This past year, I finally visited the Outsiders house in deep, dark Tulsa.
It was a true Oklahoma treat to see a part of both literature and film lore next to all the Christian propaganda that has adorned this state for the past decade. Thanks, Ryan Walters!
For The Outsiders, I have been a greasy and supportive fan of the book and the movie since grade school—heck, it was given to us to read as a part of state history classes in 7th grade—but, oddly enough, I had never read or watched the companion piece, Rumble Fish.
But, now that I’ve read the book and seen the movie, I believe Rumble Fish to be better. Far better.
With film impresario Francis Ford Coppola at the helm, Rumble Fish is told in a dreamlike structure and plaintive manner, where the greaser ethos of the 60s definitely melds with the alternative culture of the 80s, creating a non-binary world of Tulsa—and if you know Tulsa, it truly fits.
Punk teenager Rusty James (punk teenager Matt Dillon) not only lives on the wrong side of the tracks, he is the tracks. He has a semi-detached gang, a girlfriend when he needs some sexual healing, and his only true role model is his ex-con brother Motorcycle Boy (a scowling Mickey Rourke).