The Outsiders poster & wallpaper

C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio

When two poor greasers, Johnny, and Ponyboy are assaulted by a vicious gang, the socs, and Johnny kills one of the attackers, tension begins to mount between the two rival gangs, setting off a turbule...( read more  read more... )nt chain of events.

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82% liked it

114,732 ratings

Critics

65% liked it

31 critics

PG, 1 hr. 31 min.

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola

Release Date: March 25, 1983

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DVD Release Date: November 30, 1999

Stats: 7,646 reviews

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Rob Lowe (aged 16/17) The Outsiders The Outsiders Rob Lowe as Sodapop Curtis Rob Lowe as Sodapop Curtis Rob Lowe as Sodapop Curtis The Outsiders Darrel Curtis The Outsiders group outside The Outsiders The Outsiders Dallas and Johnny C. Thomas Howell Rob Lowe (aged 16/17) C. Thomas Howell C. Thomas Howell Johnny Cade/ Ralph Macchio
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Flixster Reviews (7,646)

  • pier007
    October 21, 2009
    pier007
    Coppola's talent behind the camera is undeniable. I particularly like Ponyboy's memoirs at the theater after he sees "the hustler" and the "nothing gold can stay" moment with his partner Johnny.
    Although it is a big catalog of precious instants, I couldn't help but notice some un...( read more)inspiring over sentimentality that made me roll my eyes a few times.
    Pity the story couldn't match the artistry of its images or its brilliant collection of old songs.
  • SirPant
    September 23, 2009
    SirPant
    I remember how cool this film was at the time. Brat Pack classic!
  • hypathio7
    April 27, 2009
    hypathio7
    Stevie Wonder's song Stay Gold, early performances by Lane, Dillon, Swayze, and Lowe, and Coppola's direction of the material all combine into a stellar whole. The relationships between the characters are more believable. I don't really get their names, but all the young actors...( read more) give such committed performances that I'm willing to accept some ambiguous nicknames. The poetry and relationships really helps raise this to being more meaningful.
  • allan913
    October 5, 2008
    allan913
    One of the great film classics of the 1980's. One of the best novel to film adaptations ever. A masterpiece by Director, Frances Ford Coppola. A brilliant, stylish and exhilerating drama. A bold, beautiful, powerful and emotionally gripping powerhouse piece of work. It's performe...( read more)d by an excellent cast of actors, all the "Greats" have to start somewhere and some of the best performers started with this amasing movie. A story of friendship, loyalty and brotherhood that stands out as some of the best elements to describe this movie.
  • FangsFirst
    February 8, 2008
    FangsFirst
    THIS REVIEW REFERS TO THE "COMPLETE NOVEL" VERSION.

    For the first time in the mass of reviews I've done since I started doing them, yes, I did in fact read the book. Unfortunately, I read the book about 10 years ago for class. It was voluntary (sort of, it was out of a list, and...( read more) I picked it, curiously enough) but it was still for class and still 10 years ago. I have also only seen the original cut of the film once, and it was over 2 years ago. So, this is pretty fresh viewing for me, and I can't accurately compare it to my previous experience, so it's going to end up just as lacking in comparison to previous incarnations as usual (but probably continuing to have completely "Huh?"-inducing illogical comparisons).

    The Outsiders is Francis Ford Coppola's adaptation of S.E. Hinton's classic novel, one which he made essentially because a classroom voted for him to do it and he was touched. Hey, no complaints here. Ponyboy Curtis, the character the book centers on, is here played by C. Thomas Howell, who I am forever stuck associating with the disturbing Soul Man, even though I haven't seen it. He is the youngest of three brothers--the others being Darry (Patrick Swayze) and Sodapop (Rob Lowe)--who live with each other and no one else after the deaths of their parents. They live on the North side of town (a change from the East/West dynamic of the novel, but supposedly the original and true separation) and are thus "greasers," along with their friends Dally (Matt Dillon), Two-Bit (Emilio Estevez), Johnny Cade* (Ralph Macchio, yes, the Karate Kid) and Steve Randle (Tom Cruise). The counterpoint to the greasers are the "socs" (for the life of me I had no idea what that was when I read it, pronouncing it "sock" in my head, as I never connected it to "social," and thinking it sounded awfully awkward--and that's probably the one thing I DO remember from the viewing of the first movie, is hearing that it was indeed "sosh") who are the south-side residents, all with more money than the poor greasers, and in conflict over this and the inevitable ridiculous delineations that humans are bound and determined to make.

