Genre Guesstimation – Rumble Fish (1983)

The idea behind this feature (Genre Guesstimation) is for me to watch a bunch of new movies (or ones that I haven’t seen many times) from the chosen monthly GG genre in order to expand my knowledge of movies within that particular genre.

This month’s Genre was chosen by Justine of Justine’s Movie Blog and she chose Coming of Age Films as the Genre for February.  If you want to still submit a movie, the deadline is 22 Feb. Just send it to me at COA@movierob.net

Let’s see if I felt that this movie would be worthy of being in the company of my others favorite movies in the genre of Coming of Age movies…

“If you’re going to lead people, you have to have somewhere to go. ” – The Motorcycle Boy

Number of Times Seen –  Between 5-10 times (cable in the 80’s and 5 Feb 2015)

Brief Synopsis – When his brother that he idolizes returns from California, a teenager fending for himself in Oklahoma needs to decide what path he wants to take in life.

My Take on it –As a kid, this book and the other 3 written by S. E. Hinton were among my favorites.

I have such fond memories of the books and the movies, that I was quite curious what I would think of them now, 30 years on.

I found thus movie to be quite boring to watch and didn’t feel anything for any of the characters.

I am shocked that even the director Francis Ford Coppala counts this as one of his top five movies.

The only points that helped me enjoy this were the performances of Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane.

I just wish that the story would have been more interesting to me.

Bottom Line – Boring movie that I can’t believe I remembered enjoying so much as a kid. Dillon, Lane and Rourke are great here, but the story itself is lacking.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Matt Dillon had read the book a few years before doing the movie, and in an interview with S.E. Hinton, said that it was his favorite book. Hinton said that when someone told her that “Rumble Fish” was their favorite book, usually “they were in a reformatory”.  (From IMDB)

Genre Grandeur Worthy? – Not at all. Still can’t figure out why I recalled enjoying all of Hinton’s works.

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

 

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