Rumble Fish (1983)

Director:

Francis Ford Coppola

Writers:

S.E. Hinton (novel)
S.E. Hinton (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 October 1983 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Motorcycle Boy's Never Coming Back

Plot:

Rusty James, an absent-minded street thug struggles to live up to his legendary older brother's reputation, and longs for the days when gang warfare was going on.

Plot Keywords:

Motorcycle | Fight | Thug | Gang Warfare | Bare Breasts

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Matt Dillon	...	Rusty James
Mickey Rourke	...	The Motorcycle Boy
Diane Lane	...	Patty
Dennis Hopper	...	Father
Diana Scarwid	...	Cassandra
Vincent Spano	...	Steve
Nicolas Cage	...	Smokey
Chris Penn	...	B.J. Jackson (as Christopher Penn)
Laurence Fishburne	...	Midget (as Larry Fishburne)
William Smith	...	Patterson the Cop
Michael Higgins	...	Mr. Harrigan
Glenn Withrow	...	Biff Wilcox
Tom Waits	...	Benny
Herb Rice	...	Black Pool Player
Maybelle Wallace	...	Late Pass Clerk

Runtime:

94 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Netherlands:12 | Norway:16 (1984) | Singapore:M18 | South Korea:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Sapulpa, Oklahoma, USA

Company:

Hotweather Films

Trivia:

Author S.E. Hinton claims that the script to this movie was written "on one of the first personal computers" in less than two weeks.

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: In the arcade, Rusty James is playing the video game "Pole Position", but the sound effects are from the game, "Pac Man".

Quotes:

[first lines]
Midget: Biff Wilcox is looking for you, Rusty James. He's gonna kill you, Rusty James.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lord of War (2005)

Soundtrack:

Don't Box Me In

Stylish,

Francis Ford Coppola's most personal film is also one of his best - in its own way just as good as APOCALYPSE NOW and THE GODFATHER films. Those who wonder why Mickey Rourke is so revered by cult film fans need look no further than his almost-hypnotic performance as The Motorcycle Boy. But Matt Dillon is just as good as his younger brother, and when you also have the likes of Nic Cage, Diane Lane, Dennis Hopper, Laurence Fishburne, and Chris Penn in the supporting cast, you know it's a once-in-a-lifetime movie. The look of the film - a sparse black-and-white urban landscape - is perfect, as is Stewart Copeland's atmospheric music. But aside from the visual and aural pyrotechnics, what really singles this out as a bona fide classic is its spot-on portrayal of disaffected youth. When Hopper describes to Dillon how Rourke has simply been "miscast in the play", I still feel shivers running down my spine...