Film Forum

U.S., 1983
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Based on S. E. Hinton’s novel
Starring Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane, Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper
Approx. 94 min.

“Shot back-to-back with THE OUTSIDERS, similarly based on a novel by S.E. Hinton, and signalled by Coppola as ‘Camus for kids’, RUMBLE FISH does indeed have a hero figure (Rourke) who belongs to a former age of existential ‘outsiders’, coasting through the world in an insulated state of deafness and colour blindness from too many rumbles. His kid brother (Dillon) idolises him, but is too careless to see the damage done to all concerned by the continuous gang-fights of frightful violence but no importance.” – Time Out

Presented with support from The Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

Reviews

“Offbeat, daring, and utterly original. Who but Coppola could make this film?”
 – Roger Ebert

“A myth-infused coming-of-age story that’s directed with a grandly imaginative visual repertoire to match.”
 – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

“... beguiling as an exercise in hallucinatory style.”
 – Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine