The Wanderers (film)

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Movie
German title The Wanderers
Original title The Wanderers
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1979
length 113 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Philip Kaufman
script Rose Kaufman
production Martin Ransohoff
camera Michael Chapman
cut Stuart H. Pappé
Ronald Roose
occupation
synchronization

The Wanderers (German reference title: The Wanderers - Terror in der Bronx ) is an American feature film from 1979.

The film is based on the autobiographical novel The Wanderers by Richard Price . Directed by Philip Kaufman . The original German theatrical version was cut by approx. 20 minutes.

characters

The protagonists of the film are Richie and Joey. Richie is the leader of the Wanderers . He goes with Despie, the daughter of Chubby Galasso, a mafioso.

Joey's home is ruled by his brutal father, Emilio, an aging, violent muscleman who bullies his family. Joey has a big mouth and an artistic talent.

Turkey is a hiker who has already shaved his head to switch to the baldies as the film progresses . But it is never fully accepted. Eventually, he is chased to death by the Ducky Boys after getting lost in their neighborhood drunk when the Baldies left him behind.

Terror is the overweight leader of the Baldies who intimidates just by his body mass. He goes with the petite Peewee. The Baldies get drunk and meet a military representative who manages to recruit them for the Marines.

Nina is hounded by Richie while she “grabbing her tits”, bumping into young women in the street and apparently accidentally grabbing her breasts. Richie apparently tries to couple her with Joey, but then gets involved with her - much to the displeasure of his girlfriend Despie and other hikers , which he is forgiven for in the course of the film.

Perry moved into the neighborhood from New Jersey and lives with his alcoholic mother in the same house as Joey. After Joey's big mouth got them in trouble with the Baldies again, Perry helps the Wanderers and joins the Wanderers .

action

The film tells of life in the New York borough of the Bronx in 1963. Various youth gangs fight each other and also struggle with everyday youth problems such as love, sex, school and parents. The focus of the film is an Italian-American gang called The Wanderers and their ongoing arguments with the Fordham Baldies and other Irish ( Ducky Boys ), Asian ( Wongs ) and African American ( Del Bombers ) gangs.

When the Wanderers get into an argument with the Del Bombers in the school class , they all agree to meet to settle the matter through a brawl. The Wanderers ask other gangs for assistance in vain. In their need, The Wanderers even turned to the Baldies through the mediation of Turkey, which has now found his home there , although there were massive problems in advance. Unfortunately, a member of the Baldies is a cousin of Clinton Stich, the leader of the Del Bombers . Only Chubby Galasso, the father of Richie's girlfriend, and his brothers agree to help. The galassos and the influential senior black leaders agree to instead of a pointless brawl, have a big football match to resolve the dispute. During the match, the dreaded Ducky Boys appear , and there is a great mass brawl between the gangs present. In view of the situation, the Wanderers join forces with the Del Bombers and the Wongs against the brutal and outnumbered Ducky Boys and put them to flight, which was mainly influenced by the Asian martial arts of the previously neutral Wongs .

When Perry's alcoholic mother is repeatedly admitted to a clinic after Joey's father has shamelessly exploited this illness, Joey gets into an argument with his father and knocks him down with a bottle. Perry and Joey then decide to leave New York together and try their luck on the west coast.

Meanwhile, Richie learns from Despie that she is pregnant from him. As a result, the two have to get married. Ritchie receives an offer to join the Galassos business. At the end of the ceremony, which also includes the Wongs and Del Bombers leadership (and even Peewee, who is completely alone after the Baldies are recruited into the Marines ), Joey and Perry make their way to San Francisco .

While at the beginning of the film in the life of the Wanderer the main focus seems to be on fun, in the further course weaknesses and fears of the characters become apparent, for whom at the end of the film their youth ends abruptly in different ways and the seriousness of life begins.

Gangs in the movie

  • The Wanderers : of Italian descent; wear golden yellow and red jackets with the large lettering "The Wanderers" on their backs; their leader is Richie.
  • Baldies (also Fordham Baldies - they have the abbreviation "FB" in rivets on the sleeve of their leather jackets) : bald heads; wear black or dark brown leather jackets; their leader is terror. However, the name "Baldies" only appears once in the film, otherwise only the bald heads are spoken of.
  • Del Bombers : African American Descent; wear purple-gold jackets with the lettering DB and a vertically falling bomb on their backs; their leader is Clinton Stitch.
  • Ducky Boys : Irish ancestry; do not wear a “uniform” and do not speak; are the only gang ready to kill; have a strange relationship with Catholicism: "It is okay to kill if you go to church afterwards, go to confession and receive communion."
  • Wongs : of Asian descent; all reportedly have the surname Wong; wear black jackets; master the Asian martial art; their leader is Teddy Wong.

Book about the film

The novel of the same name is Richard Price's first novel . It was published in excerpts in 1972 and as a book in 1974. Already in the first AVON edition of the book from February 1975 reference is made to the soon to be released film ( soon a major motion picture ). The lettering on the book title is similar to the Wanderers logo in the film.

The book consists of twelve chapters. It is more of a series of short stories that are loosely connected to one another, usually through the recurring characters. These short stories were adapted for the film; H. more or less extensively changed, tightened and condensed. This happened on several levels:

Time horizon

The duration of the film is around a week. The year the film is set in is also different from the book. The film takes place the week that John F. Kennedy was murdered (November 22, 1963). The book, on the other hand, covers a period of several months. Explicit dates in Chapter 1 are September 12, 1962, Chapter 5 Thanksgiving 1962, November 27, 1962 and Chapter 11 June 1, 1962. (It is assumed that June 1, 1963 is meant. The chapters are in chronological order, so it is either a carelessness on the part of the author or a misprint.)

characters

The book describes many more people than the film.

