Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23016 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-07-07
• Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, Colour, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Turkish, Dutch, Romanian, Arabic, Hebrew
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The second of Francis Ford Coppola's films based on the popular juvenile novels of S.E. Hinton (the first being The Outsiders), Rumble Fish split critics into opposite camps: those who admired the film for its heavily stylised indulgence, and those who hated it for the very same reason. Whatever the response, it's clearly the work of a maverick director who isn't afraid to push the limits of his innovative talent. Filmed almost entirely in black and white with an occasional dash of color for symbolic effect, this tale of alienated youth centers on gang leader Rusty James (Matt Dillon) and his band of punk pals. Rusty's got a girlfriend (Diane Lane), an older brother named Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke), and a drunken father (Dennis Hopper) who've all given up trying to straighten him out. He's best at making trouble, and he pursues that skill with an enthusiastic flair that eventually catches up with him. But it's not the whacked-out story here that matters--it's the uninhibited verve of Coppola's visual approach, which includes everything from time-lapse clouds to the kind of smoky streets and alleyways that could only exist in the movies. The supporting cast includes a host of fresh faces who went on to thriving careers, including Nicolas Cage, Christopher Penn, Vincent Spano, Laurence Fishburne, and musician Tom Waits. --Jeff Shannon

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Francis Ford Coppola directed this beautiful black-and-white version of S.E. Hinton's popular youth novel. Rumble Fish explores the relationship between a young street thug, Rusty James (Matt Dillon), and his older brother, the legendary Motorcycle Boy (Mickey Rourke). When Motorcycle Boy comes back to town, he finds Rusty James trying to imitate his former gang leader ways and their father (Dennis Hopper) trying to drink away a troubled past. The only color images in the film are the shots of the Siamese fighting fish that the color-blind Motorcycle Boy admires.

Customer Reviews

A classic!
Rumble fish is a great movie. In my opinion Coppolas best work. We see a young Mickey Rourke and an even younger Matt Dillon. At this young age they make their best ever appearance on the screen. Here they were on their peak!
The story is about two brothers - Rourke as Motorcycle Boy, the enigmatic, carismatic, idolized older brother and Dillon as the younger one. The movie follows them in their not too simple life for some time - girls, gangfights, parties - and investigates the complex relationship between the two brothers.
The film is very beautifully filmed in black and white with some coloured details.

A lot of other big names take part in the movie - Nicolas Cage, Dennis Hopper, Tom Waits as a bartender...
This movie is one of my all time favorites! Recommended for everyone.

"..Sometimes..an acute perception can drive you crazy.."
This really is a superb movie, and I am pleasantly surprised to see it so well loved by people other than thirty somethings like myself, trying recapture their teenage years. It really has the essence of those classic 1950's movies that starred Brando and Dean but more updated, and without losing any of its originality.

Dennis Hopper is excellent as the brothers' alcoholic father-and has this wonderful crazed, pained, look in his eye throughout the film. All the performances are really good, but it is probably Micky Rourkes' finest hour as the evocative "Motorcycle Boy".

My favourite line in the whole movie is when he says to his brother Rusty James (Matt Dillon) in that really amazing low whisper, "California? yeah California's like.. a beautiful wild.. beautiful wild girl on heroine.. who's as high as a kite thinking she's on top of the world.. but wouldnt know she was dying- even if you showed her the marks."

I think once you've seen this movie you will never forget it. And if you like it I would also really recommend "The Outsiders"-also made by Francis Ford Coppola and based on another S.E Hinton novel.

The last great Coppola film... a modern classic.
Rumble Fish is a strange and hypnotic film that follows the character of Rusty James, a young punk growing up in a small sleepy mid-western town, shackled to a drunken father, a group of fickle friends, and continually in the shadow of his enigmatic brother, The Motorcycle Boy. The film, although seemingly set in the present day, uses the style of the old 50's melodramas to great effect, referencing the likes of Rebel Without a Cause and The Wild One with it's stark, stylised black and white photography and it's bizarre compositions, whilst director Francis Ford Coppola uses a number of audio and visual effects familiar from his previous films, most notably, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now and One From the Heart, to give the film a strange, hypnotic and dreamlike quality that lingers throughout the film.

As with many of the other films that it references, the plot to Rumble Fish is quite simple, with Coppola building the film around the enigma of The Motorcycle Boy and around the ideas of family ties, small-town ennui and personal redemption. Although Rusty James is the film's central character, he is constantly overshadowed by his mysterious brother, who seems almost shell-shocked by whatever it is that he's witnessed during his years away from home. He is certainly one of the most interesting characters from any of Coppola's greater films, and is perfectly brought to life by Mickey Rourke in what is possibly his greatest performance ever (although, I think he's equally spellbinding in both Angel Heart and Year of the Dragon). Here, Rourke possess all the cool and feckless attitude of Brando and James Dean, but he also brings that damaged, somewhat alienated quality to role, which suggests so much about the characters and his past and also, about the possible future of the younger Rusty James.

The cinematic style of the film is exquisite, with Coppola invoking a real period feel through the use of photography and production design, which jars beautifully against Stuart Copeland's very 80's, very anachronistic score. The percussion suits the staccato editing style that Coppola uses in the first few scenes (which highlights the escalating boredom of the characters), whilst the use of time-lapse photography (inspired by the film Koyaanisqatsi, which Coppola produced) works perfectly in demonstrating the idea of time frittering away. The black and white photography works well, conveying the literally "black and white" view point of Rusty James, whilst the titular rumble fish (glimpsed through the window of the local pet store) are the only objects in the film that appear in colour (a nice metaphor). The sound design is purposely muddy, attempting to convey along with the images that skewed, slightly alienated view of the world that these characters possess, whilst Copeland's music also merges with the sound design to heighten the overall atmosphere of the film.

The acting is strong throughout, with Rourke coming across as the real standout, although the performance of Matt Dillon as the hotheaded and arrogant Rusty James is also impressive. The supporting cast features a wide array of cult performers and (then) unknowns that have now gone on to greater things, notably Dennis Hopper, Diane Lane, William Smith, Laurence Fishburne, Nicolas Cage, Tom Waits and Chris Penn. After Rumble Fish, Coppola would produce the problematic Cotton Club (possibly underrated), before cementing his reputation as something of a has-been with the third Godfather film, and throwaways like Jack, Peggy Sue Got Married and The Rainmaker. Because of this, Rumble Fish stands as something of a relic to the time when he was one of the most interesting American directors of his era... and is probably a film to rival the greatness of The Godfather, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now.