Outsiders-Complete Novel-Special Edition (1983)

"...a stylish and visually rich film...  Find-A-Video
"A film about the teenage years that ranks in its own lyrical way with Rebel Without A Cause and American Graffiti.  Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune
"Florid, highly stylized treatment of S. E. Hinton's best-selling book... Ambitious film...some powerful moments.  Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide

Editor's Note Set in 1966; Produced and released in 1983. Francis Ford Coppola's stylized teen melodrama is based on the popular novel by S. E. Hinton. In 1960s Tulsa, the "right" and "wrong" sides of the tracks are represented by rival gangs, the upscale Socs and the underprivileged Greasers. Darrel Curtis (Patrick Swayze) is doing his best to raise his two younger brothers, Sodapop (Rob Lowe in his first film role) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell). Sensitive Ponyboy is a budding writer in love with Cherry (Diane Lane), the unobtainable beauty from the enemy gang. When Ponyboy's buddy, troubled Johnny Cade (Ralph Macchio), kills one of the Socs in self-defense, their friend Dallas (Matt Dillon) helps the two youths hide out in an abandoned country church. There they live as exiles from a society that doesn't want them. But not all is lost, when Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dallas save some children caught in a fire they become unlikely heroes. The young cast is the jewel of this sensitive, moving film. Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez play Greasers, and pop singer Leif Garrett plays rich-kid Bob. Dillon also starred that year in another S. E.Hinton adaptation directed by Coppola--the fascinating and extremely entertaining RUMBLE FISH.

	C. Thomas Howell
	Emilio Estevez
	Matt Dillon
	Patrick Swayze
	Ralph Macchio
	Rob Lowe
	Tom Cruise
	Carmine Coppola - Musical Score
	Francis Ford Coppola - Director
	Fred Roos - Producer
	Gray Fredrickson - Producer
	Kathleen Knutsen Rowell - Screenplay
	S. E. Hinton - Based On Novel By
	Stephen H. Burum - Director of Photography

Sight and Sound
"...[A film] in which angels with dirty faces but immaculately pure hearts burn with a hard, gemlike flame..." 09/01/1983 p.287-8

Variety
"...Well acted and crafted....Howell is truly impressive....Macchio is outstanding..." 03/23/1983

Rolling Stone
4 stars out of 5 -- "THE OUTSIDERS is funny, touching and revelatory....Coppola has given the film a fullness that makes it feel freshly minted." 09/22/2005 p.116

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "THE OUTSIDERS has matured like one of Coppola's Napa Valley wines from a good movie to a really good one." 11/01/2011

Uncut
4 stars out of 5 -- "It still stands as one of the best teen movies of its era." 11/01/2011