‘Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.…’
I once opined on this very blog that The Ice Storm has the most ’90s cast ever (Kevin Kline, Tobey Maguire, Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci and Katie Holmes, thank you very much), so surely The Outsiders has the most ’80s cast ever assembled. We’re talking Matt Dillon. We’re talking Patrick Swayze. We’re talking Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez AND Tom Cruise. We’re talking the Karate Kid himself Ralph Macchio. This film could only be more ’80s if the Stay Puft Marshmallow man had appeared in the background sipping on a can of New Coke…
Two warring gangs in Tulsa, Oklahoma form a rivalry that will have disastrous consequences for all of them. Dallas (Dillon), a knife-wielding greaser, tries to hold it together in the face of violence, bad haircuts and young love.
Not only does The Outsiders feature a whole load of 80s icons, it is also directed by the great Francis Ford Coppola, and while this film never comes close to rivalling The Godfather movies or Apocalypse Now, it is still an evocative love letter to a more innocent era. Every character here looks and sounds like they have stepped straight out of a Bruce Springsteen song. This is nostalgia at its most powerful. Hell, it made me feel nostalgic for an era that ended decades before I was even born. The young cast really give it everything they’ve got with Diane Lane and C. Thomas Howell excelling as well as all of the aforementioned.
The Outsiders is a film that is as American as apple pie, but the steady hand of Coppola and the exuberance of his cast ensures that this coming-of-age tale has a universality that make it appealing for everyone. Great soundtrack too.