"Leopard keeps spots."
Acquitting a work of fiction.
Juan Claudio Pascacio moved to Boston in 1973, at the age of 18. He got a job at a restaurant, in the kitchen.1 He joined the National Guard. People who knew him say he was quiet. Thoughtful.
Around closing time on March 30, 1975, he was walking in Bay Village with a group of friends, when he was chased by a group of five or six men into a vacant lot.2 He was slashed, stabbed, and beaten. One of the men lifted a thirty pound paving stone and used it to crush his skull. He died at Boston City Hospital.
Seasoned police officers were shocked at the brutality of the attack. The gay community called it the “Cobblestone Killing,” and wore black-and-lavender armbands, representing opposition to anti-gay violence.3
Friends couldn’t collect enough money to send his body back to Puerto Rico. The life insurance policy available to him as a member of the National Guard was payable only to his widow, from whom he was estranged. Catholic Charities ended up paying his last fare. He was buried with military honors.4
Three years later, principal photography began in New York City for a motion picture based, in part, on a5 classical Greek account of the return of Spartan merceneries from battle in Babylon.6
The film shot quickly, edited quickly, and premiered on February 9, 1979. Critics found it unrealistic,7 and the dialogue stilted. Others praised the movie:
Powered by kinetic tracking shots, The Warriors sets a blistering pace, and all the transitions are effected with brisk wipes, which suggest that a dozen things are happening at once.
The balletic, bloodless combat scenes have been photographed and edited with startling grace and cleverness: they’re downright beautiful.
Shooting almost exclusively at night, in the fluorescent, green-tinged garishness of underground parking lots and subway platforms…Hill has come up with a spacious variant on the nightmare-beautiful cityscapes of film noir.8
It is beautiful, and odd.
People loved it. Young people, especially. They turned out to see the movie in droves, nation-wide. Almost immediately, there were reports of violence:
Marvin Kenneth Eller was shot at a drive-in in Palm Springs on February 12, 1979.
Timothy Gitchell was stabbed a fight in a theater lobby in Oxnard, California, on February 12, 1979.
On February 15, 1979, Martin Yacubowicz was stabbed on a train in Boston, Massachusetts, by someone who had just come from seeing the Warriors.
On March 3, 1979, Charles Eltringham reported that he’d been beaten and tortured by three men who referenced The Warriors throughout the ordeal.
Print advertisements were briefly suspended, but resumed when only “minor reports” of disorderly conduct occurred in subsequent weeks.9 Paramount offered to supply additional security guards to theaters.
Editorials were written. Columnists speculated.
These and other violent acts erupting in the wake of these films raise the question: Is there a relationship between violence seen on the screen and violence enacted in the neighborhood?
Behavioral experts contacted for this article suggest there may be.10
Pediatricians spoke against the movie.11 Legislative commissions were convened or coopted for the purpose and the producers and distributors testified.
Serious and sensible people insisted on the conclusion: Portrayals of violence cause violence. Someone must be held accountable.
Lawsuits were filed. Time passed.
And slowly, quietly, without much fanfare, the facts changed. The supposed causal relationship between each attack and The Warriors was quietly disclaimed, or debunked after the furor died down.
Except one.
“Guard Friends cut red tape to send slaying victim’s body back to Puerto Rico,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1975.
“Gang of 5 hunted in cobblestone killing.” Boston Evening Globe, March 31, 1975.
It is unclear whether Mr. Pascacio was gay. Friends denied it. Some reports state that Mr. Pascacio had been at a dance for the Puerto Rican community, and that the attack was racially motivated; others said he had been at Jacques or the Other Side, known gay bars. See “Cobblestone Killing,” Gay Community News, April 12, 1975.
“Guard Friends cut red tape to send slaying victim’s body back to Puerto Rico,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1975.
For fucking real.
Anabasis. Two of you — you know who you are — I think, have probably read this, although likely not in the original Greek.
Of course it was. But, wasn’t it supposed to be?
“Trailers: Gang War, drug smuggling, animation.” Boston Phoenix, February 20, 1979.
“Warriors’ ads resume despite violence reports.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, February 24, 1979.
There is something charming about “how will we stop the youth from seeing this movie? I know, withdraw all print advertising!”
“Gang Films: Does violence in films provoke violence in Streets? Louise Sweeney,” Christian Science Monitor News Service, April 21, 1979.
“Warriors Denounced For Violence. Pediatrician heads drive to ban movie.” Bay City Times, February 23, 1979.
Part two is coming up next week, right??? right???
ps: Call me crazy, but I think that the experts contacted by the 'Christian Science Observer' for that article may not have been completely biasless.
Yes, I read the Anabasis 😂 “the sea, the sea!”