The Outsiders
a film by Francis Coppola released
through Warner Brothers Pictures in 1983
Classifying people is a
futile exercise. In The Outsiders poor
rough kids don't brawl with other poor rough
kids, they tackle the wealthy preps from across town, who writhe in the mud of
battle with equal abandon. The
individual is his own. Each man decides
for himself how he will live. In a pack
of jolly hooligans, three boys face some hard facts. The young Johnny kills one of the wealthy
Southsiders to save the life of Ponyboy.
Dallas, several years older than the two of them, helps them
escape the reach of the law, directing them to an
abandoned church way out in the country. For nearly a week these two friends relax and
reflect. It is the first time Johnny has
left Tulsa.
Almost a week later Dallas comes to
retrieve them. Receiving word that the
law might be in their favor, and missing his family of friends, Johnny opts to
return. But in their brief absence to
get food, the church catches fire.
Ponyboy goes in first, after some school kids who are trapped
inside.
Johnny follows soon after. They wonder why the male teacher there is
doing nothing. One by one they pluck the
kids out, Dallas conveying them to safety.
Johnny is struck by a flaming timber and the
building collapses.
The fire may have been started by
Dallas when he was smoking earlier. But
the kids are just there, with no explanation.
It's purposely random for a reason, demonstrating that some tragedies
can neither be overcome nor prevented.
The teacher is surprised that a Greaser would risk his life for some
kids. So is Randy, a conscientious
Southsider.
Johnny is in bad shape, burned
horribly and paralyzed. He thought of
suicide many times before, trying to escape his terrible home life. Now he doesn't want to die.
Still the Southsiders and the
Greasers go ahead with a huge rumble.
It's an ugly, sprawling mess of blind rage. The Greasers win out, but Johnny doesn't want
to hear the 'good news.' Having lost the
fight that counts, he expires, sending Dallas off the edge. The last things Johnny says are
"Fighting ain't no good" and "Ponyboy, stay gold."
Dallas doesn't understand the
sacrifice Johnny made for the children.
Not even desiring the money, he holds up a store and is gunned down
after targeting the police as well. In
his guilt or his rage, he decides to get himself killed.
Ponyboy finds a letter from Johnny
with words of encouragement for Dallas, but they come too late. Ponyboy is deeply affected by this final
testament and the memory of those poignant days at the abandoned church.
It was there they, two, pondered a
sunset and Ponyboy recalled a Robert Frost poem:
Nature's
first green is gold,
Her
hardest hue to hold.
Her
early leaf's a flower;
But
only so an hour.
Then
leaf subsides to leaf.
So
Eden sank to grief,
So
dawn goes down to day.
Nothing
gold can stay.
Ponyboy didn't understand the poem,
but Johnny gave it a meaning; a child sees the world as fresh and new, but with
age that vibrancy is made dull. Ponyboy
always saw the world as a child would, and he showed Johnny the beauty of
life. But Dallas doesn't understand and
prefers destruction to the pain of helplessness. He dislikes kids but, pointedly, doesn't know
why. If he did know, he'd realize what
he's missing. In the rumble there was no
victory. Johnny did not care. The fight was supposed to be about him, but
it was about nothing, maybe about hate—fight and escape the pain. Once Dallas realizes that in violence no
recourse exists, he fully succumbs to it.
It's all he understands. He lived
by the sword. He dies by the sword.
But Ponyboy learned before his time
had passed. Being tough and apathetic
can insulate a man from pain, but his life contributes nothing to others. It is, therefore, worth nothing. In more ways than one, sacrifice is necessary
to survive. Through his writings, he can
help others to understand the hard lessons he's learned firsthand. And the hair he dyed to escape the law
becomes his trademark. He'd always stood
out before, and the blond hair is a symbol of that distinction. Escaping death by Johnny's blade, the pair
had almost a week of quiet to rethink their lives. The real outsiders are Johnny and Ponyboy,
and Johnny doesn't want his best friend to go back to what he was, there on the
road to ruin. Ponyboy is now a new
creature, and by Johnny's sacrifice and uncommon wisdom, so changed, he will
remain.
Ponyboy will never be young again,
but it is his choice to be corrupted. He
is his own man, and so empowered, his circumstances and sad past cannot prevent
the victory that, as unavoidable as that fire, awaits.