The Outsiders

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The Outsiders

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The Outsiders

C. Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe

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.

Id: 10002843

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The Outsiders Recent Reviews
  • 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!
  • ashervh
    December 19, 2009
    ashervh
    I liked this as a teenager, the only time I watched it.
  • mystardustc
    December 19, 2009
    mystardustc
    Diane Lane is smokin in this. With that being said Matt Dillon kicks ass and shows why he is such a great actor. And the small appearance of a young Tom Cruise just proves my point why he is such an awful actor. All these great young actors and the moment they give Tom some scree...( read more)n it's so obvious how bad his acting is. Never realize that Leif Garrett was in it, shit I don't think I knew who he was till VH1 dug him up years ago, but funny in retrospect.
  • childofevil2003
    December 10, 2009
    childofevil2003
    Since didn't read the book didn't know what the fuzz was about the complaints, director Francis Ford Coppola had back then!!

    Then read the book, and saw the new version Director's Cut, and understood what the fuzz was all about!!
  • OoHSoAmaZiNg
    December 5, 2009
    OoHSoAmaZiNg
    O.k so When I was in 8th grade my teacher made us read the book (which im glad she did..its one of my faves!) and then watch the movie!! I thought it was good!!All star cast!!!
  • JennieD
    December 2, 2009
    JennieD
    Usually when I watch a movie based on book the movie is lame aside the book and I keep shouting "no no no, it didnt go that way!!" etc during seeing the movie or if i had seen the movie before the book after reading the book i never felt to see the movie again. But, the outsiders...( read more) follows the story of the novel hand in hand, even some replics appears to be exactly same as in the book only little from the movie ending was missing but only so little it did not disturb me at all. Ive liked the book since the first time Ive readed it to the last times (and thats many many times between) as well as I love this movie from the each time I've seen it. No-one but coppola could create a movie like this from a book. I enjoy and I can also recommend you to read the book by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders.
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