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Rating: 8 stars

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book adaptation oklahoma teenagers gangs high school brothers father motorcycle billiards bar juvenile delinquents bad cop black and white carnival teen angst secret cinema

All movies seen on 06/13/2021

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Rumble Fish (1983)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Drama

Overview

Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug, struggles to live up to his legendary older brother’s reputation and longs for the days when gang warfare was going on.

Rated R | Length 94 minutes

Actors

Matt Dillon | Mickey Rourke | Diane Lane | Dennis Hopper | Diana Scarwid | Vincent Spano | Nicolas Cage | Chris Penn | Laurence Fishburne | William Smith | Michael Higgins | Glenn Withrow | Tom Waits | Herb Rice | Maybelle Wallace | Nona Manning | Sofia Coppola | Gian-Carlo Coppola | S.E. Hinton | Emmett Brown | Tracey Walter | Lance Guecia | Bob Maras | J.T. Turner | Keeva Clayton | Kirsten Hayden | Karen Parker | Sussannah Darcy | Kristi Somers

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

Second blindspot tackled tonight (first was THE BIG EASY). Both 80s flicks. I did not realize this was such a stylized film! For that alone I really love it. Was trying to place the period and kept thinking it had to be early sixties but I think that was more to do w/the b&w a la French New Wave. Wasn’t until a standup arcade game appears that I realized this was set in the same period of release, the early 80s. It’s just made to look sixties.

Secondly, this is a dynamite cast! Just in the opening minutes we get Matt Dillon, Nicolas Cage (in his first feature film?!), Chris Penn, Laurence Fishburne, and Tom Waits in the billiards hall. Then Diane Lane appears and wow. If I had seen this (and THE OUTSIDERS) back in the day I’m sure she would’ve been an instant crush. Remarkable that she was only 17 when they shot this (immediately after shooting THE OUTSIDERS).

I really like Mickey Rourke here. Yet of all these actors he’s definitely that one that his older self no longer resembles his younger self unlike the other actors. A shame, really. He was so damn good during this period. It is amusing that he’s way older than Dillon yet supposed to be his 21yo brother in the movie (Rourke was 31 at the time of release). Dennis Hopper as their drunk father is quite good in a small role. Was hilarious to see William Smith appear as the bad cop. He’s perfect.

This was the very first DVD I requested from the Longmont Library. I chose this title bc I did want to see this having watched THE OUTSIDERS not that long ago but also bc it features Nic Cage so it works for my unofficial Cage project this year. A bit sad to see that this movie did not perform well at the BO since it features Dillon and Lane both hot off THE OUTSIDERS released earlier in the year. I wonder if the style and wild storytelling hurt its chances. Would love to have both films on Blu-ray. This is a really good looking movie!

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