Rumble Fish ***** (1983, Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper) – Classic Movie Review 268

The 19-year-old Matt Dillon stars in 1983 in his third film version of an S E Hinton story of disaffected teenage rebels without a cause, following Tex (1982) and The Outsiders (1983). Francis Ford Coppola directs in inspired fashion, and it’s an even more astonishing movie than his film of The Outsiders. More personal, more haunting, more of a work of art. Nothing he had made so far prepared us for Rumble Fish.

Dillon gives a thrilling, electric performance as Rusty James, the alienated punk who idolises his violent elder brother The Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke) who is away somewhere, gone off missing. Their father (Dennis Hopper) is reduced to being a drunkard after their mother has walked out.

The rootless, shiftless Rusty leads a small gang in his smoky, gritty small industrial American town of Tulsa. Living in the long dark shadow cast by The Motorcycle Boy, he longs for the old glory days, aspires to his brother’s legend and gets involved in one more final street rumble. This will change everyone’s lives for ever.

The entire, extraordinary cast is uniformly excellent. Hopper, Diane Lane, Diana Scarwid, Vincent Spano, Nicolas Cage, Chris Penn, Tom Waits, Tracey Walter and Laurence Fishburne all make eye-catching, iconic appearances.

Those looking for an ordinary film must look elsewhere. Rumble Fish is more of a world cinema art film masterpiece than just another American teen movie, though it works magnificently as both. Coppola shoots in luminous black and white to achieve an effortless poetic dimension, and he sets his images against the background of a great, striking score by Stewart Copeland (The Police).

Dramatically as co-writer with Hinton, Coppola stirs up an enormous emotional resonance. And, as director, he adds a dazzling extra dimension with shadows, time-lapse scudding clouds and surreal compositions, thanks to genius work by cinematographer Stephen H Burum and the set designer Dean Tavoularis.

In other hands it could all seem a bit pretentious, but with Coppola it just seems perfect.

Coppola’s idea to shoot in black and white (with only the fish in colour)  is justified by the plot reason of The Motorcycle Boy being colour blind and deaf from too many rumbles.

The closing song ‘Don’t Box Me In’ is by Stan Ridgway.

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© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 268

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