Review of The Outsiders (1983) by Del T — 09 May 2010

Coppola's film of SE Hinton's seminal novel satisfies, despite some overripe acting by a young cast of soon to be Hollywood A listers. In the battle of the teenage gangs, the Greasers vs the Soces, the best performance belongs to Matt Dillon. He dominates the screen, even when Tom Cruise, Patrick Swazye, Emilio Estevez and Rob Lowe are trying to muscle each other off the screen with their macho posturing. Only the stunningly photographed Diane Lane can match Dillon for screen presence.

The real story belongs to pre Karate Kid Ralph Macchio and post ET, C Thomas Howell. On the run from the law, their bond and mutual appreciation of poetry, sunsets, and Gone With The Wind could be cloying, but is presented so earnestly by Coppola, you buy it.

And I love how Coppola pays homage to Gone With The Wind : for example : the opening, screen filling, title credit movement from right to left mirrors GWTW's title opening; and the sunset scene with Macchio and Howell, is framed and color coded to match Scarlett's famous camera pullback sunrise scene in which she utters, " As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again". One can only hope today's teenage movies could show as much class. I doubt it.