The late Paul Greco from the movie The Warriors....deserves some respect.

The Warriors: he get's no respect.

"Get lost." - The Orphans gang leader.

Everyone has their favorite Warrior. Most would say either Ajax or Swan. Maybe some would say Cochise and a few others might say Vermin. Maybe even a few out there would say Rembrandt was their favorite of The Warriors bunch but if I had to pick my favorite minor character who wasn't a Warrior I know who I'd pick. It would be The Rogues leader Luther, but 2nd place runner up would definitely be the leader of The Orphans. In the video game for The Warriors it turns out his name is Sully. They don't make calling him that clear in the movie and on the IMDB page he's just listed as "Orphan". However if the video game says The Orphans leader's name is Sully that's fine with me. I happen to like the name Sully so for the rest of this post that's what I'll call him.

Why does Sully get held in such high regard as to be awarded second best performance by a guy who's not a Warrior in The Warriors in my book? Well, I'll tell you. In the movie Sully is leader of a classless and clueless little gang who nobodies in the gang's of The City's world. Their turf is a meager bit of the Tremont section of The Bronx. The Orphans are so low class they weren't even asked to represent at Cyrus's big meeting in The Bronx (the borough they live in. oooo dissed.) and they are in no way part of The Riffs gang network (ooooo again in your face Orphans). The Orphans are a gang of small timers and they get no respect. While The Warriors have their gang colors on spiffy leather vests, The Orphans make due with cruddy green T shirts with the word Orphans iron-oned onto them. They look like orphans. Neglected and not well respected.

In the movie, The Orphans are just standing around and then The Warriors come rolling through their turf. At first Sully talks tough and wants to know what The Warriors want. When Swan and Fox make it clear The Warriors don't want any trouble, that the trains are messed up and they're just passing through Sully is about to let them slide. Sully realizes that The Warriors come in peace and just want to get to the train and aren't looking for trouble and he seems happy to let the Warriors just pass on through. Then Mercy shows up and gets rebuffed by The Warriors because she wants one of their vests and she starts trouble between the two gangs. She talks some trash about The Warriors and says Sully shouldn't let them "boogie" through the Orphan's territory. It's never made clear who Mercy is to Sully or The Orphans. Is she Sully's girlfriend? His sister? some random local tramp? Someone who lives in the same building? It's never made clear.

At first it seems Sully has things under control though. He's not going to let Mercy cause any static but she persists and persists. She makes Sully look (and probably feel) a bit like a chump in front of The Warriors and his own gang. That said, he lips off to Swan and poses an ultimatum to him and The Warriors. Swan ignores Sully and his ultimatums and gathers the rest of the guys and they then proceed to "march right through these lame fucks territory." Much to Mercy's delight and Sully's chagrin.
So what's so great about this performance? Two words: "get lost." When Sully say that line i have to rewind it at least once or twice. He says it to Mercy when she starts riding him about letting The Warriors slide. Sully says the line with such a sort of quiet fed up rage that it gets me every time. That and the part where he and the rest of The Orphans catch up to The Warriors and the two gangs are about to have a rumble and he shouts: "You see Warriors! You see what you get when you mess with The Orphans!" The Warriors are outnumbered and Sully is really furious and seeing him holding up his bent up straight razor makes even this sorry looking Bopper seem truly scary. Sully also has a lazy eye. Talks with a thick New York accent. He has a mop of greasy hair and he's pissed because no one seems to take him and his gang seriously and he's fed up and ready to go. Needless to say Sully and The Orphans for all their bark are easily spooked off when Swan throws a Molotov cocktail at their general direction. All in all Sully isn't such a bad guy. He's just sort of lame and against The Warriors he's way out of his depth.

The actor who played Sully was Paul Greco. He had the perfect look for character acting and had a lot of small roles in movies as varied as Crocodile Dundee and Woody Allen's Broadway Danny Rose. While Paul had mostly small roles in these movies he is probably best known for his part in The Warriors. Some of his other roles included: playing a stooge in Sylvester Stallone's forgettable mobster comedy Oscar. Mr. Greco also played another gangster in the hillbilly revenge epic Next of Kin with Patrick Swayze. He also played a Zealot in The Last Temptation of Christ and a karaoke singer named Raoul in Jim Carrey's oft slept on The Cable Guy. Paul was also an accomplished musician. He enjoyed minor success as the bass player and co-songwriter in the band Chumbawamba from 1992 to 1999. Sadly, Paul passed away from lung cancer in December 2008. He was 53.