The Outsiders

Name: The Outsiders
Genre: Drama, Romance, Crime
Released: March 25, 1983
Duration: 91 min
Rating: 45
Cast: C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio

1983

METASCORE

Mixed or average reviews based on 18 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Universal acclaim based on 158 Ratings

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8.4

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8.4	User Score Universal acclaim based on 158 Ratings

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The Outsiders

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Movie Details & Credits

Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: March 25, 1983 | PG

Starring: C. Thomas Howell, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise

Summary: The coming-of-age film based on S.E. Hinton's novel where two rival gangs fight over "turf" in 1960s Oklahoma.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Crime

Rating: PG

Runtime: 91 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

The Guardian Peter Bradshaw

This is a film that carries you along and there is an added savour in seeing those cherubic faces which have since settled into middle age. Read full review

Peter Travers

Francis Coppola's revision of his 1983 film of S.E. Hinton's best seller The Outsiders is funny, touching and revelatory, with twenty-two minutes of added footage and a new soundtrack featuring Elvis Presley. [Review of re-release] Read full review

Roger Ebert

Coppola's teenagers seem trapped inside too many layers of storytelling. Read full review

David Ansen

The loving exhumation of an earlier cinematic style suggests that the director is looking to regain his own moviemaking innocence, to make the kind of picture that moved him as a child. But you can't go home again -- not on secondhand, sentimentalized memories. In transferring Hinton's teens to the screen, Coppola and screenwriter Kathleen Knutsen Rowell have idealized them to the point of cliche. [4 Apr 1983, p.74]

Jay Scott

This is an honestly moving, ungainly film. [25 Mar 1983]

Kyle Smith

It’s as if a ruthless gang of Richie Cunninghams terrorized the Fonzies of the world. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Francis Ford Coppola's gang film is as moony about death as "One From the Heart" was over romance; the film is unremitting in its morbid sentimentality, running its teenage characters through a masochistic gamut of beatings, killings, burnings, and suicides. Read full review

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User Reviews

pietheman

Jan 28, 2016

An amazing book into an amazing film, they captured the characters amazingly with the selected actors and were able to bring many of the elements of the book to life. It was emotional and a great movie, a cinematic masterpiece.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Dall

Aug 6, 2019

Such a good movie (The original uncut version of course). Would recommend just for Dallas Winston alone.

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

wildermovreview

Jan 28, 2012

A very hard hitting and moving story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people in and around the gangs. The story follows two of the younger greasers after one of them accidently kills a rival gang member in self defence. They leave town and believe they will have toA very hard hitting and moving story about rival gangs and the effect it has on the lives of the people in and around the gangs. The story follows two of the younger greasers after one of them accidently kills a rival gang member in self defence. They leave town and believe they will have to remain on the run forever.

With a cast to die for, The Outsiders is an incredible, hard hitting film. Portrayed in a believable and moving way, the cast includes Matt Dillon, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. But Ralph Macchio stands out in this film as Johnny Cade.

The direction of Francis Ford Coppola along with stunning performances from the cast bring this film to life. You feel for the characters as they take you on an emotional rollercoaster. You laugh along with them and share in the anguish and feel the pain they all go through just to survive. It is hard not to watch the film now without comparing other films the cast have made since this film. But for many of the cast, it is up there with the finest performances of their career.

The film is an adaption of a classic novel by S.E. Hinton who was just 16 when the novel was first published in 1967. It was also her first novel. The book has become part of school English curriculum.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

laxdrew2

Dec 29, 2016

The Outsiders is a moving tale about the life of Socs and Greasers. The film is well made, and carries a classic effect along with it. One cannot help but laugh when Dally says, "Let's do it for Johnny!" An all-star cast makes the film much better than it could have been.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

Creviewer

Feb 23, 2011

The first problem, the actors not that they were bad but the fact that the movie relied on them too much. It had good action and seemed believable. Until they started talking. The problem is that it followed the book almost line by line and that made it very cheesy and the buff cool kidsThe first problem, the actors not that they were bad but the fact that the movie relied on them too much. It had good action and seemed believable. Until they started talking. The problem is that it followed the book almost line by line and that made it very cheesy and the buff cool kids would suddenly spout a line from a poem and that ruined it.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

TheMovieScene

Jun 18, 2016

Francis Coppola has made a well acted and crafted but highly conventional film out of S.E. Hinton’s popular youth novel, The Outsiders. Although set in the mid-1960s, pic feels very much like a 1950s drama about problem kids.

Screenplay is extremely faithful to the source material, evenFrancis Coppola has made a well acted and crafted but highly conventional film out of S.E. Hinton’s popular youth novel, The Outsiders. Although set in the mid-1960s, pic feels very much like a 1950s drama about problem kids.

Screenplay is extremely faithful to the source material, even down to having the film open with the leading character and narrator, C. Thomas Howell, reciting the first lines of his literary effort while we see him writing them.

But dialog which reads naturally and evocatively on the page doesn’t play as well on screen, and there’s a decided difficulty of tone during the early sequences, as Howell and his buddies (Matt Dillon and Ralph Macchio) horse around town, sneak into a drive-in and have an unpleasant confrontation with the Socs, rival gang from the well-heeled part of town.

When the Socs attack Howell and Macchio in the middle of the night, latter ends up killing a boy to save his friend, and the two flee to a hideaway in an abandoned rural church. It is during this mid-section that the film starts coming to life, largely due to the integrity of the performances by Howell and Macchio.

Howell is truly impressive, a bulwark of relative stability in a sea of posturing and pretense. Macchio is also outstanding as his doomed friend, and Patrick Swayze is fine as the oldest brother forced into the role of parent.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

ChespinJ

Jan 25, 2014

So **** stupiD! The book is even worse. I am being super super super super super nice with this review! it is a -0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001/100 stars. And that isSo **** stupiD! The book is even worse. I am being super super super super super nice with this review! it is a -0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001/100 stars. And that is super nice too. the worst author and movie ever… Expand

0 of 7 users found this helpful07

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