  • The protagonists of both the film and the book are Richie, Joey and Perry. However, one does not learn anything about Richie's family background in the film, although he plays the main role.
  • In the book, Buddy is also one of the protagonists, who only appears as a marginal figure in the film. For the film, the character Buddy from the book was largely integrated into that of Richie. In the book, Buddy is the one who gets to know Despie while she is “grabbing her tits”, getting her pregnant the first night together and later getting married.
  • Another protagonist in the book is a wanderer named Eugene, who does not appear in the film at all. His girlfriend, Nina, has nothing in common with the film's Nina.
  • The female characters were reduced to Despie and Nina for the film. In the book, however, there is Richie's girlfriend, Denise, who does not appear in the film, Buddy's girlfriend, Despie and Eugene's girlfriend, Nina. Despie became Chubby Galasso's daughter for the film.
  • The Baldies are mentioned in the book by Turkey, which has nothing to do with the character of the film of the same name. Terror is the most brutal baldie in the book. In the film, he is also their leader. Chased to death by the Ducky Boys , the book features a character named Sloopy who has nothing in common with the film's turkey.

Action in the strict sense

The vastness of the book has been tightened and condensed for the film. For this purpose, on the one hand, events and motifs in the book were assigned to other characters, but sometimes the dialogues were used literally.

  • In the film, for example, Richie and Joey are led by the Baldies onto the bridge, where they have to lower their pants to sacrifice their “best piece”. In the book, it's Richie's brother, Randy, who with his gang leads The Zorros onto the bridge on behalf of Richie, Denise's brother Dougie and his friend.
  • The Wanderers banner is painted in the book by Lenny, who is not a wanderer, while this artistic talent for the film was attributed to Joey.
  • The man-to-man dialogue in the film between Richie and Chubby Galasso can be found in the book between Buddy and Despie's father.
  • The storyline of the film stretches from the conflict between blacks and Italians, which starts in the school class with Mr. Sharp, to the football game in which the Ducky Boys appear and which ends in a mass brawl. In the book, this football game takes place in the first third of the book as part of a regular game, while the conflict in Mr. Sharp's school class only appears in the last third. Wherever it seemed appropriate, events and motifs were taken directly into the script - sometimes using the dialogues literally.
  • The chase between Baldies and Wanderers at the beginning of the film with the appearance of Perry only appears in the film.
  • Joey's father Emilio's affair with Perry's mother Gina only appears in the film.
  • In the movie, Perry's arm is broken in a fight with the Ducky Boys after the Wanderers get lost in their neighborhood. This scene only appears in the film. However, Perry also breaks his arm in the book. Only this accident takes place during football training with Joey on a fence on the sports field.
  • The strip poker game only appears in the movie, not in the book.
  • Perry's mother dies in the book, and Perry goes back to Trenton to stay with his aunt.
  • All events that revolve around the characters Eugene and Nina do not appear in the film.

Reviews

Lexicon of the international film : “A film immersed in nostalgia and sadness about the loss of 'innocent' times past, which shows in remarkable approaches an appealing time-related (Kennedy assassination) differentiation of the topics violence, racism and youthful group behavior. The boys' sexual attempts are of course described in an 'ice cream on style [sic!]' Style aimed at laughing. "

Movieman: “'The Wanderers' is one of the best gang films that tries not only to paint a realistic picture, but also presents itself as a coming-of-age film , because the gangs are only part of the life of the Protagonists. They grow up in them. At the same time, director Philip Kaufman is building his film as a swan song for an era, showing us American life shortly before JFK was shot. The cast is great, even if very few of the mimes drew special attention to themselves later. What makes the film a great experience, however, is the great selection of music. Here you can hear some of the greatest hits of the 1960s. "

Soundtrack

The soundtrack consists of well-known pieces of music from the 1950s and early 1960s.

synchronization

The German dubbed version was created in Berlin in 1979 .

role actor Voice actor
Bowling Financier # 1 John Califano Norbert Langer
Buddy Jim Youngs Ronald Nitschke
Clinton stitch Michael Wright Ingolf Gorges
Despie Galasso Toni Kalem Alexandra Lange
Emilio William Andrews Michael Chevalier
big woman Faith Minton Barbara Ratthey
Joey John Friedrich Michael Nowka
Marine recruiter Burtt Harris Friedrich Georg Beckhaus
Mr. Galasso Dolph Sweet Arnold Marquis
Mr. Sharp Val Avery Klaus Miedel
Nina Karen Allen Rita Engelmann
Peewee Linda Manz Dagmar Biener
Perry Tony Ganios Claus Jurichs
Richie Gennaro Ken choice Wolfgang Condrus
Roger Samm-Art Williams Karl Schulz
Teddy Wong Dion Albanese Mathias Einert
Turkey Alan Rosenberg Andreas Mannkopff

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Price: The Wanderers . 1st edition. AVON Books, back cover
  2. ↑ Richard Price: The Wanderers . Houghton Mifflin Company, 1974
  3. ↑ ibid. P. 9
  4. ↑ ibid. P. 81
  5. ↑ ibid. P. 95
  6. ↑ ibid. P. 198
  7. ↑ The Wanderers. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  8. ↑ movieman.de ( Memento from February 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. Jump up ↑ Wanderers - Terror in the Bronx. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on May 4, 2020 .