Review of The Outsiders (1983) by Yas V — 06 Feb 2015
After the critical and commercial battering he got for One From The Heart (1982), Francis Ford Coppola needed a hit quickly to claw back some of the money he lost and owed. He was sent a letter by pupils from Lone Star Elementary School in Fresno, California, asking if he would do an adaptation of S.
E. Hinton's 1967 youth novel, The Outsiders. Coppola saw potential, and it gave him a much needed hit. Set in 1965, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greasers are a rough gang, consisting of Ponyboy Curtis (C.
Thomas Howell) and his two older brothers, Sodapop (Rob Lowe) and Darrel (Patrick Swayze), as well as Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio), Dallas Winston (Matt Dillon), Two-Bit Matthews (Emilio Estevez), and Steve Randle (Tom Cruise).
They get into scrapes with the Socs, who consist of Bob Sheldon (Leif Garrett) and Randy Adderson (Darren Dalton). When one of their scrapes ends in murder, there's a chance that Johnny could go to jail, his only hope is running away, and along with Ponyboy, they head for Texas, but tensions are high, and the Socs want a rumble.
It's a well made youth film, showing it wasn't all flower power in the 1960's, but Coppola gets the best out of the young cast, who became known as the Brat Pack, and some of them went on to greater things.
Coppola wasn't finished with Hinton's work just yet, he filmed Hinton's 1975 book Rumble Fish back to back with this.
This review of The Outsiders (1983) was written by Yas V on 06 Feb 2015.
The Outsiders has generally received positive reviews.
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