The Wanderers Character Analysis: Richie Gennaro

 

Richie Gennaro. Courtesy of Kino Lorber, kinolorber.com/film/view/id/2378

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.

The Mysterious Case of Sgt. Hutchinson’s Mustache

I’m not trying to make excuses, honest, but a somewhat-unexpected class change this weekend has led to much reading and not much time for anything else. This blog post may not be the most intellectually deep I’ve posted, but I needed something light.

Still, the topic is intriguing: Detective Sergeant Hutchinson’s mustache.

In all its glory. Courtesy of chezflipper.skyrock.com.

Some people love it; some people hate it; some people don’t seem to think it makes any difference. The question is, why did Hutch grow a mustache in (or just prior to) season 4?

There are many, many ways you could explain this. These are just my thoughts on what some of those ways could be, and what my view may be personally.

You have to take into account the blend between actor and character. Ideally it shouldn’t be there of course, but especially in a visual medium like film, it is there. It just is.

I’ve researched and researched. Originally, I could only find evidence of David Soul having a mustache as Hutch. I was hoping that he only grew it for the character—and was about to make that conclusion, when I came across this photo:

Soul with Pamela McMyler. Courtesy of http://www.alamy.com.

According to Alamy, the photo is from May 17, 1978.

Now, you can never put your faith in the accuracy of these things online. But I’m not inclined to doubt the information, either. That date would put the photo squarely before filming started for season 4 of Starsky and Hutch (unless I have my timeline wrong, but I don’t think I do), which implies that Soul grew the mustache either for another acting role, or just for his own enjoyment. (Why anyone would grow a mustache for his own enjoyment is beyond me, but then, I’m not a man . . .)

I can’t find any evidence that suggests Soul grew the mustache for another role. That doesn’t mean he didn’t, but for now, I’m inclined to think he grew the mustache just for kicks. From pictures I’ve seen of him later in 1979 (from Salem’s Lot, and other music-related and off-set photos), it seems he shaved the mustache soon after Starsky and Hutch ended.

So why did he grow it? I have no idea. I can’t get into the man’s head. What I know is, he grew the ‘stache.

What he must have known was that, if he was going to keep the mustache into the fall of ’78, the mustache would radically change Hutch’s image. However, so would Soul’s longer hair, back brace, and necessarily baggy, untucked shirts. These things make Hutch appear much more casual, and to some viewers, less slender.

Of course, Soul couldn’t help his back injury. Perhaps he saw himself and realized Hutch wasn’t going to look the same anymore, no doubt about it, and he thought, What the heck, let’s keep the mustache too.

From what I know of Soul, he wouldn’t have kept the mustache without taking into consideration what it would do for the character of Hutch. Soul, along with Glaser, was incredibly invested in his character and character-building (they were the two who made Starsky and Hutch are deep as they were, I believe). He had to maintain a certain continuity . . . at least in basic personality. You could argue the mustache was a fashion change, a purely external change.

Yes, but it still changed how people viewed Hutch, and Soul had to know that. He knew he was changing his character, but for some reason went ahead with it.

Why the change? And why the fourth season? Soul had gone three seasons clean-shaven, the golden boy. Now, after several years, Hutch suddenly grows a mustache. Why would he?

Some say it’s part of the overall change of the character. While Starsky changed in the fourth season, too, he didn’t change nearly as much as Hutch. Some say Hutch, in the fourth season, has become so worn and wearied by police work (which is very probable) that he starts letting things go a little. See http://fanlore.org/wiki/Hutch%27s_Mustache.

Some people say Hutch’s attitude, even his personality somewhat, changed as well in the fourth season, which I think is easily backed up (see the previous link as well as the excellent Compendium, https://archiveofourown.org/works/5815615), but that’s for another post.)

Others say he grew his mustache to assert his masculinity, citing sexual tension between him and Starsky (see above Fanlore link)—which I toss right out the window.

Or maybe Hutch just wanted to have a little fun.

I’m inclined to believe the first view, because of another factor. It’s obvious David Soul and David Starsky were both aging (as if people don’t age!); even though only four years had gone by by the end of season 4, still, four years had gone by. Both men were closer to forty than thirty.

You can see this in Soul’s face by the end of season 3. Still, there is a drastic difference in season 4. It’s true that mustaches make men look older; perhaps the mustache or ever-lengthening hairstyle contribute to this impression. But there are lines on Hutch’s face in season 4; so many lines. It’s like the man aged a million years in a few months.

From “Class in Crime,” season 3 episode 18. Not the best shot, but you can see the aging even here. Courtesy of http://www.starskyandhutch.info.

 

From “Deckwatch,” season 3 episode 23, the last episode of the season. Courtesy of starsky-hutch.livejournal.com.

 

First episode of season 4, “Discomania,” and the ‘stache has appeared. Courtesy of http://www.pinterest.com.

 

Another shot from the same episode. The shirt is tucked in, but look at that face. Courtesy of http://www.gettyimages.in.

(That raises another question, of course, of how much time is supposed to have passed between seasons 3 and 4—but that’s not for this post.)

He just looks older. Starsky does, too, but at times he doesn’t. Hutch, on the other hand, looks older all the time.

I have a hard time believing Soul didn’t just miss that fact. I don’t know if he and Glaser got to see film of season 4 before it aired, but I would bet they saw something of themselves. If Soul (or the director, or producer) didn’t want Hutch to look so aged, he would have done something about it. Makeup, hair change, different lighting. Something. But obviously Soul was okay with the look.

Which tells me he meant for Hutch to look older. Which meant Hutch was undergoing some serious changes, and probably some serious struggles.

Which is why I support the first opinion I listed, that the brutality of police work is finally catching up to Hutch (it did take a long time, but hey, he can be pretty idealistic underneath the surface), and as a result of the stress—and the doubts he has, perhaps, of continuing in police work (see Targets Without a Badge especially)—he looks older.

Maybe I’m making a lot of assumptions. But I have to explain that ‘stache somehow, otherwise I might just go crazy every time I see it. (If you can’t tell already, I lean more towards the camp that doesn’t like the mustache—only because I’ve seen Hutch without one for so long. But, what can you do.)