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Title: The Outsiders (1983)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| C. Thomas Howell | ... | Ponyboy Curtis | |
| Matt Dillon | ... | Dallas Winston | |
| Ralph Macchio | ... | Johnny Cade | |
| Patrick Swayze | ... | Darrel Curtis | |
| Rob Lowe | ... | Sodapop Curtis | |
| Emilio Estevez | ... | Two-Bit Matthews | |
| Tom Cruise | ... | Steve Randle | |
| Glenn Withrow | ... | Tim Shepard | |
| Diane Lane | ... | Cherry Valance | |
| Leif Garrett | ... | Bob Sheldon | |
| Darren Dalton | ... | Randy Anderson | |
| Michelle Meyrink | ... | Marcia | |
| Tom Waits | ... | Buck Merrill | |
| Gailard Sartain | ... | Jerry | |
| William Smith | ... | Store Clerk | |
Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1965. Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is the youngest of three orphaned brothers who live on the north side of town, the "wrong side" of the tracks. Sensitive Ponyboy used to have a good relationship with his oldest brother Darrel, but since Darrel became the household caregiver, he is always on Ponyboy's case. Caught in the middle is third brother Sodapop, who dropped out of school to work full time. They all belong to The Greasers, a gang of boys from the north side also from working class families, often broken. Ponyboy's main concern is that any problem they may encounter, especially in their Greaser activities, will lead to the authorities splitting up their family. He also believes Darrel would have outgrown them and become something in his life if it wasn't for his loyalty to the gang, and the need to take care of the family. The rest of the world sees the Greasers as all the same, the face being Dallas Winston, the most volatile one who has just been released... Written by Huggo
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2/4
Before I critique the movie (which will be painful to do) I would like to observe the pools of talent involved in the making of this movie. We have director Francis Ford Coppola (known for The Godfather and Apocalypse Now) working with C. Thomas Howell, Tom Cruise, Emilio Estevez, and Patrick Swayze. The classic S. E. Hinton novel adaption is, for lack of better words, not very good.
This film seems very textbook, and that's the main reason I wasn't a fan. Coppola refuses to stray from the confines of the book. In other words, it's not original. He teamed up with Hinton to try and provide the audience the most accurate presentation of the book, and that's something I very much respect. However, staying with source material doesn't mean you should the very camera angles predictable.
One thing the movie succeeds at addressing is its title-you feel like an outsider. Coppola has skill at developing characters at a steady pace, and then developing the characters relationships. This is a real shame, because it feels Coppola is giving his actors more depth then they can handle. The performances from Howell and Macchio (the two main characters) are unfortunately the most inept on the set. They can't convey their roles with the proper gusto.
One thing I really enjoyed about The Outsiders is the atmosphere. He was able to portray the times well. Coppola put effort into creating the feel of a 50's Oklahoma town. It's a very subtle touch, but I throughly enjoyed it.
When it comes down to it, The Outsiders is not a bad movie, but it's definitely no good either. It does a great job of re-telling the book in the exact same way, which for me was a pointless excersise.