The Outsiders

In 1965 Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Greasers and the Socs wage a war that's as much about class as it is about territory. Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel brought a raw, unvarnished look at teenage life to the screen, launching a generation of young actors. C. Thomas Howell plays Ponyboy Curtis, a bookish 14-year-old caught between loyalty to his rough-edged friends and a desire for something more. Matt Dillon embodies the volatile Dallas Winston, while Ralph Macchio brings a quiet vulnerability to Johnny Cade. The cast also includes Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise, and Diane Lane, many of whom would become defining stars of the 1980s.

Coppola famously had the actors live together in a Tulsa motel for two weeks before filming, building the brotherhood that crackles on screen. Shot on location in Tulsa, the film cost $10 million and grossed over $33 million worldwide. Though initial critical response was mixed, the movie has grown in stature over the decades, helped by the 2005 release of The Outsiders: The Complete Novel, which restored 22 minutes of footage and replaced the original score. The story's central theme, the struggle to hold onto innocence in a violent world, resonates as strongly today as it did in 1983.[edit]

Ponyboy Curtis is a 14-year-old Greaser living with his older brothers Darry and Sodapop after their parents died in a car crash. The Greasers, tough kids from the wrong side of the tracks, are constantly at odds with the Socs, rich kids from the West Side who drive fancy cars and beat up Greasers for fun. One night after leaving a movie theater, Ponyboy gets jumped by a group of Socs. His brothers and the gang rescue him, but the tension only escalates.

At a drive-in movie, Ponyboy and Johnny meet Cherry Valance and Marcia, two Soc girls. Cherry is smart and sympathetic, and she tells Ponyboy that things are rough all over, that Socs have their own problems. But when Cherry's boyfriend Bob Sheldon and his friend Randy show up, the Greasers walk the girls home to avoid a fight. Later that night, Bob and four other Socs corner Ponyboy and Johnny in a park. They try to drown Ponyboy in a fountain, and Johnny, terrified and remembering a past beating from Bob, stabs Bob with a switchblade, killing him.

Ponyboy and Johnny flee to Dallas Winston, the most hardened Greaser, who gives them money, a gun, and directions to an abandoned church in Windrixville. Hiding out, the two boys bond. Ponyboy recites Robert Frost's poem Nothing Gold Can Stay, and Johnny says he wishes he could see a sunset without being afraid. Their isolation is broken when Dally arrives to take them to a rumble, a final, all-out fistfight between the Greasers and the Socs. Meanwhile, Johnny decides to turn himself in, but before they can, the church catches fire while a group of schoolchildren is trapped inside. Johnny and Ponyboy run in to save them, and Johnny is gravely injured by a falling beam. Dally, who also enters the burning building, is burned but survives. The boys are hailed as heroes, but Johnny is in critical condition with a broken back and severe burns.

The rumble goes ahead as planned. The Greasers win, but the victory feels hollow. Dally drives Ponyboy to the hospital, where Johnny's condition worsens.[edit]