The Outsiders

Artsy teen melodrama in mid-60s Oklahoma from the perspective of a 16 year-old

In the Tulsa area in 1965 the rivalry between the Greasers (poor kids) and the Socs (rich kids) heats up after a gang member is killed. The Greasers supposedly responsible flee the area (C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio), but ironically end up being viewed as heroes. Matt Dillon costars while the notable peripheral cast includes the likes of Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane and Leif Garrett.

The Outsiders (1983) was one of two films Francis Ford Coppola shot back-to-back based on S.E Hintons young-adult novels. This one was successful at the box office while the even more artsy Rumble Fish (1983) failed to draw a...

Hmmm. Francis Ford Coppola has creatively produced a piece of superbly photographed and frequently quite intimate observational cinema here this is far more remarkable for it's casting than for anything especially innovative about the story or the characterisations. Indeed had seven of this cast not gone on to great and good things - to varying degrees - then I'm afraid I can't think this film would rate much better than as an interesting, "West Side Story" style derivate with neither the style nor the personalities. It is essentially a gang enmity film - the "Greasers" consisting of those at the top of the bill - (a rather toothy) Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze et al having a constant rivalry with their we...