Ivy Danvers- Hansen's review

OUTSIDERS

The novel and the film ‘Outsiders’ are both very enjoyable to read and watch. The book was written by S.E. Hinton and published in 1967, and later made into a film in 1983 directed by Francis Ford Coppola after a group of students inspired him. The Outsiders is about a 14 year old boy, Ponyboy who runs away from home with his friend Johny after getting knocked around by his oldest brother, Darry. The movie is also about the fighting between the two groups and friendship with Ponyboy, Johny and the other greasers. There are some differences between the novel and the film, but not many major ones. I would prefer to read the book over watching the movie because you have to imagine what they are feeling, doing, look like and what their facial expressions are.

There are many plot points focused on in the outsiders, they are mainly based around Ponyboy and Johny. Some of them included Ponyboy running away from home, murder, saving some little children from a fire and becoming a hero. One main theme that was left out of the film and not the novel was the court case at the end of the novel. There were some other plots left out of the film like Soda’s pet horse Mickey Mouse, when Ponyboy gets a lift home from the hospital and the whole story of Soda’s girlfriend Sandy. Not showing these things in the movie will change the focus of the story. The main focus of the Outsiders based around Ponyboy, his brothers Soda and Darry, Johny, and the other greasers. Without showing as much of Soda that should have been, in the film doesn’t let us see mush of him, and there isn’t really much point in having him in the movie at all.

The characters in the film are very similar to each other. All of the greasers and Soc’s are alike within each other’s social groups, by the way they talk, act and dress. For example the soc’s wear madras shirts and brownish coloured pants, with short hair, and greasers wear t-shirts, leather jackets and boots with long greasy hair. There were some characters in the film that were different to the novel and vice versa. Sodapop wasn’t seen much in the film and the whole story of his horse and girlfriend was left out completely. Also Dally seemed a lot more violent in the film than what was said in the novel.

There were many stylistic features used throughout the ‘Outsiders’, for example the sunsets that were used in the film. Sunsets were used in the film to symbolise the feelings and emotions of the characters, like when Johny and Dally had died. The use of first person used in the novel helped us understand what was happening and what emotions Ponyboy was feeling throughout the journey, that is one reason why I enjoyed the novel more than the film. When S.E. Hinton used first person to show the emotions and thoughts of the speaker in the novel the reader had to imagine what it looked like instead of watching the movie and going ok well he’s happy and she’s sad.

In conclusion the movie ‘Outsiders’ was enjoyable to watch as well as the book was easy and fun to read. I would rather prefer to read the novel over watching the film because you can’t see emotions, feelings, facial expressions, actions or what they looked like, you have to use our head/ imagination and visualise them.