Your Humble Commentator is not a fan of teen street gang films. There was always something hokey about the East Side Kids, and he could never take the Jets and the Sharks seriously, no matter how many immortal dance moves they put on each other. And don’t even get him started about Grease. The problem is that Hollywood has never really been sure what to make of youth gangs – the alienation, the anti-social behavior, the “otherness,” the outsidership, rather startling considering two of Hollywood’s finest moments involve the embracing of film noir and neo-noir, genres that trade in all of those attributes. When it comes to young people, however, Hollywood has always had a hard time being cynical enough to make an honest film. Real teens don’t even get on the Hollywood radar until 1955 (see Rebel Without a Cause next month).
The Outsiders (1983) should have solved all that. It certainly has the pedigree. First, its source is S. E. Hinton’s 1967 young adult novel of the same name, which, according to Great American Writers: Twentieth Century, “is recognized as the beginning of realistic young-adult fiction ... [I]ts characters cope with violence, alcoholism, and drug addiction.” Hinton’s book, and the characters it presents, is the antithesis of the John Hughes vision of the wrong side of the tracks. Johnny would kick John Bender’s butt. Whereas Hughes sees poor and blue-collar adolescents as types who wear their social class like an outfit selected at Ragstock, Hinton’s characters, on the other hand, feel the consequences of their social position and lack of resources, bitterly, sometimes fatally.
Second, the film finds itself in the capable hands of Francis Ford Coppola, whose Godfather films, The Conversation (1974), and Apocalypse Now (1979) make him arguably the best director of the previous decade. (The decades to follow are another, unfortunate story. Captain Eo, anyone?) Look for Coppola’s trademark realistic mise en scene and focus on the interweaving character’s stories. This film looks right.
Third, The Outsiders marks one of the early steps in the careers of an astounding number of young male actors: Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Ralph Macchio, Leif Garrett, and future B-movie stud C. Thomas Howell. It’s refreshing to see so many soon-to-be-famous names acting before their real name superceded their character, and that fact lends another layer of realism to the film.
So, you be the judge. Does The Outsiders result in a successful depiction not only of the dark side of adolescence, but of the twisted sanity of gang membership as antidote? Does Hinton’s realism, added to Coppola’s realistic vision, supported by young, raw actors’ realistic portrayals, make a “real” film experience? Is it, in the end, a good movie?
R. Findlay
Film Club Adviser
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