The Outsiders: The Complete Novel

By Ed Grant -- Video Business, 9/5/2005

The most commonly known fact about Francis Ford Coppola's The Outsidersis that he made it because he received a letter from schoolchildren asking him to. This retooled version of the film is the result of further requests from kids who loved S.E. Hinton's classic young-adult novel and were wondering where key scenes from the book "had gone." Several supplements in The Outsiders' two-disc set chronicle the film's original production, but the key bonus is Kim Aubry's featurette "Staying Gold," which contains reflections by Coppola as well as most of the cast members (missing are Tom Cruise and Emilio Estevez) whose careers were kick-started by the film back in 1983. The fact that the cast formed a tight-knit community and that Coppola shot an initial, practice version of the film on videotape are the initial focuses of Aubry's doc, but the whole thing soon gives way to a Coppola dinner party, as the director wines and dines four of the actors (Diane Lane, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze and Ralph Macchio) at his Napa Valley estate in preparation for their supplying audio commentary for the film's restored cut of the film. Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe also participate in the featurette and are seamlessly interwoven onto the cast commentary track. In his own director's commentary, Coppola is emphatic about how much better the film is with 22 minutes of "lost" sequences and a new vintage rock 'n' roll soundtrack. He repeatedly mentions what he had eliminated in order to include his new soundtrack: an orchestral score by his father, Carmine, lamenting at one point, "may my father forgive me!"