Rumble Fish

In the summer of 1982 Francis Ford Coppola set up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to film two films back-to-back for his newly founded film company Zoetrope Studios.

He amassed a group of young iconoclastic actors, who would go on to dominate big screen productions for the rest of the decade and beyond. Coppola chose to adapt two S. E. Hinton novels for the silver screen, "The Outsiders" & "Rumble Fish".

Whereas "The Outsiders" was filmed in rich Technicolor grandeur, "Rumble Fish" -the second film was, in direct contrast, filmed in black & white.

As Coppola drew on the influence from films such as, "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari", "The Golem", "Sunrise" and "The Last Laugh", these films coming from the German Expressionist cinema of the 1920's.

It could be interpreted that the reason Coppola chose to film in such contrasting styles, was perhaps to showcase the production skills of his new Zoetrope Studios.

Rumble Fish begins at Benny's, a pool & soda bar run by the philosophical "35 summers left!" Benny (Waits). This is where Rusty-James (Dillon) holds court, as self-appointed leader, of the neighbourhood gang. His buddy Midget (Fishburn) informs him that he has an invitation to rumble with Biff Wilcox from a rival crew at 10pm that night.

While Rusty-James and B.J. Jackson (Penn) are getting fired up about the prospect of gang violence, Steve (Spano) & Smokey (Cage) voice their anxieties about it. Due to the unknown whereabouts of The Motorcycle Boy, Rusty-James' older brother and local legend, who decreed a truce between gangs, before leaving.

Rusty-James brushes reservations aside, and sets off to see his high school sweetheart Patty (Lane). He arranges some pre-rumble TLC and then drifts off with straight-laced Steve his doting, perpetually worried best friend.

A disused rail yard is the location for the rumble. Biff Wilcox (Withrow) with his blonde spiky hair and loose fitting blazer, resembling an amphetamine crazed New Romantic, appears from the shadows with his backup.

After hurling spittle-fuelled insults, he pulls a knife on Rusty-James and they go at it. The ensuing rumble is highly charged and theatrically choreographed; drawing its style from the gang fight in Stanley Kubrick's, "A Clockwork Orange" (1971).

Just as Rusty-James has finished stomping his rival, The Motorcycle Boy (Rourke) revs up to the scene clad in iconic cool. Distracted by his brother's arrival, Rusty-James receives a superficial knife wound on his side, after Biff lunges from the floor with a splintered piece of glass. The Motorcycle Boy dishes out instant retribution by sending his speeding motorbike into the already bloodied, staggering Biff Wilcox.

Rusty-James idolises his older brother and strives to emulate him. Now that he has returned, he believes they can restore the gang to its former glory. But The Motorcycle Boy, after returning from a cathartic visit to California, has lost interest in trivial, pointless patch battles, and has no desire to be the infamous gang leader of his teen years.

Now 21, the years of warring have left him colour blind, partially deaf and he wanders round in a confused stoned haze, much like a punch-drunk boxer who's been between the ropes too long.

Following his trip to the Golden State, he tells his inquisitive brother, "California is like a beautiful, wild girl on heroin... who's high as a kite and thinking she's on top of the world... not knowing she's dying... even if you show her the marks".

Rusty-James cannot understand his brother's blurry metaphors and confused state. So he starts to question his brother's sanity.

What follows is the build up to a tragic, yet poignant confrontation at the town's pet store, where The Motorcycle Boy, followed by Rusty-James, go to free two Siamese Fighting fish... rumble fish!