Panayiota Mini, “The Anabasis in Paramount’s Promotion of The Warriors (1979): From the Gang Streets to The New York Times” in: T. Rood & M. Tamiolaki (eds.), Xenophon's Anabasis and its Reception, Berlin/Boston, Walter De Gruyter, 2022, 499-519.
In 1978-1979 the American film director Walter Hill shot The Warriors, an adaptation of Sol Yurick’s eponymous novel, which was in turn inspired by Xenophon’s Anabasis. Classicists have fruitfully examined Hill’s The Warriors in relation to Yurick’s novel and the Anabasis. Given this research, this paper examines an aspect of the film that has not hitherto been explored: its promotion by its production company, none other than Paramount Pictures. Specifically, the paper asks the questions: to what extent did Paramount connect the film to the Anabasis? What were the goals of its promotional strategy? To answer these questions, the paper utilises information from the American trade film press and other primary sources of the late 1970s and early 1980s (reviews, trailers and ads).
