The Outsiders (1983)
81%RT Audience Score: 82%
Awards & Nominations: 1 win & 4 nominations
The cracks continue to show in Coppola’s directorial style, but The Outsiders remains a blustery, weird, and fun adaptation of the classic novel
The Outsiders is a classic coming-of-age film that’s beautifully shot and written, but let’s be real, the real stars of the show are the Brat Pack. They may be young, but they bring a level of emotion and depth to their performances that’s beyond their years. Sure, the plot can be a bit melodramatic at times, but that’s just part of the charm. Plus, who doesn’t love a good 80s movie with a killer soundtrack? Overall, The Outsiders is a must-watch for anyone who wants to relive the angst and drama of their teenage years (or just wants to see a young Tom Cruise with a bad boy attitude).
Production Company(ies)
Warner Bros. Pictures, Endeavor Content One Community
Distributor
Warner Home Vídeo, Warner Bros.
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Admiral Twin Drive-In, Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1983
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby Stereo
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:1h 31m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Mar 25, 1983 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 30, 1999
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Matt Dillon, C Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Diane Lane, Tom Cruise, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, written by S.E Hinton, Kathleen Rowell, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Kevin Maher, Danny Leigh, Peter Bradshaw, Robert Osborne, Gilbert Adair, PG rating, Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos produced
Worldwide gross: $25,839,182
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $79,066,804
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,135
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 8,622,334
US/Canada gross: $25,837,195
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $79,060,724
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 863
US/Canada opening weekend: $5,068,165
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $15,508,370
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 773
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $10,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $30,599,577
Production budget ranking: 1,145
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $16,477,872
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $31,989,355
ROI to date (est.): 68%
ROI ranking: 1,073
C. Thomas Howell – Ponyboy Curtis
Ralph Macchio – Johnny Cade
Patrick Swayze – Darrel Curtis
Rob Lowe – Sodapop Curtis
Emilio Estevez – Two-Bit Matthews
and more…
Director(s)
Francis Ford Coppola
Writer(s)
S.E. Hinton, Kathleen Rowell
Producer(s)
Gray Frederickson, Fred Roos
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
1 win & 4 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (47) | Top Critics (14) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (15)
It’s beautifully shot, written and paced, but the cast, really, is the thing.
October 15, 2021 | Rating: 4/5
Kevin Maher
Times (UK)
TOP CRITIC
The movie is sincerely anguished, sensitive to class. It can also wobble alarmingly.
October 14, 2021 | Rating: 3/5
Danny Leigh
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
It is a movie with the heartfelt old-fashioned urgency of a Hollywood film from much further back, with the Brat Pack in this film the equivalent of the Dead End Kids who made Angels With Dirty Faces in the 1930s.
October 14, 2021 | Rating: 5/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
In The Outsiders, the director’s class is consistently present, but it may be a case of the wrong man for the job, since overall film plays unevenly, with a cliche and detached ambiance that robs the plotline of what passion it might’ve whipped up.
March 27, 2018
Robert Osborne
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
One of the most overtly aesthetic, art-for-art’s-sake films in Hollywood’s history, a faux-naf Pre-Raphaelite mural in which angels with dirty faces but immaculately pure hearts burn with a hard, gemlike flame before being snuffed out in their prime.
August 2, 2015
Gilbert Adair
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
Because it falls in with the undulating rhythm of the life of its heroes, for whom a fatal fight and a quiet night have almost equal importance, the picture never manages to reach the peaks of satisfying Hollywood melodrama.
December 11, 2007
Richard Corliss
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
The deep, honest emotion undercutting the performative toxic masculinity of these young men is beyond charming and vitally essential, but the melodramatic randomness of the plot ultimately lost me.
November 22, 2021 | Rating: 3/5
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher
What particularly sells this pensive if occasionally overwrought melodrama is the amazing collection of then-rising stars.
November 21, 2021 | Rating: 3/4
Matt Brunson
Film Frenzy
This begins as a great film but, unfortunately, slowly gives way to ever weaker melodrama across its second half. Well worth it, though, to see the beginnings of so many notable careers and for Stephen H. Burum’s cinematography.
October 29, 2021 | Rating: 3/5
Sam Inglis
HeyUGuys
[A] surprisingly sweet, earnest and vulnerable in a way that from some angles could be considered cloying, but ultimately succeeds in capturing the overwhelming and all-encompassing emotions of adolescence.
April 27, 2021
Priyanka Bose
The Spool
Because of his sentimentality, Coppola misses the opportunity to reflect more vigorously on the life of these teenagers. [Full Review in Spanish]
February 5, 2020
Diego Galán
El Pais (Spain)
Watching it again recently I found all of Coppola’s cornball flourishes to be rather endearing, even generous.
July 31, 2018
Sean Burns
The ARTery…
Plot
Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1965. Fourteen-year-old Ponyboy Curtis is the youngest of three orphaned brothers who live on the north side of town, the “wrong side” of the tracks. Sensitive Ponyboy used to have a good relationship with his oldest brother Darrel, but since Darrel became the household caregiver, he is always on Ponyboy’s case. Caught in the middle is third brother Sodapop, who dropped out of school to work full time. They all belong to The Greasers, a gang of boys from the north side also from working class families, often broken. Ponyboy’s main concern is that any problem they may encounter, especially in their Greaser activities, will lead to the authorities splitting up their family. He also believes Darrel would have outgrown them and become something in his life if it wasn’t for his loyalty to the gang, and the need to take care of the family. The rest of the world sees the Greasers as all the same, the face being Dallas Winston, the most volatile one who has just been released from prison, despite each boy having his own specific view of life. Similarly, the world sees the Socs, the Greasers’ primary rivals, as all the same, rich spoiled entitled boys with a sense of superiority from the south side of town, despite again each boy being his own person. A connection between the two gangs happens in the form of Ponyboy and Cherry Valance, which doesn’t sit well with Cherry’s Soc boyfriend, Bob Sheldon. As a result, an incident occurs involving the Socs, Ponyboy and fellow Greaser, sixteen-year-old Johnny Cade, an equally sensitive boy who wants a better life for himself, but seems stuck in a downward spiral with parents who don’t give him the time of day. Beyond Ponyboy and Johnny’s lives being threatened by that incident, the Greasers and the Socs agree to a rumble to settle things once and for all. Some of the boys realize the rumble will accomplish nothing, with the questions being if they can convince their colleagues of the same, and if not what the consequences will be.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
The cast of The Outsiders includes a young and talented group of actors, including Patrick Swayze, Matt Dillon, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Cruise.
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