The Outsiders (film) Totally Explained

Everything about The Outsiders Film totally explained

The Outsiders is a film adaptation of the novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton, and was made in 1983 by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie was released in March 1983, and re-released on September 2005. A middle school class was responsible for inspiring Coppola to make the movie. The Outsiders is noted for being the breakout film of many future stars. The movie earned C. Thomas Howell a Young Artist Award, became the first Brat Pack movie when casting Rob Lowe and Emilio Estevez as supporting Greasers, and further establishing the careers of Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, and Diane Lane. Both Lane and Dillon went on to appear in Coppola's related film Rumble Fish.

Background Information

The main characters are the Curtis brothers, Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry, and their friends Johnny Cade, Dallas Winston, Steve Randle,and Keith "Two-Bit" Mathews. Together, they're a gang of greasers in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1967. The story is narrated by Ponyboy. The Curtis boys are orphaned after their parents are killed in a car accident. As a result, Darry forgoes college to care for his brothers so that the family will stay together.
The Greasers are, at first glance, the common stereotype of the juvenile delinquent. Their nickname is derived from the grease they use to slick back their long hair. The Socs (pronounced soashes, an abbreviation of Socialites) are the "haves" to the Greasers' "have nots." Although "The Outsiders" may seem to refer to the alienated Greasers, both groups are set back by economic, social, or creative limits.

Plot

This synopsis is of the 1983 original release. The movie begins with Ponyboy wondering about how to write the story (or the whole movie) until he begins with the beginning of the novel, followed by the credits. After the credits, the scene shifts to when Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny sneak into a drive-in theater and seat themselves behind two Soc (pronounced "sohsh") girls, Cherry and Marcia. Dally starts flirting with the girls and refuses to leave them alone until Johnny tells him to back off. Dally leaves, and the girls ask Ponyboy and Johnny to sit with them. Later, the boys are walking the girls home when their drunken boyfriends catch up to them in their Mustang. Bob and Randy are itching to fight, but Cherry defuses the situation by asking Bob and Randy to take Marcia and her home. Johnny and Ponyboy go to a vacant lot and end up falling asleep. When Ponyboy goes home, Darry is upset with worry and, during the confrontation, hits Ponyboy. Ponyboy runs from the house back to the vacant lot and wakes Johnny. They go to a nearby park to cool off.
   At the park, Ponyboy and Johnny are confronted and harassed by Bob, Randy, and their friends. The Socs try to drown Ponyboy in a fountain, but flee after Johnny draws his switchblade and stabs Bob to death. Ponyboy and Johnny seek help from Dally, who gives them a loaded gun, money, and directions to an abandoned church in Windrixville, where they're to hide out until Dallas comes to retrieve them.
   Ponyboy and Johnny cut off their hair to make themselves less recognizable, and Ponyboy bleaches his hair blond with peroxide. The boys pass the time by smoking cigarettes, playing cards, and eating baloney sandwiches. Ponyboy also reads to Johnny from a paperback copy of Gone with the Wind and shares the Robert Frost poem Nothing Gold Can Stay with him. Ponyboy confesses that he never quite understood the poem.
   A week later, Dally comes to visit the boys and takes them to get some hot food. Dallas tells Ponyboy and Johnny that Cherry is willing to stick up for them to the authorities. Johnny says that he and Ponyboy want to go home and turn themselves in, which upsets Dally. Nevertheless, he starts the drive back home, by way of the church to get their small amount of stuff.
   Ponyboy and Johnny return to the abandoned church to find out the church is on fire. When they hear the cries of children trapped inside, Ponyboy and Johnny both run in to rescue them. They get all the children out safely. Ponyboy escapes the inferno, but a roof beam collapses and falls on Johnny, who is still inside. Dally immediately moves to rescue Johnny. Dally, Ponyboy, and Johnny are taken to the hospital. Dally has minor injuries in his arm, and Ponyboy is basically unhurt, but Johnny is in critical condition with severe burns and a broken lower back. Darry and Sodapop reunite with Ponyboy and, as the brothers hug each other tightly, Darry cries openly, (something he hadn't done in years, not even at his parents funeral) relieved that Ponyboy is alive. Johnny asks for a new copy of Gone with the Wind to replace the one lost in the fire.
   The next day, Ponyboy is resting at home when Steve and Two-Bit come over. They show him a newspaper article that calls Ponyboy, Johnny, and Dally heroes for rescuing the children in Windrixville, and that Johnny is being charged with manslaughter for killing Bob. Even though Randy and the other Socs had admitted that they'd been the aggressors, and that Ponyboy and Johnny were only defending themselves, Bob's death at Johnny's hands has sparked the call for a gang fight, or a "rumble," from the Socs.
   The day of the rumble, Randy seeks out Ponyboy and admits that he doesn't want to fight in the rumble, nor will he, because he feels that no matter what the outcome, nothing would change. He has grown weary of all the fighting, is ready to leave town just to get away from it, and wanted to tell someone who he felt would understand how he feels.
   Dally breaks out of the hospital to join in the rumble. The rumble begins, ending with the Greasers victorious. As the Greasers revel in their win, Dallas and Ponyboy rush to the hospital. Dally tells Johnny about the Greasers' victory, but Johnny doesn't seem interested. Dally then tells Johnny that he's proud of him, which fills the younger boy with happiness. Johnny looks over at Ponyboy and tells him to "stay gold," and with that, Johnny dies. Completely heartbroken, Dally flees from the room.
   Ponyboy returns home to tell the rest of the gang that Johnny is dead and that Dally ran off. The gang is worried about what Dally might do, and their worry becomes alarm when Darry receives a phone call from Dally, who had robbed a convenience store and was now being pursued by the police. He tells the gang to meet him at the vacant lot. The gang races to the vacant lot to intercept Dally, but they're too late; Dally is already surrounded by police officers. He pulls out an unloaded gun, in the hopes that he'll be shot to death by the police. His plan succeeds in front of his horrified friends. The novel explains that, after losing Johnny, Dally lost the will to live.
   Days later, Ponyboy is flipping through the copy of Gone With the Wind that Johnny had left behind and finds a letter from Johnny, addressed to him. Johnny's letter explains that the phrase "staying gold" in the Frost poem means to never lose the appreciation for the things one finds wondrous when one is young. He urges Ponyboy to tell Dally about it. The film ends with him writing the opening line of the film, which is also the first line of the novel: When I stepped out into the bright sunlight, from the darkness of the movie house, I'd only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home...

