"The Outsiders: The Complete Novel" (1983)

The Outsiders tells the story of two older brothers who would do anything, give anything to protect, defend, and save their younger brothers.  And it delves into how those two very different older brothers deal with life when they can do nothing in and of themselves to prevent losing their younger brother.  

Those two older brothers even have nicknames that reflect each other: Darry and Dally.

Neither Darry nor Dally are the main characters of the story -- that role belongs to Darry's little brother Ponyboy.  But their attempts to save and hold onto their younger brothers are pivotal to the entire story.

Please note: in this review, I am focusing on the director's cut of this film, called The Outsiders: The Complete Novel (1983), rather than on the original theatrical release or the 1967 book by S. E. Hinton (which I have reviewed here).

The story inside The Outsiders is timeless.  A group of brothers -- some brothers biologically and others quasi-adopted into a "found family" -- stands by each other through all the worry and fear and hatred that their world can throw at them.  You see that story told across genres and across eras in stories featuring soldiers, astronauts, whalers, cowboys, pirates, outlaws, you name it.  In The Outsiders, the characters happen to be teenage boys living in 1960s Tulsa, Oklahoma.  But they could just as well be living in 1860s Texas or 1760s New England or 1660s Scotland, in so many ways.  And that's why this movie and the book by S. E. Hinton that it's based on have become classics.  Because this story's characters are archetypical, and its themes of courage, friendship, sacrifice, loyalty, and love are universal.

Eight months before the movie begins, Darry (Patrick Swayze), Sodapop (Rob Lowe), and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) Curtis lost their parents in a car + train wreck.  Instead of going to college, Darry fought to be granted custody of his brothers (Soda is 16 and Pony is 14) so they could stay together instead of being put in a "boys home," aka orphanage.  Now he works construction jobs to support them.  Soda dropped out of high school to work at a gas station to help pay the bills.  They're both focused on making sure Pony has as stable a home as they can provide, and that he can stay in school and get good grades.  

The trouble is, they live on the wrong side of the tracks, in Tulsa's white trash slums.  By birth and association, they're Greasers, quasi-hoodlums who wear their hair long and slick it back, get in fights here and there, have friends who have been in and out of jail and even prison, and are generally considered the dregs of society.  Rich kids, the Socials or "Socs," love to get their kicks by jumping Greasers and beating them up.  Which happens to Ponyboy at the very beginning of the movie, because he made the mistake of going to the movies alone.

The Curtis brothers love their friends -- they're a close-knit group consisting of Soda's best friend Steve (Tom Cruise), the clownish Two-Bit (Emilio Estevez), child-abuse victim Johnny (Ralph Macchio), and already-an-ex-con Dally (Matt Dillon).  There are basically no adults in their lives now -- we get the sense that Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had basically adopted all these boys and given them as much love and guidance as they could, so all of these kids are grieving their loss, in their own ways.  But the boys watch over each other and try to fill this hole in their lives as best they can.  Darry is naturally the most focused on taking care of Soda and Pony, while Dally clearly considers Johnny his responsibility.  

Two-Bit and Steve have living parents who are not abusive, they're just so busy trying to eke out a living and survive that they can't be present in their sons' lives much.  But maybe that explains why it's Dally, who did hard time already for crimes he committed in New York, who gravitates toward caring for Johnny, whose parents are abusive both physically and emotionally.  Neither of them have family worth calling by that name anymore.

By the way, if you're thinking this cast list sounds made-up because of its overabundance of '80s star power, it's not.  All those actors were just beginning to get noticed, and this film boosted many of them toward superstardom.

Ponyboy is bright -- in fact, he's taking high school classes even though he should only be in eighth grade.  But he's also prone to daydreaming, and he's only fourteen.  He's just a kid.  He tries to act big and tough like all the others in their friend group, but everyone there is older than him, so he never quite fits in with any but Johnny, who is sixteen but acts younger.  Pony is convinced Darry loves Soda, but not him, because Darry is always yelling at him to study, to behave, to stay out of trouble.  Because he's just a kid, Ponyboy can't see that Darry is desperately afraid of losing custody of both Soda and Pony, but especially Pony.  Their world is a harsh place, and Darry is doing everything he can to keep his little brother safe from the worst parts of their reality for as long as he can.

Dally, Pony, and Johnny sneak into a drive-in movie because that's the sort of thing Oklahoma hoodlums do for kicks and giggles.  They have the money for tickets, but it's more fun to climb in under the fence and flout authority.

They pass some Socs having an argument and head for the seats reserved for people who are attending the show without a car.

