The Wanderers 1979… Frankly, I tried very hard to dodge writing this article. First of all, due to the fact that the second administrator of this site already has quite a good short article on this film. To be honest, I thought I could just copy it here and that would be the end of it. “No!” he said. “We should only have original content!” he said… eh…
I will try to be as brief as possible (which I usually fail to do). So The Wanderers was directed by Philip Kaufman, a director I don’t know anything about, and there aren’t many films on his account. The only thing I watched in his performance was the version of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which was released literally a year before The Wanderers. And, God knows, if the credits hadn’t told me at the beginning that these two films were shot by the same person, then I would never have guessed that this was the work of one director.
It would seem that why even remember a movie like Invasion of the Body Snatchers when it comes to stories about youth gangs, fights and girls? Moreover, The Wanderers are a historical film without five minutes: Ducky Boys, Fordham Baldies, Wanderers and others – they all really existed. Heck, Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley was one of the Ducky Boys. Plus, in the background we have: the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, Bob Dylan – in general, purely the beginning of the sixties, and what does fiction about aliens have to do with it?
Yes, despite the fact that here and there in The Wanderers are extremely removed… It is unusual, and at certain moments surrealism bordering on horror really begins. The narrative is abrupt, and the film seems to tell not one big story, but about half a dozen shorter stories that are very awkwardly connected together. There are assumptions here and there: all the youth gangs shown in The Wanderers did exist, but not at the same time, and fans of the Vietnam War who understand what is happening may find fault with one of the story arcs…
And when the guys from the Ducky Boys appear on the screen, that’s when The Wanderers really get a reason to compare with the Invasion of Body Snatchers. For some reason only the director knows, all the Ducky Boys, as one, do not say a word, have the look of a maniac with experience, and they are not interested in anything but the desire to inflict grievous bodily harm to everyone who enters their territory. Their territory, by the way, is a local branch of Silent Hill: eternal night reigns on it, constantly covered with impenetrable either smoke or fog, in which even the lanterns can hardly be seen. And instead of monsters, guys from Ducky Boys wander back and forth, really looking like people from pods. Add to this the corresponding soundtrack – honestly, while watching those scenes, one can only wonder why the radio in the car does not hiss. Moreover, the Ducky Boys, apparently, generate all this atmosphere around them: there is a football match going on and a clear cloudless day is around – but the Ducky Boys appear, and there is already some kind of stupid haze in half with clouds and a corresponding strange soundtrack.
Ducky Boys in their natural habitat.
But despite all of the above, The Wanderers have a certain number of advantages. First: a considerable number of well-remembered scenes, dialogues and characters – perhaps not least due to the surrealism described above. Secondly, the atmosphere of that time is perfectly conveyed, a considerable part of which are, though not without jambs, but still real historical events and personalities inscribed in the film. Third, the general message of the film is clear as two times two, because despite the unevenness of the narrative, the ending is as straightforward as a blow from Muhammad Ali.
According to these three parameters, The Wanderers, in my opinion, will easily overtake any competitor in their genre. Fighting Fish (Rumble Fish, 1983), The Lords Of Flatbush (The Lords Of Flatbush, 1974), The Outsiders (The Outsiders, 1983) – all as one lose to The Wanderers in my personal hit parade. I really want to compare The Wanderers with the film Without Love of the 81st, but the problem here is that Loveless is already a somewhat different movie, and it tells a little about something else, so this comparison doesn’t really come out.
So I think The Wanderers are the best of their kind. Of course, I have met other opinions – and it’s very easy to understand why, since the film is very controversial. But in my estimation, yes, The Wanderers of Kaufman are the best after all. There is nothing more to add here, except to advise those interested in films of this kind to watch this film themselves, and to form their own opinion.
Dion & The Belmonts – The Wanderer
And as a last line, I will write a few words about the performer of the main song – Dion DiMucci. So, are you aware that Dion never stopped playing and is still playing? Critics called him a youth idol and promised soon oblivion, but later changed their minds, and by the 70s they began to praise Dion’s work and celebrate the influence that DiMucci had on other musicians.In ’89, Dion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and… there’s probably nowhere higher to go. Personally, I listened to, for example, the album Déjà Nu of the two thousandth year from my later works – and this is still the same rock and roll that DiMucci created half a century ago. And I also came across a few songs from the record New York Is My Home, released in 2016 – the blues is already playing on it, but it’s still the same music of the last century that Dion stubbornly continues to play to this day. So if you like the Wanderer song, then I have good news for you: three dozen more albums from Comrade DiMucci are waiting for you. Maybe we’ll even write about one of them one day.
