Outsiders

A gem from Francis Ford Coppola based on S.E. Hinton's novel. Teenage gang members in a mid 60's Oklahoma town become involved in murder, leading to tragic consequences for all concerned. Filmed mostly in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a very impressive list of young actors on their way to stardom.

The cast includes Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise. Also featured are Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, C. Thomas Howell, Gailard Sartain and Ralph Macchio.

A coming of age movie that packs a punch. Very much worth your time.

This movie feels very dated in terms of the way the drama is presented, but it is saved by standout performances from a laundry list of great actors cutting their teeth with the material. This is also worth watching in the present day for its portrayal of social class, and the universal theme of friends helping one another to learn, grow and survive. I also really loved that the small Midwest town isn't portrayed as a glamorous 1960s utopia, the housing is run down, businesses are shown struggling, and the feeling of growing up in a working class neighborhood is so real you can taste it. Ultimately, these things make The Outsiders worth a watch even if youre unfamiliar with source mayerial.

With this adaptation of S. E. Hinton's debut novel "The Outsiders", Francis Ford Coppola introduced a whole new generation of actors, who would go on to become some of Hollywood's biggest stars over the course of the next few years and decades. The story is a coming-off-age tale set in an unspecified American town during the early 1960s, where the dividing line between the north and south side of town, between the working-class "greasers" and the upper-class "socs", defined the upbringing, youth years and prospects for the future for all the characters we get to meet. Focusing on the greasers - and more on the ties and comradery between them than on the greaser culture as such - The Outsiders is a tenderhearted, unobtrusive film full of semi-obvious observations and character-developments. As such, it feels like the school essay that the novel more or less started out as. Still, the film has a perception and understanding for these kids, their time and their surroundings that makes it resonant and believable. Artistically, this is by no means Coppola's best work, and all of these actors would go on to deliver better work later on in their careers, but their characters and their performances have stood the test of time quite well. Look for Coppola's pal Tom Waits in a cameo as a bouncer in a bar. C. Thomas Howell won the Young Artist Award for Best Young Motion Picture Actor for his performance as Ponyboy Curtis.

First let me say that this will not be a comment where the author will be gushing about how "hot" the cast is! Like a lot of people who have commented on this film I, too, read the book first in school and then proceeded to seek out the film to see how the story translated to the screen. I thought esteemed director Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now) did a fairly competent job of adapting the book (there will always be somerevisions and omissions in such an enterprise). He preserved the essence of the class struggle: the eternal conflict between those who were better favored by birth and station (Socs) with those less favored (Greasers). Coppola elicited more than competent performances from the young up-and-coming cast he assembled. All in all, a very good coming of age film.

I might have enjoyed this a bit more if I didn't know Coppola directed it. I mean the guy who already made the Godfather films and Apocalypse Now didn't know how to properly adapt a novel seems ridiculous. One of the main problems with the film is that every frame of it tells you that it's based on a book. There really doesn't seem to have been any effort in the script other than shooting the important part of the novel and without all the details in the novel that is a disastrous choice.

Still, even with all those problems, it does manage to be pretty decent. Even though a lot of stuff does seem stupid, it tries to explore a handful of themes in a way that is also appealing to teenagers without completely losing its footing. The ensemble teenage cast is such a wonder to look back now, who would've thought a lot of them would go on to become some of the biggest names in the industry, let alone the delinquent friend side character would go on to become one of the biggest stars in the whole world. The issues dealt with seems a bit heavy-handed and artificial which wouldn't have felt as problematic if the direction was a bit more cleaner and more importantly if the writing was better.