Two girls, Cherry (Diane Lane) and Marcia (Michelle Meyrink), take seats in front of them.  They're the Soc girls who were having an argument with their boyfriends -- they're upset that their boyfriends are getting drunk, so they ditched them to make a point about how they believe they should be treated.

Dally does everything in his considerable power to get Cherry to notice him, finally whispering something (presumably dirty) that makes her slap him.  When he tries to get handsy in retaliation, Johnny stands up for Cherry, which shocks everyone because Johnny basically worships Dally.  Johnny's willingness to stand up to Dally is particularly impressive because Johnny was jumped by a bunch of Socs not long ago, one of whom was wearing a lot of rings that cut and scarred Johnny's face badly.  He's been basically scared of his own shadow ever since.

Dally stomps off instead of reacting violently, the way he would if it was anyone but Johnny.  Himself the child of an abusive homelife, Dally knows the damage that an older brother or father-figure hitting you can do, and he refuses to do that to his pseudo-little-brother Johnny.

Two-Bit joins them at the movie, and he, Johnny, and Pony walk Cherry and Marcia home after the movie.  Cherry and Pony really hit it off -- not in a romantic way, but rather, they discover kindred spirits in each other, basically.  They both view the world differently from the other people in their lives, and can see past people's surface traits to the individuals inside.

Unfortunately, the girls' Soc boyfriends come looking for them.  Johnny recognizes one of them as the Soc with all the heavy rings that sliced his face up not long ago.  The girls prevent a fight by agreeing to leave with their boyfriends, and everyone figures that's the end of that.

Pony and Johnny go hang out at an empty lot in their neighborhood, where they both end up falling asleep.

When Pony finally wakes up and goes home, he finds both Soda and Darry waiting up for him.  Darry's been calling everyone they know, trying to find out where his little brother is without alerting the cops... because if the cops find out Pony has gone missing, they'll probably take away Darry's custody privileges.  He'll lose Pony at last, through Pony's childishly falling asleep in a vacant lot instead of going home, and there'll be nothing he can do about it.

I actually am just including this shot of Sodapop because of the little bookcase filled with assorted books.  I think that one detail tells you a lot about the Curtis family.  They're poor, and maybe they've always been poor, but they aren't the "ignorant white trash" people might assume because of their neighborhood or their lack of money.  Darry almost went to college.  Ponyboy might one day.  If they can just stay out of trouble and stick together long enough, these boys won't be doomed to stay poor Greasers forever.

Anyway, Darry explodes with anger at Pony.  And, unlike Dally when he was angry with Johnny for thwarting his attempts to get fresh with Cherry, Darry lets his temper get the better of him.  He shoves Ponyboy hard enough to make him fall down.  Pony flees into the night, and Darry doesn't follow him.  If he had just chased after Pony, a lot of misery could have been prevented... but we also wouldn't have the rest of the movie.

Pony wakes Johnny up in the empty lot, and declares he wants to run away.  They make it all the way to a playground before deciding maybe it would be better to just wait for Darry to cool off and then Pony can sneak back into the house.  Unfortunately, while they're deciding this, those Socs show up again, with reinforcements.

Pony and Johnny try to make a good stand, but they're young and small, and very outnumbered.  The Socs shove Ponyboy into a fountain, saying they're going to wash the grease out of him for good, and gradually drowning him in the process.

Ever since Johnny got beaten up so badly not long ago, he's been carrying a switchblade.  And you can see how this is going to go, can't you?

Johnny saves Ponyboy, but with a heavy cost.  Now Johnny's killed a boy, and he and Pony are convinced that no one will believe this was self-defense because the dead boy is a Soc and they're Greasers.

Johnny runs straight for Dally, with Ponyboy in tow.  Surely, Dally will know what to do.  And, of course, he does.  Dally does everything in his power to protect his little brother.  He gives him a gun, gives them dry clothes, tells them of a great place to hide out, and even explains how to jump on a freight train to get there.

Ponyboy and Johnny safely reach the hideout Dally sent them to, which is an abandoned church out in the middle of nowhere.  (I've always wondered how and why Dally knows about this place...)

Once in hiding, Johnny and Pony cut each others' hair, and they dye Pony's blond so they won't be recognized as easily.

I kind of love Pony's blond hair.  For some reason, it makes his dimples stand out more.

Anyway, Pony and Johnny spend some very bored days in and around the abandoned church, anxious to know what is going on at home, but terrified of trying to contact their family and friends because the police might find them.  Ponyboy reads most of Gone with the Wind aloud to pass the time, and Johnny becomes entranced with the concept of people sacrificing themselves for others or dying to uphold their honor, rather than just dying because they were involved in something violent the way people in their real lives usually die.