    The story is essentially the introduction of Ponyboy to the harshness of the world as it is, the reader (or in this case, viewer) being introduced to the world of greasers and socs, and the introduction of an element of hope, dissatisfaction with conflict and idealism. Ponyboy and Johnny, as the youngest of the greasers we meet, are constantly harassed by the older socs, who all have the money to drive "tough" cars (ie, Mustangs generally) around and thus can catch up to them and also drive off quickly. They conflict most heavily when Ponyboy and Johnny run across Cherry (Diane Lane) and her friend at the drive-in theatre, the girlfriends of socs. The drunken socs--including Bob, played by Leif Garrett--do not take kindly to the friendly feelings the girls have toward the two young "delinquents," (OK, they do carry blades and smoke constantly...) and start a fight in the park. Tragedy strikes and Ponyboy and Johnny are forced to skip town.

    The most important acting appearance here in my book is the brief and early appearance of one Tom Waits. Yeah, that Tom Waits, as Buck Merrill, who brings Dally to the two distraught youths when they find themselves in trouble. But seriously, it's interesting to see the early appearances of so many actors who went on to more. Not always much more (Macchio, Howell--I'm looking at you two) and in no cases their very first appearance, but all are ridiculously young. Tom had yet to get his teeth fixed, a massive gap between his front incisors making him a little more like a real person than he is these days. They're all a little shaky, though considering their ages (Macchio and Swayze the oldest, with Macchio only 20) it's nothing that can't be set aside, and almost helps with the naïveté they are conveying as these youthful characters anyway.

    Again, I can't remember the book perfectly, and certainly I thought the incident in the park was more important in terms of the time taken up or its place in the chronology than it ended up here, but that may have been selective memory taking the event that most made an impression on me and assuming that impression was a natural result of the reading, not a reorganization by my brain. Still, I do feel that, as best I recall, this thoroughly captures the book, and I'm certainly glad to have seen an edition that contains so much more footage, especially of the group of friends that allows them to be established before they are "used" in a scene. It certainly helps a lot with my positive feelings about Coppola after the 70s, when he became a little more hit-or-miss and eventually mostly just a producer with questionable taste.

    I was wary of the newly rockabillified soundtrack that I had heard rumoured for the film, but it was actually extremely fitting and did not intrude at all--but, again, this isn't something ingrained in my memory already, so that may just be me. It felt just absolutely right to me though, even if occasionally I wondered if the music was anachronistically prescient.

    *Gosh, somehow that name makes me think of Mack Cade in Robert R. McCammon's Stinger, which is my bizarre youthful association for "coming of age" in my own life. That's random and probably almost anyone who reads this will have no earthly clue what that book is, and will wonder what the hell I'm talking about. Alas, the book is "out of stock indefinitely" with the publisher, but easy to pick up cheap--I highly recommend it if you like strong characters and have a stomach for gore and violence, as well as science fiction elements. It's hard to mention those things and convey the depth of the characterization in the book, but oh well. Gosh, I'm wildly off topic...footnote it is!
  • dianacarter71
    November 20, 2009
    dianacarter71
    I must of seen this movie 100 times when I was a teenager. Not so much for the acting but more for the hot guys. it still is a very good movie.
  • bronzlox1
    November 19, 2009
    bronzlox1
    Stay golden, Ponyboy. I also love Matt Dillon.
  • ricardomanzanarez
    November 17, 2009
    ricardomanzanarez
    QUIERO VERLA LA E BUSCADO MUCHO
  • HateYouIgnorant
    October 31, 2009
    HateYouIgnorant
    !Comercial or Stupid! :|
  • citawijaya
    October 25, 2009
    citawijaya
    The movie itself is just an OK .. but whereas can you see young Hollywood hunks together in 1 movie. It's eye catching. Tom Cruise looks hot here..

