Coppola harkens back to the teenage rebellion movies of the 50's with Rumble Fish, embracing all the genre trademarks (gangs, motorcycles, highly mannered tough-guy dialogue, etc) to put his own unique spin on them. It's a relatively simple coming-of-age tale, and the kitsch does wear thin at times, but the terrific acting and the wildly ambitious sense of style are what make it stick. Matt Dillon is a perfectly agitated portrait of troubled youth; Mickey Rourke breaks hearts as the regretful voice of wisdom; and the black-and-white cinematography is vibrant beyond words, gritty and moody with striking use of shadows and special-effects backdrops. Good stuff.

Way too artsy for the material, and at the same time weirdly obvious symbolism. The ending seems very rushed as well.
That's the bad, but there's good as well. The acting is alright, Rourke is perfect, the black and white photo beautiful and overall cinematography is great.

Often underrated and overlooked Rumble Fish is in a class of it's own. Francis Ford Coppola's vision of S.E.Hinton's novel is mesmerising. Presented in dreamlike black and white it features an amazing cast (including Hinton herself) and an equally unique soundtrack by Stuart Copeland.
Now remastered on Blu Ray and in 5.1 it’s worth a revisit...and if you haven’t seen it before...do.

Would have been truly dismal if it had a different cast. I'm not sure if this was intended to be a dead-serious artsy drama or kind of a ridiculous surreal parody. Not enough Tom Waits. Watch if you enjoy vintage troubled teens, babyfaced versions of your favorite modern actors, or drunk and sweaty Dennis Hopper.

Es como un rey en el exilio

Rebels in shadows
Can't control their own setting
Like monochrome jazz -
Itching to break free of form.

Heavily stylised but fascinating. Occasionally the film's incredibly serious demeanour sets it up for a fall (there's a laugh-out-loud moment early on when Mickey Rourke fires his motorbike at someone) but watching the film is a pleasure. This has got to be in the running for most gorgeously photographed film of all time, German Expressionism applied to what could have been standard teen fare. An excellent cast of bright young things (including Mickey Rourke, Matt Dillon, Laurence Fishburne, Diane Lane, Chris Penn and... uh... Nicolas Cage...) keep it ticking over with intense performances.

Publiqué 15/06/2010:

The Motorcycle Boy: "Blind terror in a fight can easily pass for courage"...
De "Rumble Fish" (Coppola, 1983)
imdb.to/cDjigN
2010-06-15 04:24:59 (+00:00)

Y el 21/08/2010:

Viendo la fenomenal "Rumble Fish" (Coppola, 1983) con la
familia entera (a petición de la cumpleañera, mi hija mayor ;-)
2010-08-21 05:44:29 (+00:00)

Y el 29/11/2012:

RT @nadiabaram: El amor, ese pez beta que se pelea con su reflejo en el acuario // A sacarlo del acuario... (¿Te acuerdas de "Rumble fish"?)
2012-11-29 11:27:58 (EST)

Decent. Worse version of the outsiders

Way too artsy for the material, and at the same time weirdly obvious symbolism. The ending seems very rushed as well.
That's the bad, but there's good as well. The acting is alright, Rourke is perfect, the black and white photo beautiful and overall cinematography is great.