Rating: 
Summary: Very 1963
Review: The past is inaccessible to us. It cannot be relived. A very few films are able to catch the feel of a time lost to us. This is one of them. It was made in the late '70's about the early '60's. The music helps drive the effect home that we are glimpsing the era as no early "60's style film could have shown us. Its a bittersweet romp about a Brooklyn gang-kind of a Junior Achievers Mafia. Nice little things like how Kennedy's assasination is experienced and the Bob Dylan "cameo" show the creators knew of what they spoke. The Ducky Boys final episode is masterfully spooky and still gives me chills. Too bad Ken Wahl pretty much disappeared after reaching the top in Wiseguy. If you lived in the '60's I think you will enjoy this nostalgic film.
Rating: 
Summary: Back to the Bronx
Review: The Wanderers is a nostalgic look at the Italian section (Little Italy) of the Bronx. If you were there you can relate to the story line. Set in 1963, the movie recreates the feeling of growing up in a time that was just about to change forever. The cast gives outstanding performances and are some of the most respected actors today.
Rating:
Summary: 1960'S ERA CULT CLASSIC
Review: The Wanderers is many things...an urban gang drama, juvenile comedy, changing of the times study and more. It works on all these levels and has become a certified cult classic. At it's core, the Wanderers is about the final death of the innocence of the 1950's. The Wanderers are an Italian gang in NY, still clinging to the last vestiges of the 1950's with their matching satin jackets and grease-backed hair. Early on several members run afoul of another gang, the notorious 'Baldies'. The Wanderers find themselves trapped until a newcomer, the huge Perry saves them and is immediately welcomed into the gang by their leader Richie (Ken Wahl).
The various members of the Wanderers have problems to deal with on their own. Richie has gotten his girlfriend, Despie, pregnant, Perry's mother is an Alcoholic, Turkey wants to join the Baldies and Joey has an abusive father who thinks his son doesn't measure up. The Wanderers have a verbal war with a black gang, the Del Bombers, in school and decide to settle things with an old-fashioned rumble.
When the Wanderers cannot get any other gangs to back them up, Despies father (Dolph Sweet) a neighborhood mob boss steps in and decides to stop the rumble and have the gangs settle their differences with a football game instead...with a lot of mob money riding on the outcome. The game climaxes when the two gangs, along with the rest in attendance, must join together to fight "The Ducky Boys", a group of vicious, seemingly homosexuals, who have crashed the game with hundreds of members.
Mixed in with the drama and action is a liberal amount of juvenile buddy comedy as the Wanderers 'accidently' bumb into women on the street in order to touch their breasts. This is how the meet Nina (karen Allen) a bohemian girl who Richie becomes infatuated with. There there are drunken parties, games of strip poker, etc. In one memorable scene, the drunken Baldies join the marines.
Through all of this is the theme of the changing of the times. The doo-wop of the 1950's is now being replaced by folk music. A poignant scene has Richie following Nina until she enters a club where (in sound anyway) Bob Dylan is playing. Richie doesn't enter as he seems to know that it's just not his world. The film also covers the assasination of John Kennedy as the symbolic death of innocence. It is this moment the galvanizes the strained relationship between Despie and Richie.
One wishes that the Ducky Boys had been better explained. They are a creepy group of men..older than the other gangs...who never speak and were actually seen taking Holy Communion in one part where Turkey enters their turf by mistake and his killed. What were the Ducky Boys representing? It's the one mystery of the film.
The Wanderers has a fantastic soundtrack of early 1960's hits including "Soldier Boy", "Walk Like a Man", "Runaround Sue", "Shout", "Big Girls don't Cry" and of course the title track.
This is a movie that holds up still after 25 years because it works well on so many different levels. This was mostly a cast of unknowns with Karen Allen perhaps being the most notable star a year after she did 'Animal House'. An enjoyable movie from beginning to end.
