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The Outsiders Customer Reviews (37 - 39 of 85 Reviews)

Coppola ruined it!
"The Outsiders: The Complete Novel" is a travesty. The original 1983 cut was intended to be a modernization of those Technicolor-drenched, widescreen "youth" movies of the 1950s, complete with Matt Dillon channeling James Dean.

Now Coppola offers us a "revisitation" which does much to destroy the charm of the original. Gone is his father's lush, overripe but appropriate score. Instead, we get generic rockabilly, surf and Elvis tunes which don't even match the action. What's worse is that the new songs actually undercut the drama and make the out-of-time dialogue sound awkward and mawkish. The scenes between Cherry and Ponyboy are ruined, the rescue of the children from the burning church is ruined...etc., etc... And that's the strangest version of "Blue Moon" I've ever heard.

The additional footage? Well, now at least those of us who haven't read the book know why Ponyboy is walking around with that big red scab under his chin throughout the movie. But most of the "restored" scenes show the boys crying, hugging and spooning(!) I'd imagine back in 1983 the studio, upon viewing those scenes, asked Coppola: "Don't you think the guys are a little...close?" The added scenes are also redundant. Yes, we know the Socs hate the Greases. Yes, we know Dally died.

Word to Warner: remix the original's soundtrack to 5.1 and put this one in the vault.

Brat pack goes 1950s
The outsiders is pure nostalgia. I remember watching this movie on hbo in the early 80s when all these actors where pretty much unknown. But Coppola manages to mix the overtly sentimental with rawness in this cinematic cocktail. I liked it. The scenes when Ponyboy and Johnny are hiding out in the church are the best. They manage to have a great time even though the have the Socs murder hanging over their heads.

i liked it
I had never seen the original version of this movie. We just started the book in school so I ordered the new DVD. After the feedback I have read, I kept expecting to hear this awful, obnoxious soundtrack music ... but it never happened. I actually really like the music in this film!

In fact, I decided to rent the old version just to compare, and I think THAT music sucked. It's too fluffy and cheesy and over-the-top sentimental. Granted, I'm not a huge fan of classical music ... but either way I think that 50's rock n' roll and surf music makes way more sense for the Greasers.

That aside, this is a pretty cool film. It can be very sad and intense, and also very funny and lighthearted. In places I think the acting can be pretty overdone and overdramatic (much like the original soundtrack) but I guess they couldn't replace THAT!

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