Production
Francis Ford Coppola never actually wanted to make a movie about teen angst. What changed his mind was a middle school class, great fans of The Godfather, wrote to him about making a sort of gangster film, except about The Outsiders. When he read the book, he was moved and not only directed the film, he also adapted Rumble Fish into a movie the year after, again with Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, and Glenn Withrow.
   Dallas falling out of his seat at the drive-in was unplanned.
   The actors playing the Socs were put in luxury hotel accommodations and given leather-bound scripts, while the Greaser-actors were put on the ground floor and received tattered scripts. Coppola is said to have done this to create tension between both groups before filming. The cast played pranks on each other and the hotel staff during the shoot. Years later, Tom Cruise met someone who worked at the the hotel, and when he discovered that it was the same hotel where he and the rest of the cast had stayed, his first words were, "I'm sorry."
   Francis Ford Coppola went to arbitration unsuccessfully for the writing credits of this film.
   Two-Bit's fascination with Mickey Mouse, as shown in a later scene in the film, was thought up by Emilio Estevez, who approached the character as a "laid back, easy-going guy." This could also be a reference to a deleted scene (not included on the DVD) where Ponyboy tells Cherry about Sodapop's horse riding career and love for a horse named Mickey Mouse. The scene was also intended to highlight that Sodapop's having already suffered some heartbreak before his girlfriend leaves him, as well as the brothers' own sense of loss, but Coppola cut it because he felt it slowed the film's pace down.
   The film was shot on location in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The drive-in is the Admiral Twin, still going strong in 2008.
   Coppola filmed The Outsiders and Rumble Fish back-to-back in 1982. He wrote the screenplay for the latter while on days off from shooting the former. Many of the same locations were used in both films, as were many of the same cast and crew members.
   The credits are shown at the beginning of the movie in the style normally found in a published play.
Music
While the film's score was composed by Carmine Coppola and the main title song is sung by Stevie Wonder (Stay Gold), the film also contains many songs that were hits from the time that the film takes place (the 1960's). These hit songs include:

Real Wild Child - Jerry Lee Lewis
Out of Limits - The Marketts
Tomorrow is a Long Time - Bob Dylan (performed by Elvis)
Mystery Train - Elvis Presley
We're Gonna Move - Elvis Presley
Lend Me Your Comb - Carl Perkins
Milky White Way - Elvis Presley
Teen Beat - The Ventures
"Gloria" - Them
"Stay Gold" - Stevie Wonder

"The Complete Novel" Re-release
In September 2005, Coppola re-released the film, including 22 minutes of additional footage and new music, entitled The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, reinserting previously deleted scenes that helped bring this new version much closer to the book, while removing much of the original score and replacing it with more contemporary (for the film's period) music. The re-inserted scenes include:

A new opening sequence; instead of beginning with Ponyboy beginning to write the story as in the theatrical version, the new opening begins with a new opening titles sequence featuring stills of the greasers. The film then begins with Ponyboy beginning to write, beginning as it does in the novel with "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movies house, I'd only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home." The scene then follows Ponyboy home as he's attacked by a group of socs and summarily rescued by the greasers.
Following the new introduction of the principle characters, there's a scene in Ponyboy and Soda's bedroom where the two talk about Darry's harsh attitude towards Ponyboy and Soda's interpretation of what being in love means. The scene then cuts to the original opening scene in the theatrical version where Ponyboy and Johnny meet up with Dally the next day on their way to the movies.
An alternate take of Ponyboy and Johnny beginning to run away where Ponyboy says "I'm scared to death" instead of just "I'm scared."
After Ponyboy and Johnny arrive in Windrixville, the two of them ask a pair of farmers directions to Jay Mountain where Ponyboy pretends to be "playing army" and is "supposed to report to headquarters", leading the farmer to retort "Boys will be boys."
When Ponyboy wakes up in the church, he imagines both Darry and Soda waking him up for school, as opposed to just Darry in the theatrical version.
After finding Johnny's note in the dirt reading "Be Back Soon", Ponyboy uses the pump in the back of the church that Dally had mentioned to splash some water on his face. He takes cover when he hears someone approaching, only to discover it to be Johnny returning with supplies.
After Ponyboy and Johnny cut their hair to disguise themselves, the two of them become tearful about the events of the past 24 hours and how much trouble they've gotten themselves into.
An extended scene of Ponyboy and Johnny reading Gone With the Wind by candlelight, where Ponyboy compares the characters in the novel to Soda.
After returning home, Ponyboy awakens to discover Tim Shepherd reading the newspaper on the Curtis couch.
At the hospital, Johnny's doctor allows Two-Bit and Ponyboy admittance to Johnny's room.
After Johnny passes out, his mother attempts to gain entrance, only to be denied by a nurse. She refers to Two-Bit and Ponyboy as "scum", leading Two-Bit to lash out at her.
After the cops shoot Dally, instead of cutting to Ponyboy days later finding the letter from Johnny, Darry lashes out at the police, followed by Ponyboy collapsing after remarking "First Johnny, now Dallas." The scene then shifts to Ponyboy groggily calling out to Soda while in bed, asking "is someone sick?", not realizing that he himself, is.
A courtroom scene where Ponyboy, Cherry, and Randy give depositions about what happened the night Bob was killed. Ponyboy is found not guilty and is placed in the custody of Darry.
A scene at school where Ponyboy runs into Cherry, but, she doesn't acknowledge him, referring to earlier in the film where she said "if I see you at school and I don't say 'hi', please understand." Ponyboy's teacher then tells him he's failing, but, allows him to write an essay on personal experience in order to boost his grade.
A scene at the Curtis house where Darry and Ponyboy again try to interject Soda between the two of them while they fight, leading Soda to run away like Ponyboy did earlier in the film. The three ultimately reconcile and agree not to fight anymore.
The film ends as it does in the theatrical version with Ponyboy finding the letter and resolving to write the story of "The Outsiders", however, instead of just fading to the credits after Ponyboy begins to write, the film ends as it began, with Ponyboy leaving the Paul Newman movie. However, with the re-editing of the film, Coppola removed several scenes in order to better improve pacing, including:

A short scene at the church after Ponyboy and Johnny cut their hair where Ponyboy complains that his new haircut is like "being in a Halloween costume you can't get out of and I hate it."
Johnny and Ponyboy trying to catch a rabbit with a pull trap at the church.
Johnny and Ponyboy playing poker at the church with cigarettes. Additionally, several scenes remained deleted from "The Complete Novel", including:

An extended introduction where Ponyboy narrates about life for the greasers and the socs, which includes shots of Dally getting out of prison, Soda and Steve being harassed by the socs at the DX gas station, Darry throwing debris from a rooftop at a passing soc car, and Johnny's mother chasing him out of the house with a broom only for Two-Bit to come to his rescue.
An extended morning scene after Ponyboy returns home where he takes a shower and kids Soda about having to get up for school.
An extended final scene where, after finding Johnny's letter, Ponyboy calls his teacher at home and asks how long his essay has to be, inquiring if it can be longer than was intended. The DVD also features a group commentary by C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Diane Lane, and Patrick Swayze, recorded at Francis Ford Coppola's home where he invited the cast to view the new cut of the film, with additional comments from Rob Lowe and Matt Dillion recorded at a later date, as well as a solo commentary from Coppola. Additional bonus features include various retrospective and making of features, as well as select readings of the novel by cast members and original 1982 casting videos.

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