Outsiders
Ensemble films featuring a cast of unknowns for which all or most of them went on to become major stars (and Hollywood players) are almost always fondly remembered, although they can be few and far between (American Graffiti, Fast Times) while other films that are openly acknowledged as being classics still saw their cast members’ careers all go dead in the water literally as soon as the cameras stopped rolling (The Porky’s Trilogy), but one of the more famous and appreciated films that featured a cast of future stars was this release in 1983 based on the extremely popular high school English class standard by S.E. Hinton. It certainly had the right groove behind the camera with the legendary Francis Ford Coppola in the director’s chair, as shown by the classy, artistic style prevalent throughout its running time with excellent cinematography and framing of many shots. The acting by all involved is earnest, emotional and genuine. And the script is surprisingly faithful in many ways to Hinton’s original novel, right down to several dialogue exchanges, which in turn amplifies its main flaw into the movie that considering the story’s preoccupation with social tension and class warfare between rich kids (“The Socs”) and poor kids (“The Greasers”), Hinton (and Coppola) seem to have taken on an awfully romanticized, almost overtly poetic take on a story that would have probably worked better with a little bit more of an edgy realism, which in turn has a tendency to disconnect (mostly male) viewers from the characters and make it a little bit tougher to relate to the coming of age aspects of the story (while interestingly enough for a story with only one notable female character, the film has seemed to resonate more strongly over the years with female viewers instead). Certainly Coppola found himself moved enough to make the film after a letter writing campaign from high school kids to adapt the book into a movie that was specifically geared towards him (and the fact that the book is really considered a “children’s book” or more accurately “young adult fiction” is kind of ironic taking into account both the subject matter and some of the events that occur in it, including a murder). But it was the expert, eye catching casting that managed to push this film into the stratosphere, and there’s hardly really a bad performance amongst the whole lot, starting with C. Thomas Howell as the main character / protagonist, Ponyboy Curtis. Even as Howell himself saw his own stardom burn out the fastest as the late 80s reared their ugly head on him (including starring in the openly racist big studio “comedy”, Soul Man) before embarking on an extremely productive second career as a character actor that continues to this day, one must say that he did carry the film (at the legit age of 16) pretty damn well, bringing the required sensitivity and emotional range to the Ponyboy character whose poor white trash roots actually belied his writing ability (similar to the Gordie character in Stand By Me) and tendency to see the events of the story from a more abstract point of view without betraying the inherent toughness that he shares with the others, made even more impressive since the female Hinton saw him as her stand in for the story. Matt Dillon as the original 1960s literary bad boy Dallas Winston is also impressive, especially in the way that Dillon takes the admittedly unrealistic (for his character type anyway) PG dialogue and still makes his Dally a tough talking (and seeming) criminal youth whose own wild proclivities manage to separate him even just a little bit from his own kind who while poor but proud, don’t seem to have too much trouble with the law itself, but it’s in his own guilt and agony over a number of major plot developments that his acting becomes powerful. Patrick Swayze (at 31 the oldest major cast member) as Ponyboy’s older brother Darrel who has to work as a laborer roofing houses to support his siblings and with both their mom and dad dead, also forced to become a hardass parental figure and disciplinarian mostly due to his being so overwhelmed by his responsibilities, only to emerge at the film’s end for the big rumble with The Socs as being the entire group’s true leader brings that graceful, rock solid charisma of his to the part, truly the one guy that nobody wants to mess with due to both his size and strength, ably supported by Rob Lowe (in his film debut) as the middle brother, Sodapop Curtis, an ambling pretty boy type who, despite working in a gas station and not really being smart enough to have much of a future, is still the only member of the group that the rich girls ever seem to really notice. Emilio Estevez just slides right in there as the goofy, Mickey Mouse obsessed best buddy Two-Bit Matthews, and basically picks his spots throughout the movie wherever he can find them to steal scenes and mostly generate laughs in a comic relief capacity. And then there’s Tom Cruise (in essence the biggest future star out of them all) as the loud talking, crazy acting buddy named Steve, the smallest role out of all of them and despite the brashness, so underplayed by Cruise that many have wondered if he was hardly in the movie at all. Which brings us to Diane Lane, literally as pretty, poised, and perfect as she was ever going to be as Cherry Valance, the “Soc Chick” who daringly befriends Ponyboy (while still instructing him not to ever speak to her if she sees him in the school hallways) much to the anger of her own boyfriend but who then also harbors a strong yet repressed attraction to Dillon’s bad boy that results in a near volcanic amount of sexual tension between the two of them whenever they’re onscreen together, along with flash in the pan teen idol singer Leif Garrett grinning sadistically as the main antagonist repping the Socs. But the best performance here surprisingly belongs to future Karate Kid Ralph Macchio as the very tortured young soul Johnny Cade. Before becoming annoyingly cloying and smug in his martial arts opuses, Macchio brought to his Johnny a haunted, befuddled sadness that stays with the viewer long after the ending, all broken up inside as much by his alcoholic, abusive parents as he is by the endless bullying and put downs he endures at the hands of The Socs. And as events transpire and Johnny finds his redemption even in the face of death, does Macchio go places with his acting that none of the others really come close to. Coppola’s opening scene of Ponyboy being attacked by The Socs before the bevy of big names to be comes to his aid sets the mood perfectly, as Coppola seems to be striving to portray the purity and beauty of the nature of youth no matter the background involved, emphasizing the importance of making your life whatever you want it to be while still having a fighting chance if you happen to be young. And as over the top as things get complete with Ponyboy doing a poetry reading at sunrise with Johnny (as beautifully shot as it admittedly is), the acting overall still manages to overcome the waxy script and tendency to make things such as the rumble itself and one of the characters being shot down by the cops as sanitized of the true horror of the violence as possible. But still the message of hope for one’s own future provided they manage to steer clear of both the obvious and not so obvious pitfalls of life remains a potent moral to the story, and that is what keeps so many coming back to both the book and the movie, with its idea that while growing up poor and disadvantaged (or rich and confused) can seem like Hell at times, it can still be overcome if one just remembers to Stay Gold…
9/10