Ponyboy digs sunsets and sunrises.  It's something he and Cherry bonded over that fateful night, and it's something he and Johnny bond over now.  Those few precious moments at the very beginning and end of each day are so fleeting and yet so beautiful, just like their own lives.

(Also, isn't this movie beautiful?  I've been trying to highlight the gorgeous cinematography with my screencaps.  I just love the use of light in this, and also how often they smush as many of these boys into a frame as they can.  It visually reenforces how close-knit this band of brothers really is.)

Dally shows up with news from home.  The cops hauled him in for questioning, and he convinced them Johnny and Pony headed for Mexico, so he thinks they're pretty safe where they are.  He brings Ponyboy a letter from Sodapop.  Johnny asks if his parents have been asking where he is.

Dally tries to laugh that off and reassure Johnny that all the guys are worried sick about him, that he's loved and important (but not in so many words), but Johnny's so hurt by his parents' lack of caring that nothing Dally says really gets through to him.

Dally takes them out for lunch at the local Dairy Queen to cheer Johnny up, showing love and care the best way he knows how.  But Johnny is fixated on the fact that it's not fair to Ponyboy to be away from his family all this time just because Johnny killed someone.  So Johnny decides to go home and turn himself in, which Dally thinks is a terrible idea.  Dally knows what happens to people in prison because it's happened to him -- you get hard and mean, which is how he sees himself.  He desperately doesn't want Johnny to turn out like him.

They drive back to the abandoned church and discover it's gone up in flames while they were gone, probably because these boys smoke cigarettes constantly and... are careless teenage boys sometimes.  

For no explained reason at all, there's a school outing nearby, and some of the little kids from the outing got inside the abandoned church and are trapped in there.  The adults who are shepherding the outing are too old or too fat or too scared to do anything about it.  So Ponyboy and Johnny leap into the inferno, bent on rescuing little kids they don't know.

Dally stays outside, grabbing kids as Pony passes them through a window.  He doesn't go into the church himself because he's not a sucker who puts his own life in danger for the sake of strangers... and then Johnny gets trapped inside.  Dally hauls Ponyboy out, abandons all caution, and charges straight inside even though the roof is gradually collapsing.  

I'm totally SPOILING everything in this movie all over the place, by the way.  If you don't want to know how everything plays out from this moment of heroism onward, SKIP to the blogathon button at the bottom.

Ponyboy is largely unscathed, but has to go to the hospital in Tulsa along with Dally and Johnny to get checked out by doctors.  His brothers find him there, and Sodapop runs right to him and grabs him in a big bear hug.  But Darry hangs back.  He and Ponyboy parted in anger.  It's his fault Pony ran away and ended up in this violent and dangerous mess.  Despite his desperation to hang onto his little brother, Darry pushed him far away instead.  You can see he's terrified that Ponyboy will never forgive him for this.

But he does.  All Ponyboy wants is to be with his brothers again.  He reaches for Darry, who gives him the biggest and best hug of all time.

This is my favorite moment in the whole movie.  And in the book.  (The book is one of my top 10 favorites of all time, and the movie is in my top 100.  This story is very, very special to me.)

Darry clings to both his brothers, so relieved and repentant all at the same time.  He thought he'd lost Ponyboy the way they lost their parents, and knowing it was all his fault has been tearing him apart inside.  

(Am I tearing up just writing this?  I am.)

Anyway, yeah.  Ponyboy gets to go home... for now.  He's released into Darry's custody temporarily, largely due to newspaper articles like the one Steve brings over. 

But good press alone isn't going to keep the Curtis brothers together.  There's going to be a court case about the killing, and there's going to be another about whether or not Ponyboy can stay with his brothers anymore.

Ponyboy starts to realize the seriousness of his situation.  He isn't in danger of going to jail over the killing, because he was unconscious when it happened, but he's in very real danger of having to spend the next four years separated from Darry and Sodapop.

Darry promises to do everything in his power to keep Ponyboy safe.  But they both have come to understand just how little power Darry has to do exactly that.

Still, Darry refuses to despair.  He will keep fighting.  And he'll also keep working his construction job and providing for his brothers in their day-to-day lives.

Pony feels sick from all the smoke he inhaled during the fiery rescue, so he gets to stay home from school.  Two-bit promises to babysit him.

(Tom Cruise spends this entire scene stuffing fistfuls of chocolate cake into his face, which is hilarious.)