Rating:
Summary: more than meets the eye
Review: the wanderes is not just about gangs, it is about prejudice. No revelation there! Gangs of all races band together to overcome the duckie boys. The duckie boys represent something, I am not sure but i believe it is racism or hate. Once the duckie boys are defeated the other gangs see past their differences and bond.
Rating:
Summary: LEAVE THE KID ALONE....and let him watch this movie!
Review: These were the OLDEST''TEENAGERS''since the Sweathogs!I mean,not one looked at least 18.That said,this is a wanderfull movie.The music,the acting,the chemistry,the atmosphere,everything worked.it had drama,comedy,horror(enter Ducky's Boys),action,and a love story(even though Terror's a lil too old for her!)The plot is basic gang rivalry set in the age of the do wop.We are introduced to the core members of a local gang,the Wanderers.Not a drug dealing,neighborhood wrecking gang.But the loveable,wiseguys you find bowling and hanging out.Tension mounts between rival gang the Del Bombers and the battle is set.Calmer heads prevail and the fight turns into a football game,which turns into a bonding inspired fight.There are subplots;1 Wanderer stealing anothers girlfriend,1 Wanderer becoming a traitor,the home lives of 2 Wanderers,to keep the pacing just right.I am glad to see this on DVD.Too bad theres no extras.Anyway,theres no question youll enjoy this movie,but would you ever mess with the Wongs?
Rating:
Summary: Oh, I'm the type of guy....
Review: They call them the Wanderers! A movie I remember watching as a youngster...thinking these guys were the toughest dudes around. Well, I finally checked it out again and again I was entertained. A solid coming of age gang related movie that takes place in the Bronx '63.The various gangs are what makes this movie very funny and distinctive. The Wongs, Baldies, and the Ducky Boys are all classics. The moviies climax is the battle in the football field...very memorable. The ending is quite moving and positve...the future seems unclear, but not cloudy. Good flick!
Rating:
Summary: THOSE GUYS LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF PRICKS WITH EARS
Review: this has got to be one of the greatest gang movies ever made along with The Warriors. the best part of the movie is the big fight at the end in the football field. Joey's dad was kickin some major A** ! I like how all the gangs got together in the end to help each other out. Goes to show that in the end besides our differences, were all just a bunch of squirrels trying to get a nut. the soundtrack for this movie is off the hook too !
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: This is "the" coming of age movie. The cast and characters were excellent. Remains one of my top 2 movies of all time, (Slap Shot, the other).
Rating:
Summary: a great movie about growing up!
Review: This is a great movie about the insecurities of growing up, the need to belong with someone (gangs, girlfriends) and the mistakes we make growing up and having to pay for these mistakes. I used to watch this movie every time it was on TV, now I can finally watch it whenever I want, uncut, on DVD! Happy Happy! Joy Joy!
Rating:
Summary: Highly underated movie, a classic
Review: This is a movie that will stay in my mind at least for a long time. The rhythm, the soundtrack, the different aspects of the plot, the photography, every detail was perfect.
You dont have to be a baby boomer or be from the Bronx to like this movie. Im a generation X guy, never lived in the Bronx and this has become to be one of my favorite movies.
The atmosphere of the movie is a blue collar neighborhood, nothing spectacular brights there, but the mentality, romanticism and values of that time represented in this movie, made this look like this as a perfect era. It also made me understand the nostalgy of the baby boomers.
The final scene, (dont read this if you havent seen the movie), where Joey and Perry left New York,in my opinion represents the exodus of the people that lived in the inner city toward the suburbs or the new promising west states. A symbol of this phenomenum was,the traumatic for many, departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers to the new great city in that time, Los Angeles.
There are other parts of the movie that deserves an anthropological and sociological analysis.
This film is a timeless jewel, I think I was lucky the day I saw this on cable for the first time. Before watching this, I never imagined this movie could be that great. And definitively, the box office and the critics never made justice to this film. This was the perfect closer for perhaps the greatest decade of cinema.
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