After a hiatus from analyzing characters in the film version of The Wanderers, I’m back on the ball . . . and on to the most important characters, at least in my opinion.
Here we come to the central character in this film: Richie Gennaro. Man of the hour. He is the most complex, and, I would say, realistic character in the film. (And Ken Wahl is of course a large reason for this. He gives a great performance.)
The first glimpse we get of Richie we see that he is sex-, and possibly love-, obsessed. But very soon we realize love takes a back seat to his buddies. Richie is a very loyal guy, when it comes to friendship. Girls are a different story; girls are less friends than girlfriends, signifying not friendship but romance. Yet Richie is very loyal to his friends.
He is an interesting leader for a gang. He seems confident, but right away we see he is just as insecure as the other members of the Wanderers, especially against the Baldies. He shakes and sweats just as much as Turkey and Joey and Buddy. When Perry comes on the scene, his calmness makes you think that maybe he should be the leader instead.
But Richie has been the leader, and it seems always will be. Perry never even questions his authority. Yet Richie’s insecurities are perhaps more obvious than the other members’. This is in part because the film focuses on specifically Richie’s insecurities a lot, but also because Richie does not always act “perfectly.” He is not always tough; not always one hundred percent confident; not always steady as a rock; not always blank-faced, as one might want a gang leader to be.
See his response to the impending football game/rumble with the Del Bombers. He is nervous, and even around Despie can’t seem to hide the fact. Later, with the Wongs, he is visibly spooked, at a time when you would think he would want to assert his toughness.
Side thought: later the Wongs do come through for Richie. Why? Is it because they respect Richie and the gang—and if so, do they respect the gang as a gang, or Richie himself as a leader, or both?—or just because they see the Ducky Boys’ reign of terror as inherently unfair? Or both?
Regardless, Richie is not the toughest gang leader out there, at least judging by appearances (and in these boys’ world, everyone judges and is judged by appearances). He certainly appears much less tough than Clinton Stitch or Terror. And with the Galasso brothers, he is just another scrawny teenage kid. He feels he has to play it cool because he is the gang leader, but really he is no calmer than Buddy or Joey. He is equal to them; just another boy like they are, scared of older, powerful men whom he respects.
In short, Richie is connected to his emotions, more than the other gang leaders—because he acknowledges them. As a result he often wears his heart on his sleeve. (I’d be interested to know how he has made it in his tough neighborhood with this tendency; where did he learn to act this way? What is his family like? We don’t get any information about his family life, sadly, so we’re left to guess.) He can’t help but let some emotions seep out—most of the time.
Sometimes, though, he is utterly cool; that is, when he is with girls. Girls, to Richie, are beauty and sex, and for some reason he can keep his emotions in check with them. I would propose this is so because girls mean less to him than his friends and gang life do. When something means less to you, you care less about it, and so you have less emotion to keep in check.
Nina, of course, messes this whole system up. Richie is genuinely infatuated with her, though she’s not his girl. It is precisely because Richie is gang leader and so loyal to his friends that his betrayal of Joey is so shocking—especially shocking to Joey himself. For once (possibly the first time, judging by both Richie’s and Joey’s reactions) Richie’s loyalty goes to the girl and not to his (purportedly best) friend. For once a girl has gotten through to Richie, made him feel some real emotion, not just a conjured-up desire for sex, and he leaves his gang life for a girl.
Yet his loyalties swing back to the gang very quickly. Whether he knows he can’t have Nina or not, Richie seems more than willing to forget and get back to the way things were. Joey’s quick acceptance of Richie’s simple, heartfelt apology shows that Richie is, to his gang members, a stand-up guy (or at least was until recently), a guy his buddies trust, who is honest and truly invested in the gang members’ well-beings.
This is why Richie is leader of the Wanderers. His loyalty will ultimately always be to his friends. He doesn’t get Despie pregnant on purpose, because he loves her and wants to be with her forever; he is using her for his own enjoyment. He would never truly use his friends for his own enjoyment, at least not to the same extent I don’t think. Yes, Richie may tease his friends, even harshly at times, but he is also responsible for them, and comes through for them (most of the time). And the person he teases most, Joey, is stated more than once to be his best friend.
Richie is a bit fond of teasing, as we see in the scenes of him and Joey in Perry’s car and waiting for Nina, and by his snide remark that “Perry can sing.” Like any other teenage boy he likes a good laugh, and it seems he most teases those people about whom he most cares. But deep down he is a very serious kid. He takes things seriously and thinks deeply—even about romance, though in that case he is perhaps less serious because he’s less caring; less emotionally invested.
Thus Richie never openly teases girls, because he wants to earn their trust so he can get what he wants. I wouldn’t say Richie doesn’t care about girls—but he definitely is okay with loving and leaving them. He may or may not come through if his girl is in trouble.
While Richie’s loyalty is a positive attribute, it is also his undoing. He can’t let the gang go. This is most obvious when Joey and Perry announce their eminent departure. Richie can’t believe it. “You can’t do this to me,” he says to Joey—a plea if I ever heard one. Deep down, Richie craves loyalty, even more, I think, than sex. This is also why he is the leader of a gang; as leader, he is responsible for promoting loyalty, both in himself and in the other boys.
So Richie is a rather serious, incredibly loyal, sex-obsessed, and very typical teenage kid. He isn’t prone to thinking too much about consequences or the future. He is afraid of people who can hurt him, and admits that fear at least to himself. He seeks to hide his “negative” emotions and remain cool at all times, but utterly fails. In short, he is like every one of us. He is quite real.
CloserThanBrothers 