Review of The Outsiders (1983) by Ken S — 05 Aug 2014

After the financial disaster that was "One from the Heart", Coppola took on some work in the 1980s to sort of pay off the debt he had caused himself with that film. "The Outsiders" was the first film he did for that purpose.

That's not to say he didn't try to make it a good film, but you can hardly watch this and think it was made by the man that made the "Godfather" trilogy. I didn't think the book made that big an impact on me when I read it in middle school, but apparently it did, because I could tell watching this movie that the characterizations weren't as strong as in the novel, and that not as much was explained as in the book.

You almost need the book to fully appreciate the film. I think Coppola made a well photographed film, with a young cast of up and coming actors, many of whom went on to great success, but the film didn't really knock it out of the park for me.