Book vs Movie

Recently finished reading the source material for this movie: The Warriors by Sol Yurick. I'll just say it, I prefer the movie. The book does have its qualities, it's more of a social commentary and has a very Clockwork Orange feel to its writing. That said, I found the pacing to drag a bit - especially the chapters focusing on Hinton, not a whole lot of action, characters didn't get much attention, and frankly I couldn't root for such evil people (yes I get that that was the point of the book, the social commentary aspect).
Book was worth reading and interesting to compare to scenes in the movie (such as the Borinquen Blazers compared to the Orphans, or the character of Mercy, or the initial gang gathering).

I understand the changes they made for the movie, it once again amazes me that a book that had I only read on its own I would have never pictured as such an entertaining movie (Fight Club is another one, read the book sometime and compare it to the movie).

It's understandable that the author would be a bit peeved in the changes made, there's a bit of an author afterward in the copy I read where he briefly describes selling the rights to a movie-maker. Sol mentions that he had gotten two offers to make his book into a movie, the first promised to keep it close to the source material but the second one promised more money so... but at least he can be happy the movie prompted new printings of his book.


Has anyone else read the book and share your feelings?