Rumble Fish (1983)

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 to the legendary reputation of his older brother, Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke). One night,... 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]