The Outsiders

Originallly I thought only japanese had great movies and literature about delinquents until this story came out. I originally came across it in my year in middle school. After that we watched the film. Now I bought the film and It.Is.Awesome.

I've been meaning to watch it for a while now. I first read the book in year 9 or 10 for english and I really liked it. Unfortunately our teacher didn't live up to the promise of letting the class see the movie.

So now it's on my list.

The movie version is really cheesy and doesn't even have half the emotion of the book. Just stick with the book unless you just want some cheap entertainment. It's enjoyable, but not exactly great cinema.

Although watch for the S.E. Hinton cameo if you do watch it.

Yeah I heard about that but I like watching movies based on books and comparing them (Well sort of this one of the few books I've read and the movie seems pretty interesting to watch especially with the big cast)

We'll see how it goes when I see it.

@Odd

Eh, the movie of the book got pretty good reviews. And I'm just as torn up when I watch the movie as when I read the book.

It could've been a lot better though, especially because of the powerful director they had in Coppola and the retroactive star power it boasted.

Haven't read the book but I loved the movie. I will ask, does the book ever explain why the upper middle class types even had a gang? That was the one problem I had with the movie.

edited 9th Jun '12 11:17:23 AM by tricksterson

@Odd

Let me guess you think scenes like "Let's do it for Johnny!" were corny as fuck right?

That was actually in the book, so I can't exactly judge there (although it was kind of corny in the book too, heartfelt as it was).

Although the fact that the movie begins with the friggin' ending followed by the credits is hilariously confusing.

edited 9th Jun '12 12:50:28 PM by 0dd1

@Odd

That was because Ponyboy was recalling the events at the beginning of the story while he was doing the writing assignment his teacher assigned him.

edited 10th Jun '12 8:27:36 AM by Couchpotato20

I know that, but they literally started with how it goes in the ending. I know that the ending of the book is the same as the beginning, only with the knowledge that it's Ponyboy's assignment at the very end, but that's kind of a big reveal in the book. Why they decided to put it at the beginning there I'll never know—it takes away the impact it has in the book.

And dude, spoiler tag that for the people who haven't seen it or read it.

edited 9th Jun '12 5:42:14 PM by 0dd1

@0od1

My bad I didn't think it was important so long as I wasn't referencing any major scenes from the story.

It's okay. In the book, it's kind of a big deal, but in the movie, they completely destroy the emotional impact it could've had.

Last time I saw the movie was way back in middle school, so I don't remember a whole lot about it other than I liked the book better. I remember being annoyed at the jump cut during the church explosion because the movie just cut away right after the explosion had barely started. Other than that, I can't remember any particular reasons I didn't like it, so it was probably my explosion-obsessed middle-school brain being stupid. I'm sure it's much better than I remember it being. I've heard there's an extended cut, so maybe I should give it another try.

Yeah, the main complaint I have with the movie is how many great moments from the book they left out, so once they released the version with all the restored scenes the problem was solved.