Brat Pack Week- The Outsiders

The Outsiders came out in1983 and it was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The movie was based off of the 1967 novel of the same name by S. E. Hinton. The film was released in March 1983. The Outsiders is today’s spotlight on Brat Pack Week.

The Outsiders is noted for its cast of up-and-coming stars, including C. Thomas Howell, who garnered a Young Artist Award, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Ralph Macchio, and Diane Lane. The film helped spark the Brat Pack genre of the 1980s.

During the 1960s, the Greasers are a gang of tough, low-income youths in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Their members include Darrel (Swayze) and his two younger brothers, Sodapop (Lowe) and Ponyboy (Howell), as well as Johnny (Macchio), Dallas (Dillon), Two-Bit (Estevez) and Steve(Cruise). Their fateful rivalry is with the Socials, or Socs, a gang of preppier, wealthier kids.

There are a series of fights between the two gangs. Five of the Socs jump Ponyboy and cut his neck with a switchblade; Johnny had been attacked similarly a month earlier. Bob (Leif Garrett) and Randy (Darren Dalton), two of the Socs, confront Johnny, Ponyboy, and Two-Bit, who have befriended two Soc girls, Cherry (Lane) and Marcia (Michelle Meyrink), at a drive-in movie. Ponyboy and Johnny are attacked later in a park by Bob, Randy, and two other Socs. Coming to the rescue of Ponyboy, who is about to drown, Johnny stabs and kills Bob. Bob's death has sparked calls from the Socs for a "rumble." A violent fistfight occurs, which the Greasers win.