Review: Rumble Fish
DVD: Rumble Fish (1983)
Oh for so very long I have been enamoured with Motorcycle Boys (Mickey Rouke’s) jumper. A delicate cable knit, v-neck and sleeveless. The existence of this jumper is somewhat like the whole of the film, delicate, intricate, thoughtful and a little tangled.
Based on classic teen book of the same name by S. E. Hinton and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Matt Dillon, beautiful Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane and Nic Cage.
The film centres on the relationships between Matt Dillon’s (supposedly 14 yr old) Rusty James and his family, including Rourke as his brother ‘Motorcycle Boy’, plus friends and alcoholic dad (Dennis Hopper). Interestingly Coppola wrote the screenplay for the film with Hinton on his days off from shooting another one of her books; The Outsiders, making the films back to back and retaining much of the same cast and crew, particularly Matt Dillon and Diane Lane.
It’s very noirish in feel and language and much like the book, you dive right into the story where Rusty James is in a diner (run by a scatting Tom Waits) preparing to fight his nemesis Biff Wilcox.
It’s rather like an avant grade soap opera and is almost like a 50s throwback, yet is… 80s and then again is…. timeless. It’s a grown up film for teens, and has stirrings of other worldliness, which does sound weird but it’s the sort of film that even though you don’t identify with the story or any of the characters, it stays with you once you’ve watched it in a similar way to Streets of Fire and Fight Club.
Beautiful to look at, wordy and unsettling, but very entertaining.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Audio commentary with Francis Ford Coppola on location in Tulsa
- The making of Rumble Fish
- The percussion-based score music video “Don’t Box Me In”
- Delete Scenes
- Theatrical Trailer
Review by Tina from a disc kindly supplied by Fabulous Films.