"While serious film lovers reach for Francis Ford Coppola's Rumble Fish as their favourite screen adaptation of an SE Hinton novel, I can never go past The Outsiders, as much for what it did to me as a gay kid growing up in the mid-80s who was terrified of being discovered as for any artistic merit. There are cheesy things about the movie, for sure it's superficial wash of nostalgia for the 60s,"
"I consider The Outsiders to be the first gay film I saw despite the fact it doesn't have a single gay character in it. All that male beauty (including a teen Rob Lowe! Matt Dillon! Tom Cruise!) pushed to the front of the frame borders on the fetishistic. The expressive eyes of our sensitive working-class teen protagonist Ponyboy (C Thomas Howell) and his Greaser-gang pals Johnny (Ralph Macchio) and Dallas (Dillon)."
The Outsiders centers on working-class Greasers and upper-middle-class Socs in 1960s Tulsa, portraying class conflict through stylized visuals and nostalgic framing. The film's cinematography emphasizes overexposed sunsets and aestheticized images of young male bodies, concentrating on facial expressiveness and physical detail. The cast includes Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, C Thomas Howell, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise. The soundtrack's opening of Stevie Wonder's 'Stay Gold' intensifies emotional resonance. The film combines raw performances, continuity errors, and sentimental nostalgia yet produces a powerful emotional impact, especially for viewers sensitive to representations of male beauty and vulnerability.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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