"One gang could run this city. One gang! Nothing would move without us allowing it to happen. We could tax the crime syndicates, the police, because we got the streets, suckas! Can you dig it?"

So says the charismatic leader of the Gramercy Riffs, Cyrus (Roger Hill), near the beginning of Walter Hill's 1979 cult classic, "The Warriors," recently re-issued as an "Ultimate Directors Cut" DVD ($19.99). The Riffs are but one gang in Hill's quasi-futuristic New York City; the city is also home to The Turnbull A.C.'s, The Punks, the all-female Lizzies, The Rogues and — my favorites — the Baseball Furies, who look like the Yankees in KISS-like war paint.

Every one of these gangs is gunning for The Warriors, a Coney Island gang marooned by an ugly set of circumstances some 27 miles away from their home turf. Hill, working from a book by Sol Yurick, based the story very loosely on a classic Greek tale, Xenophon's "Anabasis." Both stories are about warriors trapped in a "desperate forced march" to their homeland, but Hill upped the ante: He made a movie about New York gangs in 1970s New York, a time when the city really was dominated by its criminal element. The police actually had to protect Hill's movie "gangs" from the real thing.

The resulting film, though borderline absurd (check out the leather vests on the Warriors, better suited to male strippers), is surprisingly entertaining and even exciting. The Warriors — played by a bunch of now-forgotten 1970s actors — are real fighters and earn your admiration quickly, even when battling gangs far more interesting than they are (though the samurai-like Baseball Furies come close to stealing the picture). And every character speaks in colorful, tough-guy palaver:

"I want ALL the Warriors! I want them alive, if possible. If not, wasted!"

"I'll shove that bat up your ass and turn you into a Popsicle."

Hill's new cut of the movie doesn't add or subtract scenes, but does impose a comic-book-like series of scene transitions that I'm not sure if I like or not. Fortunately, the disk includes a fascinating new "making-of" documentary, and has crystal-clear sound and picture.

If you've only seen this movie on VHS or at the Egyptian's midnight movie, the new DVD transfer will be a real treat. If you haven't yet seen "The Warriors," I envy you the discovery of an all-new guilty pleasure. Just remember: When you sit down to watch the movie, keep three beer bottles handy. You'll see why.

"The Warriors" is available at most local video stores and at Amazon.com.