Armies Of The Night offers a carefully researched and organized look at a film steeped in mystique. Ever since its release, The Warriors has been followed by a legend of inspiring gang violence and deaths in the theaters where it was shown. This book delves into that legend but that arrives in its latter stages. In fact, the book has a lot more on its mind than just correcting the record.

…in Celluloid Wars, Allan Holzman's gripping autobiographical account of his time as the editor of Battle Beyond The Stars, we learn how certain doom was narrowly avoided for both the film and himself at several points along the way. Its creation was a perilous, often grueling journey for everyone involved and Celluloid Wars puts all the riveting details on the page.

The bulk of the book is taken from journals that Holzman meticulously kept all the way from pre-production through the final phase of editing. Those entries make an eye-opening read for b-movie buffs: there's a big difference between having a theoretical understanding that exploitation filmmaking is a struggle and actually seeing how the day-to-day grind of it plays out.

These Films Break Bricks was originally designed to be a book of kung fu film posters with a little accompanying text. You can see that element of its original conception in the finished product's lavish graphic design, which incorporates an array of mind-blowing vintage poster designs drawn from several martial arts film fans' collections. However, the two authors realized they were onto something bigger and more impressive than just another coffee table book and put their writing/researching skills to the test. The result is something better than I was hoping for.