Artsy teen melodrama in mid-60’s Oklahoma from the perspective of a 16 year-old
In the Tulsa area in 1965 the rivalry between the Greasers (poor kids) and the Socs (rich kids) heats up after a gang member is killed. The Greasers supposedly responsible flee the area (C. Thomas Howell and Ralph Macchio), but ironically end up being viewed as heroes. Matt Dillon costars while the notable peripheral cast includes the likes of Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estev...
Hmmm. Francis Ford Coppola has creatively produced a piece of superbly photographed and frequently quite intimate observational cinema here this is far more remarkable for it's casting than for anything especially innovative about the story or the characterisations. Indeed had seven of this cast not gone on to great and good things - to varying degrees - then I'm afraid I can't think this film would rate much better than as an interesting, "West Side Story" style derivat...