SummarySet against the urban jungle of 1963 New York's gangland subculture, this coming of age teenage movie is set around the Italian gang the Wanderers. Slight comedy, slight High School angst and every bit entertaining with its classic 1950's Rock n' Roll soundtrack such as "Walk Like a Man", "Big Girls Don't Cry" by The Four Seasons and "My Boyfrien... Read More
Directed By:Philip Kaufman
Written By:Richard Price, Rose Kaufman, Philip Kaufman
The Wanderers
Metascore
Generally Favorable
64
User score
Generally Favorable
8.0
My Score
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Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
64
62% Positive
8 Reviews
8 Reviews
38% Mixed
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
80
Price's vision was realistic and romantic at the same time, the violence painful but also sensual, the mood charged with a sweet hopelessness. Philip Kaufman's tough but tender film emphasizes this double vision. It's like Grease with brass knuckles. [16 July 1979, p.93]
80
The film survives cuts to deliver some great, gross, comic book capers. And rock history gets its most intelligent illustration since Mean Streets.
75
This is a giddy parody of gang pictures, West Side Story without the music and set in the Bronx of the '60s. The music is solid early '60s rock 'n' roll ( My Boyfriend's Back, The Wanderer ) and the acting is broad and often silly.
70
Despite an uneasy blend of nostalgia and violence, The Wanderers is a well-made and impressive film. Philip Kaufman, who also co-scripted with his wife, Rose [from the novel by Richard Price], has accurately captured the urban angst of growing up in the 1960s.
60
The Wanderers is a well-made movie that leaves a so-what impression. [27 July 1979, p.B1]
50
By grafting stylistic affectations onto an otherwise naturalistic movie, Kaufman blunts the raw power that, is The Wanderers' greatest asset. Like his characters, he would have fared far better if he had stopped showing off and practiced a little self-control.
50
Apart from Wahl, the acting in the Wanderers is either embarrassingly flat or hysterically emotional, and the movie is an exhausting mishmash of styles. [23 July 1979, p.62]
User score
Generally Favorable
8.0
71% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
29% Mixed
2 Ratings
2 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
Mar 28, 2025
6
The Wanderers definitely isn’t perfect—some moments felt awkward and dated, especially that uncomfortable racist word battle, which made me cringe more than once. But if I look past those issues, there’s plenty here to enjoy, particularly as a lively jukebox film with echoes of American Graffiti and The Last Picture Show. It nailed the nostalgic beats for me, nicely capturing teenage friendships, rivalries, and classic coming-of-age drama. I could sense the director’s genuine fondness for his 60s youth, balanced with a welcome dash of 70s/80s grit. Sure, it’s uneven, occasionally clumsy, and won’t win prizes for subtlety, but the cracking soundtrack alone kept me hooked. If, like me, you’re partial to movies that whisk you back to a slightly romanticised past, you could do far worse than spending an evening with this one. Imperfect, yes, but undeniably good fun.
