RUMBLE FISH (director/writer: Francis Ford Coppola; screenwriter: original story by S.E. Hinton; cinematographer: Stephen H. Burum; cast: Mickey Rourke (The Motorcycle Boy), Matt Dillon (Rusty James), Diane Lane (Patty), Diana Scarwid (Cassandra), Dennis Hopper (Father), Vincent Spano (Steve), Tom Wait (Benny), Nicholas Cage (Smokey), Larry Fishburne (Midget), 1983)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A seminal work in teen films, shot appropriately in B/W (except for the fish). It tells the story of troubled teens in Tulsa and their yearnings for the "good ole days" of gang wars. It is an arty (some critics say pretentious) film, about a punky street kid, Rusty James (Dillon), who idolizes his older brother, "The Motorcycle Boy" (Rourke). He has been a hoodlum legend for the kids in the neighborhood, but now has second thoughts about his life, as he returns from California to give his brother a chance to escape the life he is stuck in. Their alcoholic father is played by Dennis Hopper, with all the odd tics and mannerisms he seems to muster for the peculiar characters he always seems to play.
Rumble fish are fighting fish who will try and kill themselves if shown their own reflection, and other fish if they are taken out of their natural habitat and placed in fish tanks.That is the message of the film, as Rourke's last desperate act is to free these pet store fish to the river, as he exhorts his brother to ride away from his home city. It is his hope that by getting his brother far away from his bad upbringing, he will learn to find out who he really is.
What works very well for Coppola, is the over-all mood he captures of how the inner city kids react to their identity crises. We see how they are turned off by school and how they don't have proper parental guidance; it is also pointed out that if these kids had the proper role models things might be a lot different for them. Their main problem is that they find themselves in troublesome situations that they can't handle by themselves. Rusty can fearlessly fight and he can attract girls, but he can't think straight. He can't be a gang leader, as one of his street pals, Smokey (Cage), tells him, "because he is on a death course and no one would follow him for long, no one really wants to die with him."
"The Motorcycle Kid" is an existential hero, saying very little; but if you get into his rap, he is more likely to be a hero found in a Camus story than in a teen film. That makes his characterization seem controversial and arbitrary here. He is a gigantic adult figure as compared to the others we see in the film, such as, his alcoholic father, and the neighborhood cop, who hates his guts for being a hero to these kids. He has a swagger to him and a way about him that makes him larger than life, even mythic. He sees the world without a true sense of colors. Besides not being prejudice, he is actually "physically" color blind. We see how this affects him when he rides his cycle through a red light and how he walks the drug infested, sleazy streets in town, oblivious of all the different shades of faces he sees and the danger that is all around him.
His kid brother is dumb, he just doesn't get things, and is heading for a disastrous life. When he has an affair with a girl he really seems to like, Patty (Diane), he loses her because he doesn't have enough common sense to treat her right. Everything he does ends in violence or in an incomprehensible situation. He has no plans for himself and gives no thought about the future. There was not really anything new revealed about this sort of character that hasn't been seen in other teen films; but, the film does have the gritty feel of reality to it and intelligence in how the story was presented.
I'm on the side of those who liked this emotionally wrought, stylized film, adapted from a novel by S.E. Hinton, warts and all. It brought a higher quality to this teen genre film than usually seen in such films, even if, I doubt if it would reach the troubled kids the film was about, who in all probability, would not choose to see such an arresting film. To the film's credit, it was not a glossy look at the kids: it had the good sense to stay true to its theme without just blaming society for the problems presented.
REVIEWED ON 1/16/99 GRADE: B+
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
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