Rumble Fish is the handsome companion to The Outsiders. And I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what Francis Ford Coppola wanted. Released the same year and also based on a novel by Outsiders’ author S.E. Hinton, what it lacks in the boyhood nostalgia of Ponyboy et al, it adds in rich visuals. Coppola’s choice to shoot in high contrast black and white gave the film at it’s finest a French New Wave or Godard like feeling, and more recently could be seen as a source of inspiration for the look and feel of designer and photographer Hedi Slimane’s Diary. Here Coppola and cinematographer Stephen H. Burum elevate b-roll to something brilliant and far greater than filler. It’s the prettiest mediocre film I’ve seen in a long time.
Rumble Fish centers around Rusty James, a dim delinquent living in the very tall shadow of his older brother, Motorcycle Boy (Note: no relation to Ponyboy). For some reason everyone that speaks to Rusty James must repeat his full name multiple times as if summoning the ghost of Bloody Mary or Candy Man. There are moments of greatness, mainly in Motorcycle Boy’s esoteric appearances, Hopper’s portrayal of the distant alcoholic father, and Rusty’s dream sequences but the film still comes off feeling empty. Overly dramatic use of smoke machines be damned! The players are all well known folks now: Matt Dillon, a perpetually whispering Mickey Rourke (with notes of Brando), Diane Lane, and even cameos from Nick (Coppola) Cage, Sofia Coppola, Larry Fishbourne and Tom Waits. Making two films in one year seems ambitious even for Coppola, but if you see Rumble Fish as the french fries to The Outsiders’ juicy cheeseburger, then Francis has made the perfect combo.
