If you're going to lead people, you have to have someplace to go
An 'under the radar' film for Coppola made in the troublesome early eighties, almost a companion piece to the more widely seen 'The Outsiders', based on another of S.E. Hinton's 'troubled teen' books. Much more surrealistic and dreamlike than the other film, though it shares a lot of the brat pack cast, the director really seems to be having fun playing with the medium in this one, odd camera angles and effects, playing with the audiences expectations -- some fun performances throughout, Matt Dillon's thick skulled 'Rusty James' the wanna-be gang leader, Diane Lane at her pouty best as his girlfriend, Mickey Rourke playing the legendary 'Motorcycle Boy', as a whispering sensitive bookish outgrown juvenile delinquent, Dennis Hopper as their drunken loser of a father, and Tom Waits in a fun cameo as 'Benny' from 'Benny's Billiards' (other future stars have early bit parts here, Christopher Penn, Vincent Spano, Lawrence Fishburne, Nicholas Cage, Sophia Coppolla)...The 'rumble fish' of the title being one of the few things in color in this movie is a little over the top, but effective nonetheless. Also some fun music by the drummer from 'The Police'.