The Outsiders Blu-ray Review

• 23rd Oct 2011

S.E. Hinton’s tale of 60’s youth is brought back again to disc – this time in shimmering Blu-ray and in an extended, ore faithful, cut of the film by Francis Ford Coppola.

At the time C Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio,Matt Dillon, Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Tom Cruise and Diane Lane were all fairly unknown actors. This film certainly aided inlaunching the groups careers – all of whom would go on to have leading actor status in a variety of films that would impact the youth of and the history cinema as a whole. The oly person who needed no introduction at the time was Coppola.

The story follows Ponyboy (Howell) living as part of a “Greaser” family/gang finding his way in the world in the face of social repression. His older brothers (Swayze and Lowe) have had to find their own way in the world and as a result of the death of theirparents share the responsibility of looking after their youngest brother. Fate steps in one day Ponyboy’s world is turned upside down and he is forced to face the world around him whilst running from family, enemies and even the law.

This Director’s Cut of the film reinstates over 20 minutes of footage found mostly at the start and the end of the film giving it a stronger focus on the family of brothers from within the film. This benefits probably Rob Lowe the most whose character has the most scenes reinstated. It’s much stronger and gives him the chance to execute some very moving material at the end of the film. It’s great work, and solidified by the fact that the actor is overly enthusiastic about the material being put back in which he comments on in both the commentary (and also in his own book if you have read it! If you haven’t it is worth picking up as he spends a substantial amount of time talking about the making of this film and the impact it had on his career).

The new version of the film also replaces the score with period music from the time, as Coppola states – it’s music that the youths in his film would probably have listened to at the time. Whilst this does keep the period of the film more truthful, it is sometimes a little overbearing – sometimes the music is so loud you can barely hear what is being said by the actors (The lead up to the “rumble” in particular blasts over much of the dialogue).

Coppola provides a thoughtful commentary and 6 of the cast members provide a separate commentary. It’s understandable that Cruise is nowhere to be seen (as he rarely is on retrospective documentaries or commentaries) but we do wonder why Estevez wasn’t around to be talked to. But most of the rest of the cast (Howell, Swayze, Dillon, Macchio, Lane and Lowe) are on the commentary as well as the documentary that looks back.

This film looks beautiful in its Blu-ray transfer – and knowing that this film was quite epically shot when I first watched it back in the 80’s – I knew this could be something very special indeed to look at. It’s a film that Coppola should be proud of and sits highly up in his canon of work. All too often critics and fans alike look to his work from the 70’s – but he did so much more than that and for such different audiences.

This is the film that has been and should continue to be used in the academic learning in schools across the globe with its mature look at family life and social indifference. It’s great writing, acting and directing that help depict an era of American history that doesn’t get much coverage nowadays.

The Blu-ray upgrade should help younger and newer audiences accept it beyond being a film that was made almost 30 years ago. It’s as relevant now as it was then.

Steven Hurst