Coppola's recent viewing seems to have been German silent films of the '20s, so he has decided to coat the whole enterprise in a startling Expressionist style, which is very arresting but hardly appropriate to the matter in hand.
Rumble Fish (1983)
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Reviews Counted:22
Fresh:15
Rotten:7
Average Rating:5.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Francis Ford Coppola directs this stunning adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel about coming of age in urban Oklahoma. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is a troubled juvenile delinquent trying to live up... Francis Ford Coppola directs this stunning adaptation of the S.E. Hinton novel about coming of age in urban Oklahoma. Rusty James (Matt Dillon) is a troubled juvenile delinquent trying to live up to the legendary reputation of his older brother, Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke). One night, while Rusty James and his friends Smokey (Nicolas Cage), Steve (Vincent Spano), and B.J. (Christopher Penn) are involved in a rumble, Motorcycle Boy returns home from California after a two-month absence. Rusty James gets stabbed and Motorcycle Boy saves him, but their alcoholic father (Dennis Hopper) is oblivious to the brothers' lives and only Rusty James's girlfriend, Patty (Diane Lane), seems to care about him. After Motorcycle Boy reveals some family secrets about their mother, both brothers become determined to escape their lives or die trying. The film is shot in black and white except for the shots of the rumble fish--colorful Siamese fighting fish--that provoke Motorcycle Boy into desperate actions. Drummer Stewart Copeland (formerly of the rock group the Police) composed the film's score. [More]
Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane
Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane, Chris Penn, Laurence Fishburne, Tom Waits, Tracey Walter, Nicolas Cage
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenwriter: Francis Ford Coppola
Producer: Fred Roos, Doug Claybourne
Composer: Stewart Copeland
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Reviews for Rumble Fish
The action is clotted and murky, and Coppola obviously hasn't bothered to clarify it for the members of his cast, who wander through the film with expressions of winsome, honest befuddlement.
A number of the images in Rumble Fish are more memorable than the film is as a whole, sometimes for the wrong reasons.
A bit too over-stylized to allow for any great involvement, the most interesting part of this is spotting the young actors before they became stars -- most notably nephew-of-the-director Nicolas Cage.
A seminal work in teen films, shot appropriately in B/W (except for the fish).
An iconic outsider of 1980s teen cinema, Rumble Fish remains an intriguing anomaly on Coppola's chequered CV.
If Rumble Fish fails as a traditional movie about real people, it is beguiling as an exercise in hallucinatory style.
This is a movie you are likely to hate, unless you can love it for its crazy, feverish charm.
Latest News for Rumble Fish
January 25, 2006:
SUNDANCE: "Darwin" Actor Chris Penn Found Dead
Character actor Chris Penn was found dead Tuesday at a Santa Monica apartment. He was 43 years old. More...
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 90% 90% | District 9 |
| 86% 86% | 500 Days of Summer |
| 63% 63% | Extract |
| 06% 06% | All About Steve |
| 78% 78% | It Might Get Loud |
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