 'Chubby' Galasso intervene and negotiate to have the rumble changed into a football match.

Based on a book by Richard Price.

Not to be confused with El-Hazard: The Wanderers.


 * Adaptation Distillation: Price's novel is episodic in nature. Director Philip Kaufman and his wife Rose re-wove the narrative into a more coherent plot.
 * Ambiguously Gay: Turkey. And Perry and Joey.
 * Ax Crazy: Joey's father, Emilio. And the Ducky Boys gang.
 * Badass: Emilio, Perry, the Wongs and the Fordham Baldies.
 * Battle Royale
 * Big Bad: The Ducky Boys. They're the one street gang willing to kill.
 * Big Applesauce
 * Bittersweet Ending: Richie came back to the Wanderers in time to help out with the football game, and with the fight against the Ducky Boys. While re-affirming his friendship with Joey, Meanwhile , the life of being in a street gang is getting more violent, and the feeling of New York City changing for the worse heading into The Sixties and The Seventies hovers over the ending.
 * Coming of Age
 * Cult Classic
 * Dirty Coward: The Wanderers and Del-Bombers who split before the fight with the Ducky Boys. Averted by members of the Wongs, who join in with the remaining Wanderers and Del-Bombers even when it wasn't their fight.
 * Dueling Movies: With The Warriors, believe it or not.
 * End of an Age
 * For the Evulz: The Ducky Boys.
 * Gangsterland
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Terror and Peewee
 * Hustler: The bowling team from Long Island.
 * Improvised Weapon: Plenty, during the final fight with the Ducky Boys.
 * Laser-Guided Karma: Turkey.
 * One of the Boys: Peewee
 * Precision F-Strike: Don't fuck with the Baldies/Wongs.
 * The Mafia: Richie's father-in-law.
 * The gang fight between the Wanderers and Del-Bombers get taken over by both the Italian and Black mafias and turned into a football match that the mobsters could bet over.
 * At the end of the movie, it's obvious that Richie is getting too old to be with the Wanderers and will promote upward into his father-in-law's gang.
 * The Sixties: The movie takes place in 1963, as the culture of The Fifties gives way to this one.
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: The football game devolving into a Battle Royale between the Ducky Boys and the Wanderer/Del Bomber/Wong team-up foreshadows the violent confusion of the Vietnam War. Topped by
 * White Gang-Bangers