For Christmas, my high school friend gave me a copy of The Outsiders annotated with their favorite parts. They thought it was funny that I have never read the book because I went through a period of time where I only watched Grease and Grease 2, repeatedly. That is a time in my life that I can’t really explain, nor will I. Alas, I never read the book or watched the movie in my 19 years. So, this last break I decided to change that. I did finish the book in one sitting, we had some long drives to and from places this holiday season, and have to say I was really good. Like anyone who has read a book and heard there was a movie, I jumped at the thought that it could be a bad rendition of the novel.
With my extensive experience with bad novel remakes, I’m looking at you Percy Jackson movies, I figured I would be a good judge of this 1983 film. Color me surprised when this movie was almost exactly like the book, a perfect remake if you discount some minor appearance changes of the characters. Also, this cast was STACKED? Some heavy hitters of the 1980s and 1990s male heartthrobs. Seeing Ralph Macchio so young made me want to rewatch the Karate Kid movies. And don’t worry guys, after watching this and Dirty Dancing I understand the Swayz-craze.
Like I said before, this was a mostly spotless remake of the book and you could tell the director and team took care in retelling the story to a larger audience. The casting for each character was spot on and gave them more concrete looks and personas to associate with the book. Ponyboy’s story is one that still resonates today even when we don’t have the Greasers and Socs as cliques in 2021. Ponyboy learning that people are people no matter their status and that a person should be judged on their individual actions is well set up in the book and movie. Even as (Spoiler for an almost 40-year-old movie) Johnny and Dallas don’t make it out in the end, one passing away as a hero and the other so distraught by the other leaving that he inevitably dies as a criminal, Ponyboy has to search through his grief if he should follow a life trying to get out of a place that groups people into categories or if he should listen to Dallas and toughen up before life knocks him down. The ending is mostly ambiguous, with Ponyboy writing his end-of-term paper as the book we are reading, or the story of events in the movie. I think the ending was a good circle back to the beginning as well as the other circular themes in the book and movie.
9/10 wish Dallas had lighter hair…