Silly, but after writing about Rumblefish, I felt I had to write about The Outsiders. The two films were made back to back by Coppola, both from novels by teenage writer S.E.Hinton.
If Rumblefish was Welles and Touch of Evil, then The Outsiders is Gone with the Wind. I like the film, but some kids still love it. YouTube is filled with fan trailers. The Outsiders really doesn’t belong in my list of 100 films, but it is a neat bookend with Rumblefish and worth seeing.
The main thing I want to mention about The Outsiders (which my wife finds unwatchable, by the way) is the casting. A lot of these kids made their first film appearance – look at the list – Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Ralph Machio, Emilio Estervez, Rob Lowe and more.
Lovely photography, a great star making turn from Dillon, a lovely old fashioned feel. Do the bad kids save the school children from a fire while they’re on the run for murder? You’ll have to watch it. But this is a trifle, Rumblefish is the real deal, see the blogpost previous to this one.
So, 74 films to go…
Matthew Cooper has written for Emmerdale, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs. He was winner of the first ever Lloyds Bank Channel Four Film Challenge and the Oscar Moore Screenplay Prize. His first short film starred a then unknown Ewan McGregor and was picked up by Channel Four when Matthew was 19 years old. He’s been a script writer for hire and filmmaker for hire for over 20 years.