Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Excellent but underrated film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Forget the reviews. Watch the movie. This movie grows and grows and grows and now has a place as a classic. Not only is it a great cast that will never be assembled, but it is a great combination of male angst and 80s acting and directing. It is not a story of good versus evil but is the story of people in social stratification that are both desperately trying to break out. There are scenes in here that perfectly detail male bonding and brotherhood that deserve a good look. Do yourself a favor and spend an afternoon.

"The Outsiders" is an American/French co-production from 1983 that resulted in this English language film that is going to have its 35th anniversary next year. The director here is a certain Francis Ford Coppola and a decade after taking us into the world of organized crime, he takes us now into the world of youth gangs that commit a fair share of their own crimes as well. If you see the names of Dillon, Macchio, Lowe, Cruise, Flea, Waits, Estevez and others in here, you will find a group of young actors that managed tremendous careers in the years or even decades to come. It is somewhat ironic that next to all these big names, C. Thomas Howell did not manage a huge breakthrough as he is probably playing the most central character in here. Coppola's very young daughter Sofia, an Oscar winner now, is in it too briefly. The biggest female character is played by the tremendously beautiful Diane Lane back then and even she does not have that much screen time. It's all about the boys. The film is certainly channeling stuff like West Side Story, Rebel without a Cause and some early Marlon Brando works a bit, so it is definitely not FFC's most original work. But like I wrote in the title, it is still easy to enjoy this movie if you give it the right approach. Don't go in it expecting Godfather quality. I personally think it could have been a bit shorter and more focused, but then again I watched the version that comes close to two hours and not the original 90-minute version. I suggest you go for that one instead perhaps. The film was successful enough for them to make a television show afterward and I see that one was pretty successful too, even if it only ran for one short season. Back to the movie, I see this was discussed pretty controversially. Some loved it, some think it's garbage. Decide for yourself. I think it was a good watch from that moment on when it really started to focus on three characters only. Those were the days when you could be called Ponyboy or wear a Mickey Mouse shirt and people still think you're badass. The ending with the faces (and even more the words) of the two dead characters may have been a bit on the pretentious side, but I can forgive them for it because Macchio really gives a good performance and portrays the most memorable character in here, a really good kid that makes a not necessarily wrong decision with horrible consequences, but stays a loyal friend and saves even some kids' lives later on. A perfect example of how his financial situation and as a consequence the people he hangs out with really literally destroy his life. Oh yeah and they really are outsiders as police only care for them when they have to shoot them. A good outcome here I would say and if you like Elvis, you are in for an even bigger treat. Go check it out.

The Outsiders is a coming-of-age movie about the rivalry of two gangs, "Socs" and "Greasers" in 1960s Oklahoma. Based on the novel by S.E. Hinton and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, the movie is well known for casting future stars namely, C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Diane Lane and Rob Lowe.The Socs are rich kids who live in the south side of town whereas Greasers are mostly middle working class and poor kids who are from the other side of town. After an incident, the rivalry quickly escalates and they must face off each other for a final time which determines who really "owns" the town and also the fate of everyone involved.

The Outsiders (1983) takes place in a Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1965, the town is split between the rich teens in the southern part of Tulsa that formed their own gang known as " The Socials" aka Soc's and the poorer teens in the north that also have their own gang called " The Greasers". The main characters of the film are Sodapop, Ponyboy, Dallas, Johnny, and Darry just to name a few. Well one day Dallas, the leader of The Greasers and to be honest a little psychotic, Ponyboy and Johnny go to the drive-ins and meet the rich Cherry Valance and Marcia. Ponyboy and Cherry hit it off and that doesn't sit well with Cherry's boyfriend Bob so the Socs decide to go looking for Ponyboy and Johnny. They find them at a park and when they tried to drown Ponyboy, Johnny stabbed Bob to keep him from killing his friend in the fountain. From there the boys go on the run from the cops while the two rival gangs prepare to fight it out. The Outsiders was adapted from the book with the same name written by S.E. Hinton, which was a complete hit with young adult readers, and was directed by the Francis Coppola who is best known for The Godfather series. Francis Coppola had this Apocalypse Now vibe going on during this time in his career, his adaption was a little mystical and darker than the novel. He used sudden thunderstorms, less lighting, and sunsets all of which can disappear just as quickly as they arrived which can be symbolic of the chaotic times of the characters themselves. Coppola does something really interesting, he basically eliminates the adults from the film allowing the viewers to focus that much more on the teenagers. Coppola used various editing techniques and angles, one of the more prominent uses of editing in the movie is the use of fading between scenes for a smooth transition. Also used was a type of montage when Ponyboy and Johnny were on the run so we saw quickly exactly how they got from point A to point B. Coppola also liked to layer the shots at times such as the ending when ponyboy is reading the letter from Johnny, whose face is transparent speaking the words as Ponyboy reads it. At times it seemed to me that something was off about the movie as I re-watched it for the first time in years and I pinpointed it to few things. One would be that at times the movie seemed to be dragging along and some of the characters do not have a lot of depth to them being very one dimensional, like Dallas for example being the bad boy exemplified. Another is that Coppola ended the movie in a very strange, some would say horrible way with no real sense of closure since it ends abruptly without Johnny going to trial so we the audience have no idea what happened to him. A small complaint that I have noticed from when I watched this with friends that did not read the book is that they found it very hard to keep up with the relationships of the many characters in the movie. This movie was the start of many actors careers who would go on to dominate Hollywood. C. Thomas Howell played Ponyboy and won the Young Artist Award in 1984. Matt Dillon who played Dallas went on to star in many movies and was nominated for an award for his portrayal of a racist cop in Crash(2004). Rob Lowe who played Sodapop who is Ponyboy and Darrell's brother went on to star in one of my favorite TV shows Parks and Recreation. Tom Cruise plays Rob Lowes best friend Steve who's obsessed with cars and of course we all know him from such movies as Mission Impossible(1996 ). Ralph Macchio played Johnny and also one of my all time favorite characters Daniel in Karate Kid (1984). Many other actors also rose to fame after this movie, it was completely action packed.The reviews for The Outsiders were largely not so good such as Richard Corliss from Times wrote "Alas, The Outsiders is not quite a good one. Because it falls in with the undulating rhythm of the life of its heroes, for whom a fatal fight and a quiet night have almost equal importance, the picture never manages to reach the peaks of satisfying Hollywood melodrama." I fully believe that this is because at the time when S.E Hinton wrote the novel she was only 15 years old and of course the content is not going to be very deep but it was a huge success because teenagers could relate to the characters.In conclusion I believe that it is very easy to be hard on the movie for what it could have been, but Coppola expertly made do with what he had plot wise keeping as close to the original content as he could. That is with the exception of the ending, but it was a very powerful movie that evoked a sense of what it was like to be a teenager that resonates with many people who watch it. Even if you do not like the movie it is undeniable that the movie gave rise to so many actors that went on the dominate Hollywood in both their young adult lives and all the way up until the present. Perhaps we would not have seen Patrick Swayze inspire us to dance in Dirty Dancing or watch as Ralph Macchio teach us Karate in Karate Kid with The Outsiders. With that being said The Outsiders although having mixed reviews was and continues to be talked about and watched even today.