The Outsiders.

The Outsiders: The Complete Novel * Directed by Francis Ford Coppola * Warner Home Video 

Adapted from what might be the most earnest young-adult novel ever published, Coppola's 1983 heartthrob-o-rama is at once an epic tragedy of hardship and loss and a fantasy by author S.E. Hinton--who was still a teen herself at the time the book was published in 1967--of what it must be like to be a boy living among boys. (Young gays no doubt shared her idealized vision of roughhousing before dinner with Matt Dillon and Rob Lowe.) Set in 1960s Tulsa, Okla., the film is packed with raw, vulnerable performances by its young stars, revealing an unprecedented physical and emotional intimacy between teenagers. New footage includes scenes Coppola felt '80s audiences weren't ready for, including a brotherly moment between Sodapop (Lowe) and Ponyboy (C. Thomas Howell) comforting each other in the bed they share, and the tearful, grasping breakdowns of two overwhelmed fugitive kids (Howell and Ralph Macchio) who realize they have no place to go. While the pinup and homoerotic appeal of The Outsiders is obvious, more compelling is the palpable isolation, tenderness, and rage that binds this found family of outcasts, who alternately lash out in heartbreaking violence and cling to each other for relief. Sadly, in the updated version Coppola has replaced the original melodramatic West Side Story--inspired orchestral score with an apathetic surf-rock soundtrack that robs the movie of much of its middle-school sweetness. Nothing gold can stay.