View All The Outsiders Reviews

Critic Reviews

September 9, 2005
Kyle Smith, New York Post

A deeply strange film that gives '60s hoodlums the personalities of Care Bears and places them under constant attack from preppies in pastel sweaters. full review

September 9, 2005
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Francis Coppola's revision of his 1983 film of S.E. Hinton's best seller The Outsiders is funny, touching and revelatory. full review

October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

There's not much life in this movie, or spontaneity. It's a stylistic exercise. full review

View more The Outsiders reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • ilovetheeightiesforever
    April 19, 2009
    ilovetheeightiesforever
    This is a very good movie!!!!!!!!!! At first I thought I wouldn't like it but I am very glad that I did watch this movie. It has alot of super great actors in it too.
  • ajischillin
    July 15, 2008
    ajischillin
    http://www.tomcruise.com/tom-cruise-vanilla-sky-movie.html
  • IHeartIndia
    July 1, 2008
    IHeartIndia
    i luvvv this movie
    we read the book and watched the movie as a class in 7th grade
    its the best
    soda is soooooooo hott
    and steve looks wierd
  • mrd299
    June 17, 2008
    mrd299
    i watchd this movie like 3 times and i love it and i read the book and i dont even like to read
  • xXxLuvinhimxXx
    June 5, 2008
    xXxLuvinhimxXx
    omg i love this movie this is my fav movie i love the uncut one the cut one is ok but dont like thats why i like the uncut one and i think ponyboy is fuckin hot and sexy and so is sodapop well i love them and i love the book
  • pavacri23
    May 30, 2008
    pavacri23
    i was trying to watching it but it was too old for me
  • acornmel
    May 16, 2008
    acornmel
    OMG I TOTALLY LOVE THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE. Why did johnny and Dally have to die!! boo-hoo! Its a story i would definetly want to hear over and over again....:D
  • JonRichieDavidTicoRTheBest
    April 23, 2008
    JonRichieDavidTicoRTheBest
    This Is such an awsome movie.....it will "STAY GOLD" forever!
  • aliphant1
    March 15, 2008
    aliphant1
    The movie is ah-mazing
    the book is bettr
    I think that Ponyboy is HAWT
    CORRECTION he waz hawt
    Same w/ Matt dillon
    He was hawt wen he waz a teen
    now he is basically ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
  • NaZzEmoKitty604
    February 21, 2008
    NaZzEmoKitty604
    haha wow.. man, i LOVE The Outsiders. We read the book at school and i watch the Movie online all the time. bestest thing that's ever happened to me! and about the complete novel version.. MUCH BETTER. me and my friends [who are obsessed with me] call the first version the Gay version and the complete novel the straight version. hha(:
    and the music thing.. yeahh. the music is much better. i mean, why do they need to play Gloria three times?! i mean, it's an ahmazing song, but THREE different times?! hha I like the train song(:
    wow.. i LOVE this movie. It's the only reason i'm living=]
    DALLY IS HOTT<33
    haa
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The Outsiders Trivia

  • What book do the boys read while in hiding in The Outsiders?  Answer »
  • In The Outsiders, which book does Johnny want Ponyboy to read to him?  Answer »
  • Which movie featured all of the following actors? -Patrick Swayze -Rob Lowe -Tom Cruise -Ralph Macchio  Answer »
  • What movie did all the following people star in: Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, C Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, and Emilio Estevez?  Answer »
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