Personally, I don't know how much babysitting I would entrust to a teenage boy who thinks half a chocolate cake and a beer is an appropriate breakfast... 

Two-bit and Ponyboy make their way to the hospital to visit Johnny and Dally.  Johnny is very badly burned, and his back is broken.  Even if he recovers from his burns, he'll probably never walk again.

Ralph Macchio WILL break your heart in this scene, I'm just warning you.

Dally's not doing so badly.  He's having lots of fun mouthing off to the nurses, including this one, who is played by the book's author, S. E. Hinton!  (My daughter did a paper for school on the process of making this movie and a couple others based on Hinton's books, and she told me that they had a really hard time filming this scene because Hinton and Dillon kept making each other laugh too much.)

All Dally wants to know is, how's Johnny?  Two-bit and Ponyboy bring him the bad news that Johnny is not doing well at all.

Matt Dillon will break your heart in this scene, just so you know.  Look at the ache in those eyes.  After all he's done to keep his adopted little brother safe, now he's helpless.  There is nothing he can do to save or help Johnny.

As he slowly accepts his, Dally's heart breaks right open and fills up with hatred.  There's a big rumble planned between the Socs and Greasers for that night, to work through all their class conflict that has led to this killing.  

Dally tries to hide his anguish from his friends.  But not his hatred.  That's on full display for all to see.

He's fully committed to avenging Johnny's pain and suffering.  If those Socs hadn't jumped Johnny and Ponyboy, this wouldn't have happened, and he is going to do everything in his power to make them pay.  Including escaping from the hospital with the aid of Two-bit's favorite switchblade so he can take part in the rumble.

The Greasers face down their Soc opponents, with Darry leading them.  If bare-knuckle brawling is what it takes to protect his brothers from being attacked at random, then that's what Darry will do.

And they're victorious!  They stomp the Socs, which means the Socs have to stay on their own side of town and stop jumping Greasers for fun, at least until they all forget about this truce and go back to walloping each other.  Everyone knows this victory is temporary... but it's still a victory.

Dally and Ponyboy race off to the hospital to tell Johnny they have avenged his misery.  They arrive just in time to hear his last words.

If Matt Dillon didn't break your heart in that earlier hospital scene, he will in this one.

Dally just lost the only person in the whole world he truly cared about.  The one person he vowed to protect and take care of.  

What do you do when you lose everyone you love, all at once?

If you're Dallas Winston, you just might decide there's nothing left worth living for.

Ponyboy somehow makes it home to find his brothers and let them know Johnny's dead and Dally is grieving uncontrollably.

Darry gets a call from Dally, who's just robbed a convenience store and got wounded in the process, and is now racing back to them, pursued by cops.

Dally's been carrying an unloaded gun ever since Johnny and Ponyboy went on the run.  He used it to threaten the convenience store owner, and now he waves it around threateningly at the cops.  Dally is convinced he failed to take care of Johnny, and his inability to process that has made him desperate.

He picks suicide-by-cop as his way of ending his grief and despair, leaving his friends gathered around him, filled with their own grief over this fresh loss.

(Did I mention this movie is shot so achingly beautifully that it fills me with wonder every time I watch it?)

Dally has lost his fight for his little brother, but Darry's own fight is ongoing.  Like Dally, he can't control what is going to happen to Ponyboy.  But he doesn't let this loss of control turn him violent or desperate.  Instead, he calmly shows up in court, dressed nicely and ready to wait and see what happens.

His maturity and patience are rewarded -- Darry gets to retain custody of his little brother after all.

But that doesn't mean everything is hunky-dory in the Curtis home.  Ponyboy still doesn't understand that Darry pushes him to do well, to behave, to become a better person out of love, not out of annoyance.  It takes Sodapop finally sitting them down and explaining what they're doing to him and to each other for these brothers to finally close ranks and step toward their future together.

This scene isn't in the theatrical release, and it's the biggest loss for that version, because this is what the whole book has been striving toward!  Toward Ponyboy seeing his own worth reflected in his big brother's eyes and understanding at last how much he is loved.

Just gonna let you enjoy all these gorgeous shots of the Curtis brothers because I love the lighting of this scene.

One last massive hug for all three of them.

And the film ends as it began, with Ponyboy pondering everything that has happened and starting to truly process it all as he writes it down as a paper for his high school English class. 

This review has been my second contribution to Celebrate the Drive-In Week hosted by The Midnite Drive-In.  I'll leave you with this shot of the entrance to the drive-in theater featured in this movie because I didn't have a good place within my extremely long review for it: