The Outsiders - a negative review

A few months back I read the excerpt from Rob Lowe’s book where he talked about being cast in The Outsiders. It got me interested, and I finally picked it up from the library and watched it last night.

That was my first mistake.

I had high hopes going in. Why wouldn’t I? Francis Ford Coppola directing a great cast, including the young Patrick Swayze, Matt Dylan, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, C. Thomas Howell, Diane Lane, and more. But it became clear very quickly that nothing was going to save this movie.
Coppola, best I can tell, was looking for a classic movie vibe, with a score that never leaves room for the teary, melodramatic dialogue to breathe. The acting is over the top. The story starts off simply enough, where the greasers and soc don’t get along.

And then, all of a sudden, 14-year-old Ralph Macchio stabs at least three people to death.

So he goes into hiding, showing little remorse after those first few minutes. He and Howell decide to return after they hear that they can claim self-defense and only be charged with a misdemeanor. Unfortunately, before they can get there, they return to the abandoned church they had been hiding in to find it ablaze … with school children trapped inside? What are the kids doing in the church? Is this a field trip? During the week that the greasers are hiding there, we see countless wild animals - raccoons, rats, and owls - running amok here. Is this really the best place to take a school bus full of 5-year-olds?

Whatever the reason, the children are trapped. The greasers go in to save them, because the teachers are just standing around saying “I think we’re missing some kids! Oh well. Back on the bus!” The church collapses and the Karate Kid is seriously hurt.

And the story in the paper the next day declares them heroes. THEY KILLED THREE PEOPLE A WEEK AGO.

So Howell (who’s name, I may have failed to mention, is Ponyboy. His brother, Rob Lowe, is Soda Pop. These are their Christian names. You name your kid Ponyboy, can you really be surprised if he’s “an outsider?”) returns home where older brother Patrick Swayze is the man of the house. The state decides the teenagers don’t need to go to a boys home, even though, again THERE ARE THREE DEAD HIGH SCHOOLERS.

Anyway, there’s a brawl between the soc and the greasers (no weapons!) and the greasers win, probably because the soc wore their Sunday best and I have to believe that hampers your flexibility in a fight. Ponyboy goes to tell Karate Kid the good news, but he dies after telling him to “stay golden” and painfully and without subtlety explaining the meaning of a Robert Frost poem.

I haven’t mentioned Matt Dylan yet. He gets top billing in the movie, but his acting is absolutely atrocious. He doesn’t take the Karate Kid’s death well, robs a gas station, leads the police to the park where the murders took place, pulls out his unloaded gun and the police shoot him many times, even after he’s fallen and is just crawling on the ground. Naturally, the greasers were there to see it.
Ponyboy writes it all down. THE END.

I understand what Coppola was going for, I think. The scene, the score, the tone, the dialogue, the editing - it’s all like a 1950s movie, only with a much darker story. But it just doesn’t mesh. The crazy plot turns completely took me out of the movie. The acting - and I realize these guys are young - was cheesy, which may have been a conscious decision, but that ruined it for me.

So, I cannot recommend this movie. But it did remind me of how awesome Patrick Swayze is. And I am officially going on a bender of his movies. So stay tuned!