Running Head: Rumble Fish Film 1

Rumble Fish Film

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Rumble Fish is an American film drama filmed in the year 1983 and directed by Francis

Ford Coppola. The film is based on the novel Rumble Fish which was written by S.E. Hinton

who also helped in writing the screenplay. This film majorly expresses the relationship between

Motorcycle Boy who was a revered gang leader wishing to have a peaceful life and his younger

brother who was a teenaged hoodlum and aspiring to become the most feared Motorcycle boy

ever.

This film is highly notable for its avant-garde style which had a feel of noir and was shot

on a high stark-contrast black-and-white film. Well there are things that were seen different in the

film compared to the novel. Coppola didnt use the flashback structure of the novel in the film

and also he managed to remove other few passages from the novel which established the

relationship between Steve and Rusty James so that he would focus on their relationship. As

evident in the film, the Motorcycle Boy was more attentive and paternal towards Rusty James

compared to how he was in the novel.

In the film Rusty James used a sweater to disarm Biff whereas in the novel he used bike

chain. In the novel Biff slashed Rusty James using a knife instead of a pane of glass and

Motorcycle Boy instead of ramming Biff using the motorcycle he broke his wrist. The

Motorcycle Boy used his destructive behavior in the films conclusion which was considered as

less destructive as seen in the novel. Rusty James was seen arriving at the ocean on a motorcycle

at the end of the film while he meets Steve in California after the Motorcycle Boy had died five

years earlier as written in the novel. Well in the novel we saw Rusty James getting arrested after

the shooting of the Motorcycle Boy and he never made the promise to get to ride the motorcycle.
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I prefer the novel version because the film received a lot of critics from the mainstream

critics for the first time it got released which saw it getting nine negative reviews in the New

York City and mostly from the broadcast media and newspapers. People tagged it as being

overloaded, being so crammed and having extravagant touches. According to Time magazines

Richard Corliss wrote that, in one sense, then, Rumble Fish is Coppolas professional suicide

note to the movie industry, a warning against employing him to find the golden gross. No doubt

this is his most baroque and self-indulgent film. It may also be his bravest.

Also the film critic Roger Ebert said that the film would only get three-and-a-half out of

four stars and went ahead to say that, I thought Rumble Fish was offbeat, daring, and utterly

original. Who but Coppola could make this film? And, of course, who but Coppola would want

to? Therefore this has made me to prefer the novel over the film because the novel has got some

sense of originality and it has no omitted parts that one could make it unable to understand as

compared to the film.

In the novel Rumble Fish it used the theme of alienation and abandonment to show how

Rusty James was abandoned by his mother when he was a toddler and his father left him alone

for three days while he went on a drinking spree. These situations taught him to fear solitude and

also to be concerned about other person which was written in the novel that his biggest fear was

Motorcycle Boy leaving him for good.

His father had emotionally abandoned his sons because he never showed interests in their

lives except when he felt curious about their exploits. He also never provided any meals to them,

guidance or the stable presence that a parent is supposed to give to his/her kids which made him

become a total failure as a parent regardless of him being physically present. Among the
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interesting aspects of Rusty James alienation is seen where in the apartment that they lived no

one had his own room or bed. It had only a cot and mattress where each one of them could sleep

on either because it was rare for them all to be home at the same time.

There was no comfort in the house they lived; there was also little good because their

father did not provide to them and no stable routine for them to follow. Regardless of Rusty

James father treating him so badly he still loved him sort of although Rusty Lames decided that

he loved Patty, the Motorcycle Boy and Steve. In the begging of the novel Rusty James said that

for a tough kid I had a bad habit of getting attached to people which was evident in the novel

from how he got treated by his parents while still a toddler. He also said that the only time that he

felt truly alive according to the book is when he, Steve and the Motorcycle Boy managed to cross

the river and they found themselves among the crowds of different people some who were

cruising cars and others listening to music which made him state that I could not explain how I

felt. Jivey, juiced up and just alive. The lights, I mean, and all the people. This was the only

moment that he varied from the heavy emotional tone that he always had according to the book

which he would not compare it to hanging with his friends in the lakeside or even making out

with his girlfriend because he regarded them as things he did to fill in time.

In conclusion, at the end of the novel Rusty James father proved himself to be worthless

before his sons and Patty leaves him, the Motorcycle Boy got killed and Steve choose to turn

away from Rusty James life because he was tired of living a rough and dangerous life and Rusty

James ended up being left alone just like the way he was when a young boy. Regardless of the

film facing a lot of critics it got many awards that year as the best critic film of the year. It well

outlined the theme of alienation and we got to understand Rusty James flaws throughout the film.
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References

Abramson, J. (1975). Review of Rumble Fish. 106.

Fishe, M. (1976). Review of Rumble Fish, in Growing Point.

S.E, H. (1993). Rumble Fish Production Notes.