Latest / Tales From Aztlantis / UNLOCKED BONUS: Burning Paradise Ep. 6 "The Wanderers"

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UNLOCKED BONUS: Burning Paradise Ep. 6 "The Wanderers" · Tales From Aztlantis

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Curly Tlapoyawa, and I love movies.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I spent a good chunk of my childhood being snuck into the drive-in by my parents, where I took in double and triple features of cinematic greatness.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And when movies became available on home video in the 1980s, well, all bets were off.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's no exaggeration to say that my life was largely shaped by movies.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: In 2004, I opened Burning Paradise Video, where I offered a carefully curated selection of independent, foreign, underground, and cult films to the public.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Burning Paradise, my love letter to a bygone era.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Episode six, The Wanderers.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now, The Warriors is one of my favorite films of all time, if not my favorite film of all time.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go back and listen to episode one of this very special, limited podcast series, you will hear that for yourself.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Indeed, Walter Hill's 1979 Gang Classic holds such a special place in my cold, darkened heart that my blind affection has led to many a passionate debate and even a near fist fight or two over its artistic merit as a cult film.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: You see, we diehard cinephiles tend to wear our cinematic tastes firmly on our sleeves.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And when someone dares to trash talk a film that we hold dear, well, you'd better hold on to your seatbelts, Junior, because trouble's a ruin.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And no other gang film has ever matched the pure badassery and retro hipness of the Warriors.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: But even a jaded refugee of 1970s cinema, such as myself, has to admit The Wanderers comes pretty damn close.
• 2:18
  unknown: Okay, pop-up.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Back in 63, there was one kind of music.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all right, some rock and roll.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_02: One kind of love.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Not yet.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, in a couple minutes we're gonna be naked, then what?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta get it all and all kinds of gangs.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Kevinita.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: So it's allowed.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be there.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Teenage trouble.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: The terrors of their turf.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: There were the Fordambaldies.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta bird tonight.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's start some math.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: The wall.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Oh we don't! No, no, they just started chasing me!
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then there were the wanderers.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: The kid alone.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: A legend in their time.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: The wanderers.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: It was their world.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: You guys don't know where you're living.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking last year.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: We ain't going with you without teeth.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it ain't going with us.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Their rules.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome girls.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: It was their time.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: Time was running out.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody's in trouble.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: The wanderers.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Too crazy to run.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Too proud to hide.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Too good to lose.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: The wanderers are coming.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_04: Not yet.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you'll never forget them.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Based on the book by Richard Price, who even appears in the film as a sleazy bowling alley hustler, The Wanderers takes us to the Bronx in the fall of 1963, where ethnic gangs such as the Wongs, the Baldies, and the Dell Bombers rule the streets.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: Director Philip Kaufman, who did the right stuff of all things, took a few liberties with the book, but the end result was good enough to get Price's nod of approval.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: The film follows the exploits of the Italian gang known as The Wanderers, led by Richie Gennaro, played by a pre-wise guy, Ken Wall, sporting a mean hairdo and one hell of a unibrow as they vie for respect and try to score chicks.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: When a misguided teacher in one of the stupidest class assignments ever, attempts to teach his racially stratified class about brotherhood, he nearly ignites a race war in the high school between the Italians and the African Americans.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: The wanderers, after unsuccessfully trying to garner support from the other white gangs, decide to settle the dispute in the only rational way possible.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: A football game.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So while our boys prepare for the upcoming big game, they spend their time trying to get with women on the street and not get their asses kicked by the gargantuan members of the Baldies.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: We get glimpses into the dysfunctional home lives of a few of the wanderers and follow Richie as he tries to get something going with the academic-minded Nina played by the always impossibly attractive Karen Allen of Animal House and Raiders of the Lost Ark fame.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: I swear, is there anyone out there my age that did not have a crush on her?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think so.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite parts of The Wanderers are when it leaves the normal world of 1960s New York and delves into an eerie, almost horror film-like atmosphere.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, these scenes occur whenever the gang known as the Ducky Boys make an appearance.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Ducky Boys are an all-Irish gang numbering around 500, and they never speak, and they are no taller than five feet, and for some reason they all look sort of like zombies.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: I swear it's as if Kaufman handed over the keys to John Carpenter whenever the Ducky Boys pop up.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_04: I think I know where we are.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: Get the hell out of Isis.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: When the Ducky Boys show up during the big football game, you know shit is about to hit the fan.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, does it ever.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it does provide a good reason for the racially diverse gangs in attendance to band together against a common foe.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: Angry Irish midgets with baseball bats and knives.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: Look the hair.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_04: What?
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_04: Bucky boy.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_04: Shit, everybody's starting to see things right now.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_04: What is this?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_04: Can we just play some football?
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_04: Come on, let's go.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not so much a straight gang flick as a coming of age story.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Wanderers growing up, the assassination of Kennedy, and our involvement in Vietnam provide the backdrop against which the film is set.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: The Wanderers is an obscurity worth checking out.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that sticks out immediately about this film when you watch it is just how great the soundtrack is.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the first 15 minutes alone features some of the best musical cues this side of a Scorsese film.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: Wanderers Forever.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_03: Just the wanderers.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_03: We've gotta stick together.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_03: The end of innocence.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: You hear me, I'm fucking was only there at the beginning.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: You wanna rumble or something?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we wanna fight.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_03: Not man, forget it.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_03: There you go again.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Hurting our feelings.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: It's us against the world.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_03: Ken Wall and Karen Allen find growing up hard to do.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_03: Gavin eat us.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Swistle loud.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be there.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: When they are, Wanda Spratt.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: The Wanderers.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_03: Saturday on A E.
• 10:20
  unknown: Shh