LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Rumble Fish
built 482 days ago
In his commentary for the special edition of his 1983 film "Rumble Fish" (Universal, $20), director Francis Ford Coppola talks about wanting to make an art-house film for teenagers. And he found the perfect material in S.E. Hinton's moody novel for juveniles, "Rumble Fish."
Source:
Director Francis Ford Coppola went from “The Outsiders” (1982), based on the book by S.E Hinton, straight to “Rumble Fish”, another film based on a Hinton novel. The stories were as dissimilar as chalk and cheese [thankfully], and the resulting films as distant as San Diego is to Snoqualmie.
Source:
Her third book, Rumble Fish, was published in 1975. Hinton was inspired to write it by a magazine photo she had saved since 1967, of a boy on a motorcycle. Tex followed, and drew the attention of Walt Disney Studios. In 1982, Disney's movie version, starring Matt Dillon, was released. Dillon later starred in movies of The Outsiders and Rumble Fish, and he and Hinton have become friends over the years.
Source:
As Jane Abramson noted in School Library Journal, "it is Rusty-James, emotionally burnt out at 14, who is the ultimate victim" in Rumble Fish. While Abramson concluded that the "stylistically superb" novel "packs a punch that will leave readers of any age reeling," Anita Silvey echoed the sentiments of other reviewers by noting in Horn Book that the novel is unsatisfying and Hinton's continued writing efforts "unpromising."
Source:
Coppola says that he made Rumble Fish as an antidote to The Outsiders. Where the later was bright, idealistic, and clear-cut, the former was dark and foggy. It is, as he says, very much an art film; albeit, one for teenagers. Unfortunately, as with many of the projects Coppola undertook beginning in the 1980's, Rumble Fish failed to leave a positive impression on audiences. In fact, it left no impression at all as Universal pulled it from theaters after only two weeks of release.
Source:
Rusty James meets up the Motorcycle Boy the next day when the latter is in a pet store, strangely fascinated with Siamese Fighting Fish ("Rumble Fish"). Patterson notices their attention to the store and suspects they will try to rob it. The brothers leave and end up at a bar, where, by coincidence, they meet their father. The father explains to Rusty James that neither (contrary to popular belief) his mother or brother are crazy, but rather they were both born with an acute perception.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Rumble Fish